Eagle PaulPAUL EAGLE (Labour—Rongotai): Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare and it's a privilege to talk on the Canterbury Regional Council (Ngāi Tahu Representation) Bill. Can I say a big thanks to Tāmati Coffey and the Māori Affairs Committee where the former speaker and myself sit on that committee. We went through this process thoroughly in terms of getting this bill to the House. I wanted just to focus on three things this evening and one is just a reflection on what's happening now in terms of their representation on there. Really what we've heard today and what the feedback will show you in black and white is it's a reflection of what is happening now anyway. It's been through a very thorough process to say that this is the model that we want and I'm a real fan of that because all communities are different throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. What works for example on the Chatham Islands is obviously not going to work in Waitaha in Canterbury or in Tāmaki-makau-rau—Auckland. So you've got a whole range of mechanisms where democracy and how that works will take place and what I like most is this is a local solution where the locals have done something where they think it works locally and therefore it is good.One of the issues though I find is we get really hot and heated under the collar about these people being democratically elected but I always find the same hot and heatedness doesn't apply to council-controlled organisations. These are organisations that are meant to be 100 percent owned by the cities or districts. They are loaded with undemocratically elected people—every single one of them in fact—and no one says boo. Yes there's a process—there is—but are they democratically elected to run a council service? No. Not a word is said. There is a process. Democratically elected? No. I'm just saying: council-controlled organisations across New Zealand with not one single democratically elected person on there unless they are appointed as a councillor on to that board and that is different from council to council and organisation to organisation. Christchurch City through the holdings company Christchurch City Holdings Ltd Orion—but who knows? I mean I don't know who is elected on there. But this is right—no one can tell me. No one could even tell me who the board chair was or who the board members are on Orion Citycare the Christchurch Airport Co. Ltd. Who are they? I have no idea. But my point is as I'm not questioning the intelligence the skills and the contribution that each of those people bring—far from it. It's just that key point about them—[Members interject]ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Order! Let's just—the member Paul Eagle.PAUL EAGLE: It gets a lot of heat there Madam Speaker. But the key point here is just that it's not the quality of the individuals or even of who they are politically—unlike some of my colleagues here—but it's all to the point that the democracy element is simply not there. So that's what I'm just trying to compare this to say that hey look we have these entities. Yep they're slightly different and they all are because they provide a whole range of different services. But that key notion—you see back in the old days some of these entities would have just been purely in-house and run by the cities and districts and no problem. Some of these things would not even have been talked about. But what I find interesting now is that the minute we look at some of this in a wider context about being democratically elected that does not apply right across the board. So I guess it's just apples and oranges and bananas and pears—who knows? But what I do know is that it is what Environment Canterbury the Canterbury Regional Council want. They have talked with their Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu partner and said Look in terms of acknowledging the rights of mana whenua within their region being a fundamental feature of Māori law and being the political representative that's what they want." So in terms of a local solution reflecting what is happening now and being fully supported—and we've heard about some of the mayors within the region who have been supportive—then it just makes sense to me. I commend the bill to the House."