O'Connor Greg; Rurawhe AdrianGREG O'CONNOR (Labour—Ōhāriu): It behoves us all to understand the history of New Zealand and see the part that vested interests played right from the start. I'm just reading a book about John McKenzie or Jock McKenzie and his land reforms. New Zealanders should understand that this country was the land that—other than the land that was left to Māori the land that had been taken was owned by very very few families in New Zealand and those very few families basically wielded all the power. So anyone who wants to understand why vested interests should be controlled I thoroughly suggest a read of that history.I grew up on the northern part of the Buller and as we waited for a school bus we used to see the Denniston incline working. Denniston incline a magnificent feat of engineering described as the eighth wonder of the world at one stage. It was shut. Not long afterward the contract for delivering the coal down the hill by road was delivered by a local contractor who had been on the council and the miners and staff were bused down the hill by a local bus contractor. Now it probably was nothing untoward and I certainly wouldn't make any accusation to those but it was certainly something that we grew up with wondering shall we say. So it is always good to know those that are making the decisions and what may be motivating them.However I did hear the speech by Mr McKelvie and like all speeches by Mr McKelvie in this House they are well worth listening to generally built on some good experience. I certainly did note his concern that we need to be very careful that we don't narrow inadvertently the number of people who not only will be prepared to stand for council but are actually eligible to stand for council. I'm sure that bill—and again I congratulate my colleague Mr Utikere for drawing this bill I'm sure that's something that we can fix at the select committee.Because the other thing that we've talked about before—most speakers have talked as though councillors are the people that make the significant decisions around councils. Well we all know that that's actually not true. I know one mayor who there was a major development taking place three doors from his place that he had no awareness of at all because decisions like that don't go through as we know—those day-to-day decisions generally don't go through the councils. So there are a lot more people who are making decisions that affect us on a day-to-day basis around councils other than these councillors.However going back to my original point around understanding vested interest I think we do live in a different age and we welcomed John McKenzie's land reforms which meant that we did in New Zealand end up with a very entrepreneurial—a lot more land was purchased. Well the compulsory purchase of the land meant that we did break up those estates and made New Zealand the land that it is today.But going back to the bill it is certainly important that on any decision—and any organisation I work for or have been a part of any board I've been on the interest register has always been an important part of it. I think there wouldn't be anyone here who hasn't sat on a board that wouldn't know that the interest register is an important part of what they do. So the underlying point of this bill the underlying desire or the strategy of this bill is to ensure that those who are making the broader decisions that will filter down to the actual paid individuals the paid officials who will actually implement them that we do understand that because I'm sure those of us who have grown up particularly probably more in the rural areas have understood that rarely on a council was there not a major landholder who often was attracted to the board because of decisions they felt were impacting on them personally. Wasn't to say that they weren't there for the right reasons wasn't to say they didn't end up very good. In fact there was some research done that showed the reasons why people actually do go into politics in the first place and generally one of the main reasons is an interest in politics is one of the things. The other thing is actually a desire to get things done; fairly obvious. But in that research it also showed the people that don't go into politics are ones that are part of a group who are generally excluded from politics. So—CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): Order! The member's time has expired.