Gallagher Martin: Local Government Law Reform Bill (No 3) — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Gallagher Martin: Local Government Law Reform Bill (No 3) — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:618;Page:14104] 
MARTIN GALLAGHER (Labour—Hamilton West) 
: 
 What a performance! The less and least said the better. Unlike the multi-Minister display that there has been in local government over the previous 9 years—and as interesting as that may sound I did have quite a bit of affection for Mr Banks—this is a very good Minister. I compliment this Minister and I think this bill has proved that he is listening to local government. 
Under this Government local government for the first time in a long time actually feels listened to. Tick the box for the local government prime ministerial summit that is held during the year. Tick the box for the on-the-record compliments that the president and vice-president of Local Government New Zealand pay this Government. We have a really good local government leader in Basil Morrison—not some way-out left-winger Dr Smith but a very sound excellent mayor from Hauraki. He is quite a conservative fellow but very complimentary about this Government— 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: A good man. 
MARTIN GALLAGHER 
: —and a very good man. He is full of praise for this Government. 
There are two issues I want to deal with quickly in the time available. I look forward to being part of the Local Government and Environment Committee debate around electoral tolerance—the plus or minus 10 percent factor. In simple maths all that means is that even under the 10 percent some communities can effectively be 20 percent worse off in terms of the vote. One has to work out what a reasonable vote per value in terms of the numbers per ward is as is done in the general electorates with the plus or minus 5 percent factor. It is hardly rocket science. 
There are two things. Firstly I think it is very good that councillors can also stand for mayor and councillor. I think it is very wrong to blame the Minister for that. Quite bluntly if I were to blame anyone it would be some officials who perhaps did not do their homework well enough. [ 
Interruption 
] I am saying that as a member of Parliament but I was in local government for a number of years before coming here and I thought it would have been an easy thing to do. But I thank those people who pointed out the error. It was a drafting error an error by officials. [ 
Interruption 
] One can hardly blame the Minister for wording like that. It has been fixed up so tick the box. 
Secondly the casting vote issue—tick the box on that. Basil Morrison and others spoke to me quite strongly on that issue and I went to Chris Carter. I found Chris Carter incredibly empathetic and ready to listen. He said: “Let’s listen closely to local government.” A compliment goes to Basil Morrison Local Government New Zealand my own council and others in terms of the casting vote issue. 
 Personally I have always believed that the mayor is a little bit different from other councillors. I commend to all members of the House a paper by former mayor Margaret Evans around the role of mayor which she wrote for a recent degree thesis. Albeit the mayor is technically first among equals in this country I do strongly believe that the mayor should have a casting vote. I acknowledge that the mayor has a district-wide or city-wide mandate and I think the casting vote at least gives effect to that. 
Without further ado I want to say that this is a good bill and I look forward to its speedy passage. Again it is such a pleasure to be part of a wonderful reforming Government that has given us excellent local government legislation.