Sosene Lemauga Lydia; McAnulty Kieran; Wade-Brown Celia; Brown SimeonLEMAUGA LYDIA SOSENE (Labour—Māngere): Thank you Mr Chair and I thank you Minister Brown that I have the opportunity to ask a few questions specifically around Auckland Council. You've made the announcement with regards to the water increase percentage. Just a couple of questions and my first question is: can you explain the financial sustainable model for the record to ensure that these rates will remain affordable?My second question is around infrastructure. As you're aware Minister the committee has had quite an in-depth discussion with regards to infrastructure investment in terms of local government. Specifically in Auckland there have been many transport projects that have been delivered especially walking and cycling. Can you explain or can you highlight that these will be continued as an affordable investment in local communities?Hon KIERAN McANULTY (Labour): Thank you very much Mr Chair. This is a time-limited debate and by our calculations the National Party have roughly seven minutes remaining and there's three full sessions to go. So it's very disappointing to see the National Party using up their time with patsy questions that they could indeed just go and ask the Minister themselves and save the Minister's time to be able to answer questions. It would be a tremendous shame if we get to the sessions on Thursday and next week and Government Ministers simply don't have time to answer genuine questions. That would be a shame indeed. So I'll keep my contribution to the point and hopefully the Minister will answer in the same vein. Does he agree with the Prime Minister that local governments just need to stop doing dumb things" does he agree that rating systems are currently unsustainable and what is the projected credit rating of Watercare after the announcement he made on Sunday? [Interruption]CELIA WADE-BROWN (Green): You'll get your turn I'm sure. Thank you Mr Chair. The Future for Local Government report—we heard much about a wider vision of democracy for local government that included citizen participation. Of course councils do consultation and many of us see that as part of democracy not only a vote every three years. So if the Minister considers referendums are such a vital part of democracy would he suggest that as well as for Māori wards we have referendums on rates rises cycleways—why not?—and a number of other things? We consult on these things at local government. Why is one issue of representation needing a referendum and the number of councillors the ward boundaries and a number of other matters apparently don't need a referendum?Hon SIMEON BROWN (Minister of Local Government): Thank you Mr Chair. A number of quick answers to some questions. In regards to affordability of rates rises in particular in the water context in terms of—we'll be introducing economic regulation to ensure that consumers are paying appropriate prices and to maintain investment. In terms of Watercare's credit rating: obviously this is a review going backwards. Obviously I'll be very generous and answer the member's question but ultimately that will be determined as part of its separation when that separation is finalised as the member will know. He was responsible for this particular area not too long ago. He tried to make the point that his plans were going to be more affordable. Well the briefing to the incoming Minister from Entity A made it very clear that Entity A was not going to be in place by 1 July which meant Aucklanders were going to have to pay 25.8 percent increases in their water rates if that Government had got re-elected. Thankfully that didn't happen."