Coffey TamatiTĀMATI COFFEY (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. I'm going to break the I-worked-in-local-government party that's going on here. I've never worked in local government and I acknowledge the previous speaker Ian McKelvie in his time as mayor I acknowledge the speaker before him Tangi Utikere in his time as the deputy mayor. But despite not being somebody that's been elected at local government level I've still got an opinion on this. I do believe this isn't about central government saying to ratepayers You're being rorted by your local member—your local elected officials—and we need to see a whole lot more transparency." What this is trying to do is actually just create some consistency across the country.What we do know is that councils have their own checks and balances; we've got to admit that. Most councils have got a way that they start the meetings; there's often a conflict of interest form that they need to fill out—but that's part of the problem everybody does it in their own little way. Actually we believe that there should be a lot more transparency in that process and a lot more consistency to that process as well.The previous member said that it might put people off actually standing for local government. To that I say: I don't think so. People that go into becoming elected officials on behalf of their community generally know what they're going into. Obviously the bigger the city the more political this becomes; in smaller more regional councils sometimes it can be quite different. But I don't believe it will put people off. I think that people that know that they're going to be standing for elected positions they know that there's a job to do. They know that there's certain things that they have to fill out and actually a pecuniary interest form is just one of them.I'll encourage all of those people that are sitting at home right now and have no idea what a pecuniary interest form is—like me a few years ago—go online and have a look. You'll be able to see what all of us as members of Parliament—you'll be able to see how many houses—one—you might have; or how many trusts you might be involved in; businesses that you own. I think that's really essential for transparency for people—for ratepayers for taxpayers alike—to be able to understand actually who your elected officials are and what interests they have. The more upfront and honest you can be the more that you restore the faith of democracy across the country. For that reason this bill is a good thing.I want to thank my colleague Tangi Utikere for bringing this forward. I'm very jealous—I'm seething on the inside—because I've been here a few years longer than him and I've never had a bill pulled out. I've been waiting so long—so long Tangi—but tonight is your night. I'm still very jealous. But also it just goes to show that when we come into this House we come in with our prior experience. Tangi with his work at local government in the good old city of Palmerston North he saw a gap in consistency; he saw that here in the Chamber us as members of Parliament we have a very high bar with the pecuniary interests form and he noticed that actually local governments do it a lot more ad hoc. So Tangi thank you for bringing this to our House. Many people would have thought that this already existed across the country; they would have thought that this was just standard procedure. It will be a shock for many to know that it's not standard procedure that there are differing ways that councils handle this. Through this bill we're looking to as I say bring a lot more transparency and a lot more consistency in as part of that.So I am in full support of this bill. I think that this will do a lot for New Zealanders to understand more who their elected officials are what their interests are what they have to gain from various entities that they might be associated with and of course ultimately how sometimes that might affect their decision making. I think it's good for transparency it's good for democracy and for that reason I support it to the House."