Newman Muriel: Local Government (Rating Cap) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Newman Muriel: Local Government (Rating Cap) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:617;Page:12689] 
Dr MURIEL NEWMAN (ACT) 
: 
 The reason this bill is in front of the House is that all around the country ratepayers are finding that their rates bills are going through the roof. While we have heard all sorts of excuses the reality is that the responsibility has to be put fairly and squarely at the feet of the Labour Government. This is a tax-and-spend Labour Government that has devolved more and more responsibility on to local authorities without giving them any of the financial resources to be able to manage except by increasing their rates. Labour is to blame for the fact that in some communities around New Zealand rates have been rising by 30 to 40 percent and Labour members have the audacity to stand here tonight in this debate and try to pretend that they are blameless. That just will not wash with thinking New Zealanders. 
I went to a Grey Power meeting not too long ago and that last member talked about there being no consultation and how the people do not realise what is going on—blah blah blah. New Zealanders know very well that their councils are being asked to do more consultation. They are being asked to do more social responsibility planning and now they are being asked to build houses. This is the newest initiative by the Labour Government and somehow Labour members think that that cost will not be passed on. Well anybody knows that it is passed on. It is passed on to ratepayers and on to pensioners who are struggling to get by. This Government is making those people’s local councils pass on huge extra costs. 
The power of general competence was a first step but there is a whole new tier of Government responsibility about to be passed on to local authorities that ratepayers will have to pay for and Labour is to blame. That is why the ACT party is putting forward a bill that actually tries to restrict this all-out wholesale expansion of Government. It has gone from central government—which this Labour Government has bloated like crazy because they are a tax-and-spend Government—down to local government so the poor old Kiwi has to pay not only through higher taxes through stealth taxes but now through increasing rates. I say that is not fair on working New Zealanders. 
This Government has no right to pass the costs of its social development its social rebuilding and its other ideas on to ratepayers—and that is exactly what it has been doing. I say it is an arrogance of Labour to think that the people out there do not realise what is going on. In my own community the rates will have to go up by 3.5 percent. That is an extra $700000 to comply with the new Government responsibilities that have been passed on to that council. I am not referring to the regional council—it has to pay another $400000 to $500000 for all the added consultation and all the other stuff that Labour has passed on to it. That is just the tip of the iceberg because that is just a little council. Members can imagine what the bigger councils have to pay and the burden of that will be passed on to other New Zealanders who are struggling to get by. 
This week in the House we have already heard about families on $55000 who cannot make ends meet. This Government does not care. That is the reality. It is running a surplus it is taking too much money off taxpaying New Zealand and it is using it to spend hither and thither on its great pet projects. Now it is hitting local government as well and hitting New Zealanders through their rates. 
Councils are there to deliver community services such as sewerage roading parks and things like that. No ratepayers worry about that but they worry about the cost of all this Government’s social interventions which are being passed on to councils. That is why ACT put forward this bill.