Watts Simon; Court Simon; McAnulty KieranSIMON WATTS (National—North Shore): Thank you very much Madam Chair and thank you for the opportunity Minister McAnulty to ask a few questions in regards to this legislation. As we've outlined in the prior section National see this as sensible legislation and so the purpose of these questions is simply to clarify a few aspects that have been raised through our debate and provide an opportunity to get some additional clarity within that.Minister a question in relation to clause 9 of the bill which is in regards to the consultation requirements and as we've heard through the contributions leading up to this point the element around improvements in terms of the disclosure of natural hazards within the land information memorandum (LIM) process is obviously going to be significant and bring value in regards to having that additional information but the question in regards to clause 9 is around seeking a view from the Minister: is the Minister comfortable that the appropriate persons or organisations will be consulted with in regards to the way in which this process is undertaken? In particular I guess it refers back to some of the comments in regards to submissions at the Governance and Administration Committee around whether councils regional councils and other entities will be able to satisfactorily contribute into that consultation process for this legislation because I think it is obviously important to recognise that that perspective in regards to the improvement of the information available within the LIM has the appropriate voices around the table to ensure that that is included. But clause 9 which is amending section 55 of the Act is the area which will be impacted most significantly. So that's the first question and we'll go on from there.SIMON COURT (ACT): Minister looking at the regulatory impact statement the analysis does not consider wider natural hazard data and information challenges. The LIM work" it goes on to say "is limited to improving the communication of natural hazard information currently available and ensuring future data and information can be effectively and efficiently referenced as it becomes available." Now it goes on to say Minister "Natural hazard data and information is not equally available across regions and local authorities may not have sufficient resources or expertise to commission their own modelling." Minister. "This work was originally part of the wider Community Resilience work programme but was scaled back due to the level of funding provided [in] Budget 2021/22."Minister given the extraordinary landslides that New Zealand has witnessed on the East Coast of the North Island in communities at Muriwai Karekare in Auckland Pīhā to a lesser extent and the extraordinary flooding that has taken place in our major metros Auckland and throughout Hawke's Bay—Minister will there be any additional funding from any Vote that will help fund local authorities to acquire the information that this bill makes provision for them putting on the land information memorandum?As a follow-up to that Minister will the New Zealand Landslide Database and the New Zealand Geotechnical Database be funded so that that information which is a shared resource administered by GNS and I think the landslide database actually—or the landslide database by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment now; not the Earthquake Commission because they weren't up to it. Will there be additional funding for that information to be procured by those agencies for those databases? Because Minister it's all very well to say you can but if councils can't afford to go out and actually carry out the assessments either from the air using satellite imagery or on the ground using physical geotechnical risk assessments photogrammetry if they can't afford to engage these services Minister because apparently the Labour Government thought that it wasn't worth budgeting for them—I mean obviously that was before Cyclone Gabrielle—how are they supposed to do it Minister?SIMON WATTS (National—North Shore): I appreciate the Minister's in deep thought thinking of the responses to these questions and we'll give a few more questions to add to that list as he ponders—Hon Member: Deep reflection.SIMON WATTS: Deep reflection in regards to the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Amendment Bill. So let's move to the commencement clause clause 2.Todd Muller: Oh yes!SIMON WATTS: Ha ha! I love the sense of energy coming from Todd Muller in regards to the commencement clause.Todd Muller: It's very important.SIMON WATTS: And it is very important. It's interesting though when we listen to a number of the contributions from the Labour members on how excited and inspired they were by this critical aspect they noted how important it is for this to happen as soon as possible and yet my question is in regards to the fact that the legislation will not come into effect until 1 July 2025.Todd Muller: That's a bit ridiculous.SIMON WATTS: And that is—well look you know that is a reasonable amount of time and I know the select committee pondered this in regards to some of the feedback particularly from councils and regional councils in particular around the time for processes and procedures to be set up. But I think you know one has to be resonant of the fact and the implications of what we've seen in the last four months in particular around natural disasters and the value which the disclosure of information on natural hazards does provide to consumers who are making decisions around property. The reality I guess or the offset to that is that actually this won't be in play for you know quite a reasonable amount of time. So I'm interested for the Minister to provide comment around why 1 July 2025 was deemed appropriate in order to bring this in force. Was there any consideration of bringing this earlier and whether the trade-off in terms of the commencement date at that point equally mitigates the risks that are outlined around not having that information available sooner because of the importance that that information provides in terms of decision making.Hon KIERAN McANULTY (Minister of Local Government): Thank you and I thank the members for their questions. In regards to the commencement date the member will note that it was originally proposed to be six months earlier but the select committee after hearing submissions from local government and other submitters proposed that that date be pushed back six months and we've agreed with that. We think that's sensible. We're conscious that particularly in those areas that have been hit by recent severe weather events there was a lot of work being asked of councils both elected representatives and officials and an extra six months will give them additional time to get prepared.In regards to the question about consultation yes there's a specific requirement for consultation with each regional council and territorial authority. In regards to the question of Mr Court information that he was after the extra funding: the bill does not require that councils commission that information so there's no need for additional funding to come along with it. However this Government has provided additional funding on a number of occasions to improve public information. One that comes to mind for example is the funding that came through the National Emergency Management Agency that provided a national tsunami map. That was information that was available at each regional level but it wasn't available in one go so that the public could easily access that if they wanted to know—if they were going on a holiday to a coastal area for example they wanted to check out where the safe zones were before they arrived that sort of thing.The purpose of this bill of course is to provide important information about natural hazards in a way that the public can understand. It doesn't necessarily impose additional requirements on councils to provide new information. It's already information that's available but it's in a way that people get and it's a way that's consistent."