Pugh MaureenMAUREEN PUGH (National): Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise to take a short call on the debate on the referral of the Local Government (Rating of Whenua Māori) Amendment Bill today. As we've heard the first reading of this bill took place in this House on 12 March and the report-back date is 29 June so that does from first reading to report back give us a time frame of 109 days or 15 weeks. So it's gone from the select committee process which is normally around six months and been nearly cut in half to just over three months.I'd like to refer to the Minister of Local Government's speech in the first reading debate where she actually omitted giving any rationale for why there was going to be an instruction to the select committee for a shortened report-back time. It's hard to understand without that rationale being given by the Minister why we have to rush this particular bill through the parliamentary process. In fact the same Minister in Opposition—Nanaia Mahuta—said when we were debating the Te Ture Whenua Māori bill and I quote There were issues around levels of participation and levels of real input and engagement into the process but also death by iteration in the legislative process." So the Minister opposed the rushed process while in Opposition but now that she is in Government is very happy to instruct the committee to have a shortened report-back time.It makes no sense to rush this through the process because there is no time constraint on this particular bill being enacted this year. I'll explain why: it's because in the local government environment in New Zealand—and the Minister will know this—the new financial year starts on 1 July. That's no surprise because it's the same every year. Now the local government process in setting its rates starts at the end of a calendar year. So when we get to the end of the calendar year staff within a local council will be starting to pull together all of their deferred works all of their planned maintenance their upgrades. They will be looking at projects they want to fund they'll be looking at debt servicing and as a result they will pull together a draft annual plan. That happens at the end of a calendar year. So in the new year that draft will go out to ratepayers for consultation and the councils will then hear and read submissions and based on all of that they will set the rates.The rates are struck in time for the new rating year that starts on 1 July so regardless of whether this bill has passed its third reading on 29 June or not it is not going to be able to be considered by councils in time to strike the rates for the new financial year that they work to which starts on 1 July. They simply won't have time to include all of the calculations that they're going to need to work around in terms of how the rates are going to be impacted on for other ratepayers as a consequence of this bill because as we've already heard this is going to increase the rates on other ratepayers.So if there's no ability to influence the striking of the rates at a minimum at the end of this calendar year or as a maximum the consultation period in 2021 that councils will go through it's very difficult to argue that there's a time imperative that justifies instructing the select committee on a shortened report-back date. We've actually got if we are sticking to this time frame that's proposed 25 sitting days—25 sitting days—to consider all of the impacts of the rates implications across the country.The only rationale that does make sense is that this Government has sat on its hands for 2½ years and now with an election looming it's dangling carrots simply as a political ploy. There will be ratepayers who simply will definitely want to contribute to the debate on this. They will want to consider the bill and they will certainly want to submit on it and especially if their rates are going to increase as a consequence of this bill.Now the committee deserves the time to accommodate hearings for those submitters and we simply don't know what we don't know yet. I imagine there'll be organisations like Local Government New Zealand or SOLGM the Society of Local Government Managers that have expertise in this field that will have a huge contribution to make. They too deserve the time that is required to make considered submissions and to consult with their sector because they won't probably make those submissions on their own; they will want to go back out to their membership and that will take time. It is certainly going to take more than 25 sitting days in this House.I find it very difficult to find any rationale that justifies the instruction to the select committee that is going to consider the Local Government (Rating of Whenua Māori) Amendment Bill to have a shortened report-back time. It is certainly not justified and no rationale has been given by the Minister. I thank you Madam Speaker."