Smith Nick: Local Government (Rating Cap) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Smith Nick: Local Government (Rating Cap) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:617;Page:12684] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 National will support this bill because it is the only way we can give a message to that Government and that Minister that the ratepayers of New Zealand are under substantial financial pressure. During Chris Carter’s watch rates have gone up more in real terms than they have during the term of any other Minister of Local Government in this House. Mr Carter holds the record. That is what the official figures show. They have increased at three times the rate of inflation. If we are to believe Mr Carter the community wants these increases in rates. Well I say to him that that may be what the councils tell him but it is not what the people and the ratepayers are saying. 
The real reason this bill is required is that this Minister and this Government pass one after another bills that impose additional costs on councils and ratepayers. Let me go through just a few of them. Did the ratepayers ask for a Prostitution Reform Bill that imposed costs on every one or our councils? I do not remember that matter being raised with ratepayers in any part of my community or in any other part of New Zealand. The Minister imposed that law on councils. The new dog laws have huge extra costs for councils. 
Simon Power 
: They’ve worked! 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Yes! They have been a disaster. They have not been in place 12 months and we now have another bill to try to patch up the Minister’s last mess. I ask the Minister to tell us when the ratepayers asked for those additional laws. What about the gaming laws? It was this Minister who imposed additional responsibilities on councils to regulate gaming machines. They were not asked for by councils or ratepayers but who gets the bill? The long-suffering ratepayer gets it. Then there were the Government’s amendments to the Resource Management Act which impose another layer of Labour’s politically correct dogma on our councils. Did the ratepayers ask for them? Not on your life! Again they were imposed by this Minister and Marian Hobbs. Now we have another bill; they are not finished yet. Tomorrow we are being asked to put forward the Foreshore and Seabed Bill. 
Simon Power 
: It’s going well! 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Yes there have been a few people a bit upset today. The explanatory note states that this bill will lead to increased costs for councils and that means increased costs for ratepayers. It contains all of this nonsense about ancestral connection and customary rights. All of that material is going to send another bill off to the ratepayer. Is there any way in which this Parliament and the ratepayers of New Zealand can send a message to this Government that the ratepayers have had it? They are sick of the extra bills that Chris Carter and his Government’s policies are imposing on them and this bill is as good a mechanism as ever. Then I heard the Minister say: “We believe in local communities deciding.” Well well well! I have to say that that is a first. If councils want to introduce a charge for their library books or for the odd porno video or the like are they allowed to? No they are not. The Minister steps in and passes a bill that prohibits any charge of that sort. This Government says: “We will support local decision-making provided you do what you’re told.” and that is a nonsense. 
Then we had the biggest driver of increased costs for local government: this Minister’s Local Government Act. That new Act has our councils involved in a huge navel-gazing exercise with its 5-year community plans. Do members know how many plans this Minister now requires my council in Nelson to have? He requires it to have eight different planning documents. Councils spends so much time strategising so much time planning and so much time meeting the bureaucratic requirements of the Minister that they do not have time to get on with the job of providing footpaths roads and some of the basic services that the ratepayers of New Zealand require. We say it is time there was a limit because this Government is saying it will dump a whole lot of responsibilities on to the councils and then send the bill on to the ratepayer. We say that some control must be put in place and that is why this bill should have the support of this Parliament—so it can be referred to a select committee.