Foster AndyANDY FOSTER (NZ First): Thanks Mr Speaker. We've already heard that this is about the coalition Government keeping the promises that it made quite clearly. Now I understand the concerns that have been raised by the Opposition there but I wanted to pick up two things that Kieran McAnulty said. The first of them is that it is exactly the same process to establish those Māori wards which were established for the 2022 local body elections as all the rest of the wards went through. Actually no it wasn't and I'm going to come back to that because that did not go through the lengthy process of the representation review—that is the normal process.The second thing is he also slighted the Minister and said nobody likes him and he doesn't get out there. Well I can report to you that Tom Rutherford and I were with him at an excellent meeting with all the mayors of the Bay of Plenty region which went very well and was very much appreciated and I'm sure that that is not an isolated incident. But what I can also say to you—above the noisy rabble on this side—is that my experience as a local body mayor of the previous Minister of Local Government the Hon Nanaia Mahuta was anything but positive. It was somebody who came in and said Look where you can opt into three waters legislation—no you're going to be forced into it and then you've got no ability to opt out." So maybe the Hon Kieran McAnulty should be a little bit careful when he's in glass houses about throwing stones.I think that I have been through more local government representation reviews I suspect than the rest of the House put together. I've done 10 terms which is a lot of representation reviews. What you do is you go through an extensive process. They're done six-yearly. There is an extensive process of looking at demographics and making sure that you get the numbers right—and I'm going to come back to those numbers and get those right. You have at least two rounds of engagement with the community—at least two rounds of engagement—and as we've heard there is a right of appeal to the Local Government Commission. Actually I'm absolutely sure that I've done more appeals to the Local Government Commission probably than anybody else in this House as well—and successfully too—to get the number of councillors down to a sensible level at Wellington City Council.What we have with the introduction of these wards—and I am going to say that I understand absolutely the reason for the introduction of these Māori wards because the reality is that virtually never will they survive a referendum. Very very few of them will survive a referendum. The question I ask is: is it right for Māori to be able to determine the way in which Māori are represented? The second question: is it right for other people to say "No Māori shouldn't be entitled to be represented the way they want to be represented."? So I think there is a live question there which we need to hear from the people about and we didn't really get the chance to do that—Hūhana Lyndon: It's a rushed piece of legislation that undermines the ability for Māori to determine representation.ANDY FOSTER: —with Labour's legislation because it was essentially fast-track legislation. If you were listening you'd actually hear that I'm not so far away from your position because I was the Mayor of Wellington when we actually introduced a Māori ward and actually I was proud to be part of doing that. There was one problem and it comes down to that representation and those numbers. There is a requirement in all other wards to be plus or minus 10 percent population. There are some times when you're able to be given an exemption by the Local Government Commission. That requirement is not there for Māori wards. Democracy has a couple of fundamental things: one person one vote—I think we all agree on that—but the other one is that each vote should be roughly equivalent in value and that's what the plus and minus 10 percent is all about. But if you have the situation where you only require a ward to have a little over 50 percent of the population of another ward that means that those votes effectively count for twice as much and that is a problem. As we walk through this process I would encourage people to think about that and whether that is actually fair.You'll remember the Rotorua District Council (Representation Arrangements) Bill. Now that was resolved by the Rotorua council in May 2021 and it became a very hot topic. Why? Because it set up a general ward and it set up two other wards: one ward was to be a Māori ward electing three councillors; the other a general ward electing three councillors. The problem was that the population in the general ward was about three times the size if I remember correctly of the population of the Māori ward. That was disproportionate that was unfair that was undemocratic.So whatever we do in this process as we go through—and I look forward to hearing the submissions as we make sure that we end up with a process that is genuinely fair and democratic to all voters whether they are Māori or not Māori. I commend this bill to the House and I look forward to the submissions. I will do so with a very open mind and I hope you will also do so. Thank you Mr Speaker."