Barry Maggie: Tasman District Council (Validation and Recovery of Certain Rates) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBarry Maggie: Tasman District Council (Validation and Recovery of Certain Rates) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 12 March 2014. Volume:697;Page:16616. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MAGGIE BARRY (National—North Shore):I rise to speak about the Tasman District Council (Validation and Recovery of Certain Rates) Bill. This is of course a piece of legislation that should never have happened. Other speakers before me have alluded to the fact that it is a series of mistakes incompetence and silliness and that is generally a darn good reason why these local government reforms that we are putting through ought to be put through in extreme haste. What we had here was a council that was in the words of the sponsoring member of the bill Damien O’Connor arrogant and it was not treating its ratepayers well. I commend also Bob Schmuke for his tenacity. I think that he is an individual who decided he would make this something that he would not let go of and I commend his tenacity and the rigour that he brought to this particular case. Had he not persevered—as Damien O’Connor said—taking it through to the Ombudsman and really persisting when he was given the cold shoulder and every discouragement possible then we would not be here today.On some levels of course we regret being here today because we have lived through the Kaipara District Council (Validation of Rates and Other Matters) Bill and it is a bit like the Jaws movie is it not—just when you thought it was safe to come back into the Chamber another validation bill comes its way. I guess none of us want that. As other members have pointed out not only has the council’s and ratepayers’ money and everybody’s time been wasted over a long period of years but now taxpayers are also bearing the burden of this having to come to the House of the waste of the House’s time and of the waste of effort that all the advisers and everyone else—let alone the sponsoring member—have had to put into this.I have to say that it is a little ironic when we hear the “Winston First Party” member Andrew Williams who has a former association with the North Shore trying to teach us—Denis O’Rourke: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I object to the term “Winston First”. That is not the correct name of the member.The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Members must refer to honourable members of this House by their correct name. So in future that will be abided by.MAGGIE BARRY: As I was saying for someone like Andrew Williams who failed so spectacularly on the North Shore to attempt to give us lessons—for the North Shore’s most famous irrigator to dare to try to hand down a few lessons from or hand up a few lessons—Scott Simpson: What was he called?MAGGIE BARRY: North Shore’s most famous irrigator. Surely you have heard the stories. Everybody on the North Shore has an Andrew Williams story and most of them could not be repeated here in the Chamber. I would not waste the Committee’s time going through them yet again. They have been well-tracked through. It is interesting to see that he talks about his insomnia. I think his treatments for it were the traditional ones which had then enlivened his late-night texting and caused him the sort of infamy that even he will never live down. But it is ridiculous to—Tim Macindoe: Probably just lemons.MAGGIE BARRY: Lemonade—well whatever it was—who knows? You do not want to go to into those dark thoughts of what he might have had. I guess that—Tim Macindoe: Aiding the lemon.MAGGIE BARRY: Aiding the lemon. Yes he would have had something to go with the lemons—you are quite right. There is some very helpful advice coming through.When Andrew Williams talks about people making mistakes at the local government level he is after all the expert in that matter because you know mistakes he has made a few and they continue to haunt him to this day. So there are layers and layers of irony that such a failed individual who has so conspicuously not delivered in his own area—the lowest-polling candidate and the guy who never made it back as mayor—did not even get back on one of the local boards. This is the kind of individual whom we will not be taking notice of and we will certainly not be following any advice that he gives. In fact I am surprised that we did not have a “North Shore Council Validation Bill”—from mistakes that that man would have made when he was the mayor. [Interruption] No no. That has all been abolished now partly because of people like himself.As I have said the local government reforms that this Government is putting through at the moment are of course absolutely essential when we look at what has happened with Kaipara and with the Tasman District Council. I think that when you do look at incompetence and slack councils the ratepayers are in a position where they really do need central government to step in and lead the way. It is disappointing—very disappointing—that it has to happen but this is a Government that does not shirk from its responsibilities. We will absolutely ensure that the legislation goes through with due consultation and through due process unlike what happened with the Tasman District Council.I look at some of the submissions that we had—Lindsay McKenzie the chief executive came to us. This was the council that was actually part of the problem. Perhaps the sponsoring member might like to clarify this point for us but in terms of the people who were in positions of responsibility when this mistake with the map was made it would be interesting to know just how many of them were still involved or did the ratepayers get their way ultimately and do what all people need to do when they do not like people in public office and vote them out? We have seen that of course with Labour which had I think its lowest polling ever. Would it have been in the last elections or was that in 2008? Anyway voters whether they are paying their rates or paying their taxes are absolutely within their rights to exercise their democratic right to vote people out. So I am assuming that most of the people who caused the problems at the Tasman District Council were thrown out on their ears.The background of this bill is indeed interesting. I think when you look at the options that the council left itself there were not too many. Three in fact were outlined to us by the chief executive of the now Tasman District Council. An Order in Council was one of the things that the council could have been given according to its legal advice. A replacement rate was the other option. Then there was a local bill and that is when Damien O’Connor took up the challenge of putting this bill through. The council had no choice. It had boxed itself into a corner and that is why the bill is here today.I think the other standout submission for me was from the office of the Mayor of the Tasman district Richard Kempthorne. He wrote us a submission of course and then he came and saw us as well and talked about the fact that the council did admit and acknowledge that it had made an error in setting those 2006-07 rates for the Tata Beach - Ligar Bay stormwater urban drainage area. The council regretted that that error was made and it fessed up to it but it also noted—and I think this is an important point—that if it had included that map the rate would have been lawfully made and the rates would have been payable. Therefore passing the bill in its current form would validate a rate that would have been made lawful if the map had been included. It was not asking the select committee to validate something the council could not have done lawfully if it had not made the mistake. So when we look at the facts of the matter as they were outlined and as admitted by the mayor the facts were very clear and very straightforward. The enduring miracle—Andrew Williams: Nice compliment to repeat.MAGGIE BARRY: —apart from the fact that the person who is trying to interject at the moment was ever elected mayor let alone thrown out on his ear after one term. Apart from that miracle of silliness from the ratepayers—a momentary aberration—the fact that this council did actually get up and admit that it had done wrong and admitted and supported what Damien O’Connor has done is ultimately a commendable thing.I think when we look at this bill it is pretty straightforward. There are a number of things that need to be learnt. And I must say when the Local Government and Environment Committee was presented with some of those laminated photographs of the beach area and we looked at the Ligar Bay area in particular we could see that it was a pretty straightforward sort of solution. Ultimately I guess there are silver linings to this particular cloud and one of them is that basically this will not happen again—certainly not in this neck of the woods in Tasman and hopefully not in Kaipara either. I think that once we look at what we can do as a Government to continue on with local government reforms we can ensure that ratepayers are protected from the sorts of silliness that we have seen in both of these places around New Zealand that have resulted in members’ bills which are expensive time-consuming and ultimately things that we would rather not have to go through. But we are here.There was unanimity across the select committee.Scott Simpson: The price of democracy.MAGGIE BARRY: It is the price of democracy and it is what we need to do really to ensure—as Alan Martin used to say—that it is the putting right that counts. And that is what is happening so I commend Damien O’Connor for putting this bill through.I would be very interested in the sponsoring member’s response to the question I put to him about how many of the councillors remain and whether there is still a residue of bitterness and anger in that community or whether by putting this validation through it will put things right for a community that has suffered. For someone like Bob Schmuke I hope that the slurs on his reputation the put-downs and the arrogance that he had to endure have been worth it. I have not heard back from Mr Schmuke at all but I did commend him on his tenacity at the time and welcomed that he had come through to us and I hope that Mr O’Conner will pass that on.We do need more Mr Schmukes. We could have used them on the North Shore a few years ago but we have come right now and it is all working terrifically well. I think that they are very well represented by Jonathan Coleman on one side at Northcote. Once again a Labour seat briefly but people saw the light and Jonathan Coleman was then introduced.I will have to leave it there—all choked up. Thank you very much.