Williams Arena; Brown SimeonARENA WILLIAMS (Labour—Manurewa): Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you very much for the opportunity. I am absolutely delighted to hear what the Minister of Local Government has said around my proposal to delete clause 5. He's taken the committee through the transitional and savings provisions and shown us why it is not necessary for it to be there and so I do hope that the National Party will support my amendment to delete it in the name of good strong lawmaking. I love a Minister who is focused on making our law readable and easy to navigate. I just wish to touch on my amendment to clause 3 which is similar but slightly different to the one proposed by Dr Duncan Webb. It is along those same lines but I would add that there is more for us to consider here. That amendment is to delete the words after Water Services Legislation Act 2023" in clause 3(a) and the effect of that is for some amendments which I think would be good to discuss in Part 2. So that doesn't stand alone; that stands with some suggestions that will come later in this debate. But why it's important is that in question time today the Minister said that he would establish a new form of economic regulation and he has just told the committee that he is pursuing a new model of economic regulation to make sure that consumers of water services are protected in some way and that there is economic efficiency overall within the water provision market. But the good news here—and it's something for the committee to consider—is that some of these powers that have been granted to the Commerce Commission would be absolutely transferable under whatever kind of new economic reform the Minister is proposing. On this side we would say that it's worth keeping those provisions in place now so that we can continue under a model where the Commerce Commission has these new powers to regulate water and it is drafted in such a way that it has nothing to do with the 10 entities but gives the Commerce Commission a special set of oversight provisions so that we can be sure as New Zealanders that there is a recourse for consumers who feel that in the current model—in the status quo model—they have rights that they can pursue if things go wrong. It's not just the Commerce Commission's powers though—the Water Services Commissioner—but there's also an extended remit for the Consumer Advocacy Council and the independent consumers' dispute resolution that that Act provides for. So what I'm proposing here for the committee to consider is that that amendment which would then come with other amendments to Part 2 would let us keep some of those very useful provisions. I fully appreciate that it is the Minister's prerogative to repeal that Act. However there are a number of things there that have absolutely nothing to do with the 10 entities model. This is economic regulation which the Government is likely to bring in some form of and so it's important that during this transitional phase we have something for consumers to rely upon when in fact going back to the status quo is actually not like going back to the status quo a few years ago. A number of these councils are in a situation now whereas they will be in quite a different financial situation and will have quite a different kind of outlook over the next 30 years because of pressures on their infrastructure. So it is very useful for consumers to be able to raise those issues independently—not with their councils but with a regulator who is set up to do so and with consumer advocates who are provisioned within the law to do so. We will not be able to protect consumers in this way if we take this legislation off the books today. It is really important for the House to consider that in moving back to the status quo these provisions could still exist. It absolutely would not interfere with the Government's work programme to design something that they say will be better for councils because to protect consumers within the system we need to have something that gives the Commerce Commission these extra powers and provides an independent voice for consumers within it. So that is why I am confident that the Minister will consider this in Part 2. But I'd like to propose the deletion in Part 1 that is necessary so that we don't have a law that is a bit gobbledegook and doesn't read very well. Thank you. Hon SIMEON BROWN (Minister of Local Government): As I said earlier that legislation was designed for the 10 entities which were of course never set up and so that legislation is no longer required. We'll be developing under Local Water Done Well economic regulation as part of that policy."