Williams Arena; Brown SimeonARENA WILLIAMS (Labour—Manurewa): Thank you Mr Chair. Well here it is. I have asked the Minister twice to address questions to allay the fears of members on this side of the House that his intention here is to make it easier and simpler for councils to privatise their water assets and sell them out of local body ownership without appropriate consultation. He has answered the questions put by my colleagues on consultation but he has not addressed the second leg of his own part section 51 which says decision-making requirements because the decision-making requirements that he is proposing to change are set out—it's section 137 of the Local Government Act 2002. And those decision-making requirements which I have asked him to tell New Zealanders that he is not changing—there are three important points here.One is that councils cannot create new entities under his legislation so that they are not legally responsible anymore for the provision of water services. Under his section 51 councils can if they join up with another council propose that they are no longer responsible for the provision of water services for people in the area because the provisions in 137 do not apply to them.The second one is that they are not required to retain control of water pricing because if they join up with a buddy down the road they do not have to be subject to the provisions in section 137 where they must retain public rights to consult on and then be responsible for the pricing of water. So consumers have no guarantees that their councillors and their elected representatives or those that they appoint to council controlled organisations (CCOs) will be accountable for the pricing of their water services going forward.The third most important protection set out at that section 137 in the Local Government Act is that currently councils who enter into these relationships are required to retain the ownership of the infrastructure assets that people in their cities and their regions have built up over generations. People back 100 years ago were paying their local council rates to own these water infrastructure assets and there is no requirement under his legislation that they would be retained in council ownership. If you join up with a buddy down the road you can sell them off because the provisions under section 137 will not apply to you.This is a really important point for the Minister to explain and I have put it to him that the provisions under section 137 read currently like an either/or scenario and I'd like that because he has added in the ability for joint local government arrangements to be read as if in his new legislation they were CCOs. But we know in this House that CCOs have an added layer of protection. They must act in accordance with the wishes of the governing body. They are accountable to locally elected councillors. They are accountable to the people who allow them to govern their water assets. Under this kind of arrangement it is easier even with a sped up consultative process that the Minister has been answering on to make decisions which require local people to accept that their water infrastructure assets that they have built up over generations will be sold off if they join one of these special arrangements between councils. I would like the Minister's answers on that. He has not answered three questions now on it.Hon SIMEON BROWN (Minister of Local Government): I find it ironic that the Opposition has become the defender of wanting to maintain ownership and welcome to the Party because that is exactly where the Government is at. And that is what this Government is delivering is actually restoring council ownership. So welcome welcome back into the tent. We thank you that you have finally rejected the position that you've taken for the last six years. In terms of clause 51 the Alternative requirement … This section applies if a territorial authority is deciding whether or not to establish join or amend… (a) a water services council-controlled organisation; or (b) a joint local government arrangement under section 137 … In the course of that decision-making process the territorial authority … must identify both of the following 2 options … remaining with the existing approach for delivering water services; and … joining forming or amending (as the case may be) the [Water Services Council Controlled Organisation] … or the joint local government arrangement". This bill doesn't affect what is provided in section 137 of the Local Government Act that continues unaffected and unaltered. This is about the consultation requirements not in relation to the requirements in section 137."