Sage Eugenie: Local Electoral Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSage Eugenie: Local Electoral Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Reading[Sitting date: 25 June 2013. Volume:691;Page:11206. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]EUGENIE SAGE (Green):I am pleased to take a short call on the Local Electoral Amendment Bill (No 2) and to correct an impression that was given by a previousNational speaker. The Green Party is supporting this bill but we do have some reservations about the gaps in it.It is the time of year when candidates are announcing their intentions to stand including a member of this House who will be a very strong contender for the Christchurch mayoralty. In 2010 we had nearly 4000 candidates who stood for 1895 positions in local government. I hope that we see a similar number of candidates standing this year for our 78 regional councils unitary councils district councils and city councils because they are a fundamental part of our democracy. Most New Zealanders interact a lot more frequently with local government activities and local decision-making than they do with central government. We rely on local councils to provide us with the necessities of life—with clean water sewerage stormwater libraries cultural facilities and a lot of sporting facilities as well. So it is really important that we have very competent staff in local authorities and very competent councillors and that they are elected through a robust and transparent process. That is why the Green Party supports this bill—because it is making improvements in transparency particularly around electoral donations with for example the requirement to declare donations above $1500. So it should help give the public more confidence in the electoral process because of that.But as Phil Twyford noted it is ironic that this Government is introducing this legislation when its attitude to local government has been anti-democratic and has been one of bullying and blaming local government. It has undermined local democracy in areas like Christchurch with the excessive powers that the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority has weakening the ability of the Christchurch City Council to make decisions for the recovery of Christchurch. It blames organisations like the Christchurch City Council for their progress with building consents but does not assist with additional resources. It criticises councils for their levels of debt yet at the same time it removes things like the regional fuel tax which was an opportunity to raise revenue in other ways. And that whole approach of not trusting and of bullying local government is implicit in the housing accord legislation in the changes to the Resource Management Act which we will be debating this evening and in the ability of Ministers to override the plans that have been developed by councils in conjunction with their local communities. It is indeed ironic that this legislation about transparency in the electoral process is going ahead at the same time as the Government is hammering local authorities and does not trust them.Although the Green Party supports the bill we have been disappointed that it focuses very much on electoral donations and does not deal with the gaps in the Local Electoral Act around third-party donations and there is quite a major gap there. It actually allows unlimited spending by third parties to campaign either for or against certain candidates and that can skew the results of elections. It is not democratic. The gap should have been filled. Denise Roche has a member’s bill that would fill the gap. It was disappointing that the Government members did not support some of the Supplementary Order Papers that we put forward to improve the law there and nor did they support our Supplementary Order Paper that would have adopted more of a partnership approach with local government when local elections are to be postponed when there is an emergency by requiring not just consultation with the affected council but also its agreement.The Green Party recognises the importance of local government its 4 percent contribution to GDP and the $110 billion worth of assets that it manages. We recognise and value the local democracy that is there at the council level the local and community board level. We want to strengthen that. We want to strengthen the legislation around the electoral process. We can do that by strengthening requirements around third-partydonations and not just around anonymous donations. But this bill is a step forward and the Green Party will be voting for it.