Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): It is a privilege to speak today on the Rates Rebate (Retirement Village Residents) Amendment Bill. It's an issue that I've had some experience with. Like the member opposite Michael Wood I've also had the privilege of sitting on one of the local boards in Auckland Council and holding clinics helping retirees to be able to fill out their forms to apply for their rates rebate. I guess I echo what my colleague Brett Hudson was raising earlier which was the whole application process and where that currently sits. Under this proposed bill there's a Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) that very helpfully puts in place an application process which I must say is very similar to what is already in place which is good.But I guess the question is: how can we make it easier for those who are entitled to these rates rebates to actually be able to receive them without having to go through what is quite a complicated process? Now I know many many people know how they can apply for them and they use the opportunity every single year but how can we as a Parliament do something to make that easier?I'd like to note that this piece of legislation is over 40 years old and I think the wider point around it is that this piece of legislation should be reviewed as a whole. I'll acknowledge the member for wanting to do something in this space because it's an important space. There are more and more retirement villages being built. There's a new retirement village being built in my electorate quite close to Pakuranga Park Village a retirement village. And with an ageing population these issues are issues that are going to come up more and more. So I guess the question is whether we should as a Parliament be looking at taking a broader wider look at this legislation. I noted somewhere that that was one of the recommendations that came back through the select committee process and whether that's what should be happening with this particular bill.Another question I've got—and it relates to the increasing costs that we're seeing with local government. In Auckland Aucklanders will be pleased to see that the council's proposing not to charge the interim transport levy which is going to be replaced by a petrol tax but it relates to the costs of local government. I guess the question relating to this bill is the question of what the cost of this will be and the increased burden on local government as they go through their budgetary processes in the lead-up to next year. So this bill yes it comes into place at the same time that their new budgets will have to come into place in the middle of next year but that's something that they're going to have to consider.I was looking at the application process in SOP 10 under the proposed section 7A(4)(c)(iii) that the resident's rates contribution was made under a written agreement between the operator and the resident;". I guess that raises the question in my mind around the fact that a lot of different retirement villages operate differently in relation to how much of the cost of the rates they apply to those who live in those villages. The question there is around these agreements. Some retirement villages will pass on the full cost; others will pass on a small amount of cost. How will that be included into the process for how much these retirement villages' residents will get from the rebate?So there are a number of questions that we have on this side regarding this bill. As I said earlier I think it has good intentions. It's one of those issues that are going to continue to grow as we have a growing elderly population as more retirement villages are built. I would hope that at some point in the near future we would be able to look at the Rates Rebate Act and do a complete review so that we can resolve these issues in a proper fashion. Thank you very much for your time."