Cosgrove Clayton: Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Cosgrove Clayton: Local Government Act 2002 Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:660;Page:15567] 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour—Waimakariri) 
: 
 I will carry on from my colleague Carmel Sepuloni on the theme of this legislation especially in respect of schedule 1 “Long-term plans annual plans and annual reports” of reducing the requirement on a local authority to consult its community. I raise a couple of practical examples from down my way in Christchurch. I note in passing that the author of this bill the Hon Rodney Hide—the man who preaches openness transparency and accountability except when it comes to his own wallet his own air tickets and a few other things that he has been less than open and transparent about—brings a bill in here that is couched as though it will make councils more accountable and more transparent to their communities. Buried in this of course is a reduced requirement on those local authorities to consult on things like goals and community outcomes. 
Well if we are to give councils the ability to arbitrarily set goals for community outcomes and basically make it up as they go along the question I have asks how a council can be in touch with its community and know what it wants what the goals and the outcomes are if it is not prepared—and it should be compelled by this House and this legislation—to consult those communities. I will give the Committee a “for instance’; a real one. In the Christchurch City Council there was a move—before the election—to put market rents on early childhood education centres. I say this for the benefit of Kate Wilkinson who says that in my electorate the Government’s cuts to early childhood education funding will be only— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch) 
: Order! 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: I come back to the bill Mr Chair but I am sure you are interested in that. If it were the case as it was with the local authority in Christchurch that did not impose cuts on an early childhood education centre of $29500 but put forward a measure for those centres that were on council-owned land to require them—after 20 30 or 40 years—to pay market rents it would have put those early childhood education centres out of business. I know that Ms Wilkinson is quite supportive of change even though Swannanoa Preschool an early childhood education centre in Waimakariri District has said publicly that it will have a $100000 cut this year. I tell colleagues that the centre happens to be a few hundred metres down the road from where Ms Wilkinson lives. She would have known that if she had knocked on its door. The Minister asks where I get my facts from. I tell her to try visiting an early childhood education centre a couple of hundred metres down the road from where she lives. 
If it were the case as it was at the Christchurch City Council that a local authority wanted to put early childhood education centres that were on council land on to market rents as it proposed then under this legislation there would be very limited if any opportunity formally to consult that community. What happened in the Christchurch case was that the community was up in arms and said: “No way.” There were meetings there were protests and the council backed down. 
That is called democracy. That is called listening. This bill should be about transparency and accountability. There should be a requirement in this legislation that councils are compelled—I repeat compelled—to consult their community. There should be no option; they should consult. We know of course that this Government is not in favour of consultation because the community might say that it does not like it. The community hey presto may say: “We’re not going to allow the local authority to steamroll over our public opinion and do whatever the hell it likes.” There is no reference to Mr Finlayson in that quote. 
I say that this bill is a sham and these schedules are a sham. The bill purports to be holding councils to account bringing councils closer to their community and aiding democracy. What it really does in these schedules and in other parts of the legislation is reduce the absolute requirement on councils to consult their community. Some members of Parliament in this Chamber are so out of touch with their community. One sits on the opposite side of the Chamber—Ms Wilkinson. She cannot even understand how an early childhood education centre is funded either by local government in terms of its property management or the fact that 34 out of 54 of them will be subject to a cut of $700000 to $800000 a year thanks to her Government. 
The early childhood centre down the road from where that member resides has a cut this year of $100000 but she goes to the media and says: “I’ve been told that 22 of them will have $29500 total in cuts.” That shows how out of touch that member is and she has been caned in the media today. That is quite good because it shows how out of touch she is. I tell the Minister to walk a hundred metres down Tram Road although it might be too far for her knock on the door of the Swannanoa early childhood education centre and ask them about it. She should have done that before she wandered into print told mistruths and was very slack with the facts.