Prime Willow-JeanLOCAL GOVERNMENT (FACILITATION OF REMOTE PARTICIPATION) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon WILLOW-JEAN PRIME (Labour) on behalf of Cushla Tangaere-Manuel: I move That the Local Government (Facilitation of Remote Participation) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Governance and Administration Committee to consider the bill. Thank you. ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The Hon Willow-Jean Prime.Hon WILLOW-JEAN PRIME: Thank you Madam Speaker. It is an absolute honour and privilege to take this call in the first reading of the Local Government (Facilitation of Remote Participation) Amendment Bill. I am standing in the place of our new member for Ikaroa-Rāwhiti Cushla Tangaere-Manuel who sadly cannot be here tonight. She is the sponsor of this bill. She is unable to be here this evening because she is with her Wairoa community commemorating one year of Cyclone Gabrielle so I want to acknowledge Cushla's absence and say it is an absolute honour and privilege to represent in this first reading on her behalf.When I think about my colleague Cushla she was sworn in as an MP on the Tuesday and by the Thursday they had the first pull from the biscuit tin. Just two days after being an MP before she's even done her maiden speech she was fortunate enough lucky enough to have her number pulled from the biscuit tin. So I'm sad that she's not able to be here tonight to talk to this bill because I know that when it was pulled—and she did have an opportunity to speak to media at the time—it's something that she has belief in and experience to support why this is such an important piece of legislation to introduce.So for the House's benefit what this bill proposes to do is to amend the Local Government Act to permanently allow local authority members to participate in local authority meetings remotely and to be counted towards the quorum for those meetings.Now I'll talk from my experience as a former elected member in the Far North District Council. The Far North district like many of our rural district councils and regional councils covers an extremely large geographic area and at the time I found it difficult that we were not able to participate remotely. We were not able to do that because the law simply did not provide for local councils to be able to make that available to elected members—prohibited by the law.In the COVID pandemic and in recent severe weather events we have actually seen the need for the ability to have remote participation and temporary measures were put in place to allow that to happen. What this bill is proposing is to have that in the legislation so it is something that is available permanently. I think in 2024 with the advanced technology that we now have everybody is very used to the comment You're on mute". "You need to unmute yourself" has become very very common.This is a very practical thing that this House can do to support local government. I don't want to dwell too much on what happened earlier in the day in what we have done—or this House has done—that doesn't support local government and isn't practical but this is something that the House should support and is a practical tool that we can give to local councils to allow them to operate effectively and efficiently.So if I can perhaps bring some background and context to the contribution tonight to help people who may not be able to relate because they don't live in a large rural area like I do. In the Far North district there are currently four elected members who live north of the Mangamuka. The Mangamukas have been closed on and off for several years now. It takes them over two hours to get to the council chambers in Kaikohe. Being an elected member is not necessarily a full-time job for many—and the remuneration certainly isn't that of a full-time salary. So many elected members have families have other work commitments have community commitments have business commitments. In an area like the Far North where it takes you four hours to get to a meeting and return and then be there for the meetings—and in some cases very long meetings—that is something that can be quite difficult.Now when we've had severe weather it has been unsafe for members to travel from their areas to council chambers so meetings cannot take place because quorums cannot be met. So this change to the legislation would allow the remote participation and in circumstances like severe weather like we've seen or in illness; too sick to attend a meeting but can still you know and not wanting to share things but can still do it by remote participation is an option for those who have—another issue we have is cancelled flights. So when a flight is cancelled—and that happens often in our regional airports—and they can't make it to council chambers having an issue in terms of getting a quorum one but also being able to participate in the important business that council does.So I think from a rural perspective—and I'd be interested to hear what others have in their contributions this evening—that this change will give councils more flexibility and it will ensure that they are able to participate. It supports democracy will have elected members being able to participate in the decision making of local councils and it will increase the opportunity for officials to meet and vote on matters of importance to their local communities. This will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the tools that our local elected members have available to them.So I bring that contribution to the House this evening from my own personal experience as an elected member and from my observations of elected members in my area that is home in the Far North district. I look forward to the other contributions from those around the House and them supporting this bill to give our local councils effective tools so that they can do their mahi. Kia ora.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): The question is that the motion be agreed to."