Simpson Scott: Local Government (Auckland Council) Amendment Bill (No 3) — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSimpson Scott: Local Government (Auckland Council) Amendment Bill (No 3) — First Reading[Sitting date: 24 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4768. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): As chairman of the Local Government and Environment Committee I am encouraged to hear that the Labour Party is going to support this Local Government (Auckland Council) Amendment Bill (No 3) to select committee. I think that is a practical and useful contribution to a debate that I think is an important one. The member who was previously speaking Su’a William Sio was perfectly correct; when the legislation was originally created for the new Auckland City structure a situation such as now exists was perfectly able to occur and indeed it has occurred where there are several people who hold multiple roles in various local boards. This bill seeks to question the legitimacy or the substance of that occurring for the benefit of the wider democracy in terms of the governance model of a city like Auckland.I think that the select committee is exactly the right place to tease out these questions—to tease out the issues that have been raised by my friend and colleague Alfred Ngaro in his sponsorship of this bill notwithstanding that in fact he has taken the bill over from Maggie Barry who of course now has ministerial responsibilities and is no longer eligible to promote a member’s bill. I want to thank and congratulate Alfred Ngaro on stepping up to the plate and on taking on this bill and now having it in his name. I am confident that he will be a very staunch advocate for the bill and that he will guide it through the select committee process in terms of submissions and process in a very thorough and professional way.So what does this bill essentially seek to achieve? Well it seeks to create a situation where the fairness in the local government electoral process can be enhanced by preventing candidates from serving on more than one local board at the same time. Local boards are a relatively new creation in the local government model and they were developed specifically during the set-up and creation of the new Auckland Council structure several years ago. They are quite a different beast from community boards. In terms of their constitutional role in terms of their governance role and in terms of their financial accountabilities and delegations they have a role to play that is set somewhere between the governing body itself and that role of the former community boards. They are I think a more robust creature of statute than previously existed so it is very important for the success of the entire model that local boards operate with credibility and that they operate in a way that the public feels is credible.One of the sad aspects of our local government system is that for reasons that are multiple turnout is often very low in local government elections. It is much lower than most members of this House would like and I am sure it is much lower than most participants in local government would like as well. That occurs for as I say a variety of reasons which I am not going to go into tonight but it is clear and obvious that in some communities candidates have for whatever reason—it might be professional it might be because of their previous sporting achievements it might be because they have a role in some celebrity status or a range of reasons—higher name profile and name recognition than others. One of the aspects that I find frustrating in our local government system is that often when people go to vote they literally do not know whom they are voting for. There is often I think a natural assumption that people with high name recognition and a high profile are therefore proportionally more likely in some cases to be elected. That creates this opportunity for people who have that profile to stand in multiple constituencies and then be elected to multiple constituencies.In my view I want to have a better understanding of the impact of that. Does it have a negative impact? Does it affect the credibility of the local boards; if so how? If it does is this the best way to address it? I am confident that we will get lots of submissions at the select committee. I am looking forward to the process. I know that Alfred Ngaro will be a staunch and firm advocate for this bill and I wish him well as it proceeds through the House.