Sage Eugenie: Tasman District Council (Validation and Recovery of Certain Rates) Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Sage Eugenie: Tasman District Council (Validation and Recovery of Certain Rates) Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 20 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:8065. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
EUGENIE SAGE (Green) 
: 
Tena koe. Thank you. I am pleased to take a short call on the Tasman District Council (Validation and Recovery of Certain Rates) Bill. The Green Party will be supporting this bill. I thank the office of the Hon Damien O’Connor for the background information he provided. Certainly one of the intriguing things about being an MP is the quite eclectic mix of local bills that we have to deal with and that are referred to the Local Government and Environment Committee. I suspect that at the select committee we will learn quite a lot more about how the Tasman District Council manages its stormwater particularly at Tata Beach and Ligar Bay and how the council’s rating systems work. 
I had a bit of a look at the activity management plan for stormwater on the council’s website. These two quite small settlements have grown up as a series of baches. The baches were close to the beach and then as they have built up the baches and houses have expanded—of course you have got the national park nearby and you have got a lot of self-contained pipes and stormwater systems—there has been some observation of flooding issues at Tata Beach. So the council in endeavouring to address some of these issues and new subdivision development and to provide the stormwater systems for future growth in the area has obviously spent money to do this and the bill is a result of one ratepayer challenging the rates to fund that expenditure. 
Both the Hon Damien O’Connor and the Hon Annette King have explained some of the mistakes that the council made in setting the rates because the whole process of finalising an annual plan and a long-term plan involves a series of quite detailed resolutions. The Tasman District Council got it wrong because it set out that information in the annual plan resolution when it should have been in a separate resolution. There were some issues too around the lack of maps for the Tata Beach urban stormwater drainage area. 
It was the challenge by the ratepayer and the Ombudsman reviewing the way the rates were set that led the council to realise that there were quite a number of procedural errors from 2003 onwards. It was interesting to read an article in the  
Nelson Mail 
 where the council had apparently decided that it would be cheaper to have the matter dealt with by retrospective legislation in this House rather than to engage in sustained litigation with Mr Schmuke and others. Certainly it might be cheaper for the council but given the cost of parliamentary time it may not be cheaper for this House. But given that the wrong process was used it is important that that is fixed and that the setting of the rates is validated which is why the Green Party will support the bill even though it is retrospective. 
I would point out that this bill is in sharp contrast to the one we were debating here yesterday the Environment Canterbury (Temporary Commissioners and Improved Water Management) Amendment Bill. Although we now have National members supporting the validation of the rates-setting process in Canterbury there is no ability for residents to elect councillors who will provide that representation for the taxation that rates represent and to have elected councillors making decisions about the level of rates and the priorities for spending those rates. So we have Canterbury residents generating $84 million in rates each year but having no elected councillors to represent them in decisions on how those rates should be spent. 
Nicky Wagner commented about Better Local Government. When National introduced those savage attacks on local government—including the removal of the four well-beings—the former Minister of Local Government Nick Smith used that cheap populist trick of attacking rates that councils set and the level of those rates. Yet when you think about rates if we are paying $6 a day on average which is what people pay for the whole suite of services that councils provide it is very good value for money. I look forward to the select committee and to understanding and learning a bit more about the services that are being provided in Tata Beach and Ligar Bay in stormwater management and the rates that are being paid to deliver those. Thank you.