Nash Stuart: Local Government Act 2002 (Greater Local Democracy) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNash Stuart: Local Government Act 2002 (Greater Local Democracy) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 12 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:5753. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]STUART NASH (Labour—Napier): I move That the Local Government Act 2002 (Greater Local Democracy) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Local Government and Environment Committee to consider the bill. [Interruption] It is fantastic that the members of the Government are so keen to hear this bill because I know that the vast majority of these members represent constituencies that want this bill to go through.Democracy gives us the mandate to be here and to make decisions on behalf of New Zealanders that will hopefully benefit all. But Parliament of course is not the only place where democracy rules and it is not the only place where rules are drafted that govern the behaviours that rule our everyday activities. Local councils are also hotbeds of democracy. We vote for them every 3 years they run campaigns like us and they work tirelessly to represent their constituencies. They know their constituents well and they often do it for very little money. But for these local councils it is never about the money; it is about the communities they represent and it is about the people they care about and they work tirelessly.As MPs we know that every time we turn up to a local function there will be one or two councillors there and usually the mayor. This is not a 9 to 5 job; this is a job that often starts at 8—often before 8 actually at breakfast functions—and it goes all the way through to the evening. We know this because we have similar jobs and we see these councillors at all the functions we attend.I have immense respect for the councillors who represent the communities. I know all the councillors in Napier and I know the hard work they put in. The politics of the councillors in Napier are wide and varied and that is what makes the Napier City Council and a number of our councils so fantastic. The debates are robust but we always know that the Napier City Council and the councils which represent our constituencies as well as we do come up with decisions that are in the best interests of our communities.That is why when the Local Government Act was changed in 2012 it was a travesty for democracy. What happened before 2012 was that if there was to be an amalgamation of councils there had to be a majority in each jurisdiction. This is democracy. In 2012—under the former member for Napier I must admit the Hon Chris Tremain—the Government changed the law and it stripped away local democracy. What it did was it said: “Now if there’s to be amalgamation across a number of jurisdictions all that they have to do is get a majority across the region.” What that did was to take the ability of local councils and of local communities to determine their own future and for me this is the crux of this whole matter.I firmly believe that communities deserve the right to determine their own future. The Labour Party is not against amalgamations at all. If communities want to amalgamate and if councils want to amalgamate that is their right—that is their democratic right. But what we believe on this side of the House is that if amalgamation is to occur then local communities must determine that for themselves.Let me give you an example that is very salient to the region where I come from. We have four communities that the Local Government Commission is seeking to amalgamate. There is Napier there is Hastings there is Central Hawke’s Bay and there is Wairoa. They are diverse communities representing about 150000 people across a very very wide geographic area. Pre-2012 for that amalgamation to occur there would have had to be a majority in each one of those jurisdictions. As it now stands all that has to happen is there has to be a majority right across that region and the way it stands is that Hastings has about 78000 people Napier has about 56000 people and Wairoa and Central Hawke’s Bay have around about 6000. So what could conceivably happen in this amalgamation referendum that is coming up is that Hastings could vote for amalgamation the people of Napier could vote no the people of Wairoa could vote no and the people of Central Hawke’s Bay could vote no but because Hastings has a much greater population it goes through and that is not democracy. That strips away the ability of the people from Napier Central Hawke’s Bay and Wairoa to determine their own futures and I do not think that is right.In fact it is most interesting—that is not the only erosion of democracy. What happened in the Bay is a group of business professionals put forward a proposal to the Local Government Commission. None of them were democratically elected councillors in any way shape or form but this group set in train the process that could lead to regional amalgamation. These were not elected councillors. They were not representing the constituency in any way shape or form.What it says in the Act is that there has to be demonstrable support for amalgamation before the Local Government Commission will recommend a referendum. Well what happened is that the Local Government Commission went around and those commissioners spoke to the Hastings District Council they spoke to the Napier City Council they spoke to the Wairoa District Council and they spoke to the Central Hawke’s Bay District Council and they held public meetings and three of those four councils told the Local Government Commission in no uncertain terms that they did not want amalgamation.The interesting thing is this level of consultation with these councils happened about 6 months after local government elections had taken place and the really big issue in the local government elections across Hawke’s Bay was amalgamation. So three of the four councils said no and yet this is being forced ahead. The cynic in me says the reason this is going ahead is Wellington was a complete and utter disaster and Northland was a complete and utter disaster so the Local Government Commission said: “Goodness me if we don’t do something here people are going to question our reason for being. Let’s do this in Hawke’s Bay.”But the worst thing still when we are talking about democracy is that the Local Government Commission is not subject to Official Information Act requests. My office and I and the Mayor of Napier have put through a number of requests to find out what has gone on in the process who has liaised with whom where the recommendations are and where the drafts are. We have been told: “No as a member of Parliament you are not allowed to have our deliberations. You are not allowed to know whom we have spoken to and you are not allowed to know the process that we have taken to arrive at this decision.” That is undemocratic but it gets worse.The Minister of Local Government has now appointed a new board and a new set of commissioners for the Local Government Commission and the chair of that commission whom I personally have immense respect for is Sir Wira Gardiner. He is the chair but he sat on the Wellington Region Local Government Review Panel which recommended Wellington amalgamation. Wira Gardiner is a man of immense integrity. I believe that. I believe that he should have said to the Minister who tapped him on the shoulder: “I have a conflict of interest here because I have recommended amalgamation in the past so I cannot sit here independently and put forward proposals in the best interests of community.”The reason that I am so passionate about this bill the reason why I would love it to go to a select committee and the reason why I think as a Parliament we really do need to support this is communities need the ability to determine their own future. Communities need the ability to say: “This is where we want our community to go forward.” The amazing thing is that in Australia there were a number of forced amalgamations. These are now de-amalgamating because it simply has not worked. When forced amalgamations occur they do not work because they do not get community buy-in.If there was an amalgamation referendum and 50.1 percent of the people from Napier said yes then I would accept that because that is democracy. But until that happens I simply cannot accept the fact that amalgamation can be forced on communities without them wanting it. If this occurs in Hawke’s Bay there will be one council representing 150000 people. Across the OECD only Denmark and the UK have larger councils than New Zealand’s. In fact most countries—Switzerland Canada Germany United States—have bodies representing fewer than 18000 people.But for me the main point of this the reason I am passionate about it the reason I have brought this bill to the House the reason why Local Government New Zealand supports this bill and the reason why every single mayor I have written to who has written back to me supports this bill is they understand that communities deserve the right to determine their own future. That is what democracy is about. Thank you.