Court SimonSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Madam Chair. Just to clarify for the member because I know it's getting late in the day and he's been left alone by his caucus to make the case for this piece of legislation. I'd just like to clarify that what I was proposing with this amendment was in fact that the voters of Canterbury the citizens of Canterbury those who have a franchise should have the right to vote in or vote out people who sit on decision-making boards like Environment Canterbury who make decisions about natural resources and about spending public money. So what my Supplementary Order Paper 177 proposes is that a clause is inserted into the bill so that should 10 percent of the voters in Canterbury want to recall the appointed person from Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu they have the right to do so.Look as you've described democracy plus" we would say in the ACT Party in fact what you've proposed is "democracy minus". It's an aberration. It's an egregious assault on the notion of one person one vote and liberal democracy. And in fact it was the values of liberal democracy that set aside the divine right of kings to rule over us. Nearly a thousand years ago the Magna Carta which actually allocated rights and property rights to the people of England who I whakapapa back to and who came to New Zealand on sailing ships and offered all the lessons—Chlöe Swarbrick: And colonised. And stole the land. And imposed rulesSIMON COURT: That's right. They offered all the lessons they had learnt in getting rid of kings and queens—getting rid of kings and queens—and coming up with a system called democracy which was one person one vote.And so despite the concept of "democracy plus"—ACT says that's "democracy minus"—you should not be appointing people—Madam Chair the member the Government in fact should not be creating legislation that allows for appointments of people into decision-making bodies that are otherwise made up of elected members to make decisions about water rights property rights who gets to build stuff and where they get to build it. And what's particularly concerning and I have a great deal of respect for the individuals who I've met at Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu those people who make decisions about investing in infrastructure who manage 100000 hectares of commercial forestry who have interests in resource exploitation and they don't mean—it must be frightening for the Green Party to realise and for the member who's sitting here to realise worried about colonisation still as if it's 2022—Chlöe Swarbrick it's not 1722. We had the Treaty of Waitangi. We've got the Treaty of Waitangi tribunal a process to deal with breaches of contract. In fact Ngāi Tahu have expressed through the latest review of stewardship land in the South Island that they would like to retain access to conservation land or Government-owned land held in stewardship for the purpose—CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Order! The member's getting a bit broad.SIMON COURT: Coming back to the bill.CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jacqui Dean): Grateful for that.SIMON COURT: So look imagine that there are decisions that Environment Canterbury are faced with around who gets access to resources who gets consents to do stuff like mining or quarrying and who gets to get consents to build access roads and if there is a potential conflict of interest between the appointed members of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu which is a massive conglomerate that operates somewhere maybe $700 million maybe a billion dollars' worth of property and infrastructure and operations. What I'd like the member to respond to is: what provision is there what controls are there on the risk of a perception of conflict of interest? Now I'm not saying there is a potential conflict of interest but the perception of one. Where there are decisions that come to Environment Canterbury that materially affect the corporate and business interests of Ngāi Tahu how on earth will this bill any provision of this bill address that perceived conflict of interest and therefore decisions made by Environment Canterbury that essentially could undermine people's trust and faith in local government to make decisions about resource allocation? This bill opens up a can of worms.And we still haven't heard from the member Mr Willie Jackson who offered to stand up and support you member Rino Tirikatene and give his views. We still haven't heard and so I'm assuming sir they're leaving you on your own to answer this but I'd love an answer to that. Thank you.CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jacqui Dean): Members the time has come for me to leave the Chair for the dinner break and the House will resume at 7 p.m.Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m."