Carter John: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Carter John: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:649;Page:17704] 
JOHN CARTER (National—Northland) 
: 
 I take this opportunity to congratulate Lawrence Yule on obtaining the position of president of Local Government New Zealand and also of course Kerry Prendergast on retaining her position as vice-chair. They are good people for local government and we wish them all the best and give them every support. 
I want to just start in the 5 minutes I have by saying what a disappointment the way that the Labour Government has treated the local government sector is. It has actually failed local government and it has been quite insulting in the way it has addressed local government issues. Over the last three terms in Government it has imposed huge costs on local government and nothing represents that better than the cost of bureaucracy that the ratepayers now have to meet in the local government sector. This Government has passed at least 67 or 68 pieces of legislation imposing new costs on local government and local government has had to respond by employing more and more people to take up the duties and the responsibilities that the Labour Government has thrust upon it. 
The bureaucracy in local government has increased over the last 9 years by at least 25 percent and the cost to ratepayers has been extraordinary. We saw last year of course a ratepayer revolt. One of the problems local government has is that infrastructural costs are growing and the demands by the public are going beyond the expectations of the ability of local government to meet those costs. The Labour Government has done little to respond to local government’s problems particularly in infrastructure. It has tinkered around the edges with some small votes for some water supplies etc. but quite honestly in the main it has not addressed the infrastructural needs. 
John Key said at the Local Government New Zealand conference just recently that if the National Party is fortunate enough to become the next Government it will take the matter of infrastructure in this country seriously and that includes the issue of local government infrastructure. It is estimated that there is in excess of a $30 billion demand for infrastructural growth in the local government sector over the next 10 years and quite honestly local government ratepayers cannot address this matter by themselves. The Labour Government knows this but the Minister in the chair Nanaia Mahuta and more particularly not so much her but the Ministers before her have done little or nothing to actually address this issue even though local government has brought this to the attention of the Labour Government. 
The National Party if it becomes the Government certainly will address this issue. It understands the need for development and progress in infrastructure and has made it very clear that it will use a whole lot of financial tools to allow local government to address the issue of the infrastructural demands that the ratepayers are requesting. Even my colleague from up north Shane Jones knows that there is just not enough strength in the economy from the ratepayers to address the needs of the far north and unfortunately he sits there interjects and does not help the Labour Government do anything about it. 
The second area I want to address briefly is this. The Labour Government’s response to the rates revolt was to have what was called the Shand report. The Shand report came out with 96 recommendations. Just last week we had solved them and Local Government New Zealand came along and said: “Look we’re so worried that the Labour Government has not done anything to address this issue that we’re going to take up 13 of these issues ourselves.” Actually good on it for responding. I understand that the Minister has recently written a letter to local government in response to the Shand report. Unfortunately I have not seen it; we have not been sent a copy and we do not know quite what the response is. Maybe the Minister will explain to the Committee. 
But the fact is that there were some recommendations. Not all of the recommendations in the Shand report are acceptable because some of them are contradictory. But nevertheless there were some very good suggestions that needed to be picked up. Again in his speech to the Local Government New Zealand conference John Key addressed some of those matters specifically. National will deal with those issues that need to be addressed if it becomes the Government and certainly a number of those will be addressed in our local government policy when it is released a little later. The real worry that local government and ratepayers have is that the Labour Government has not responded in the way one would have expected it to.