Smith Nick: General Debates 
Smith Nick: General Debates 
[Volume:618;Page:14401] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 One of the reasons this Government will go out on its ear next year is the way in which it has dumped responsibilities and costs on local government that have resulted in a record increase in rates. In the figures that have just been released by Statistics New Zealand the rate increase for the first year of the new local government legislation is 10.4 percent. That is over a 10 percent increase in rates and Dover Samuels talks about what they have delivered! What that delivers is increased costs for families on fixed incomes and a reduction in the competitiveness of New Zealand business. It amounts to an extra $200 million taken out of the pockets of hard-working New Zealanders so that we can pay out for the political correctness and bureaucracy that this Government has imposed on New Zealand. 
Let me explain just how bad that 10.4 percent increase is. If we go back over the Statistics New Zealand records for the past 10 years the biggest increase in any other year was 4.6 percent. That was a Labour year too. In fact rates have gone up in this country by 32 percent since Labour has been in Government. Over the same period the consumer price index has moved by 12 percent. 
So what sort of rhetoric do we get from Government members who say they care about the poor people? What about the poor people who have to pay rates? The Government hands out Government grants for business when businesses are having to fork out tens of millions of dollars more in rate bills. How has it done it? Well let us reflect back on the Local Government Act 2002 which is one of the biggest statutes passed by this Government. We asked for assurances from the Minister that the Government would not put up rates. Yet exactly the opposite has happened. In the very first full year of that Act we saw rates go up by four times the consumer price index over the June 2003 to June 2004 period. 
How has the Government done that? Well it just keeps dumping extra costs on local government. I have been attending the Local Government New Zealand conference for the last 3 days and there is a mood amongst the councillors and mayors of New Zealand that they have had it with this lot. The Government has dumped on them with dogs. It has dumped on them with new responsibilities under the Resource Management Act. It has dumped on them with new gaming responsibilities and so it goes on. I was speaking to Darren Hughes’ councillors and they were saying that the rates bill responsibility should rest with that member and his Labour mates who have passed dumb legislation that simply pushes up the costs for ordinary New Zealanders. 
I ask members opposite whether they will take responsibility for this record rate increase. There is silence. They will probably try to pass the buck to their mates in local government. Members on this side of the House say that we have to go back to the drawing board. It is not acceptable to dump 10-plus percent rate increases on the families and businesses of New Zealand. That is why we will reform the Resource Management Act. That is why we will revisit the bureaucratic politically correct nonsense in that Local Government Act. The story of the Wellington Regional Council having to spend over $200000 in its first year on consultation with iwi is a story that is repeated up and down New Zealand. That must change. National is saying it must redress this nonsense idea with dogs—that we have every single dog microchipped in New Zealand without any thought for the cost that that imposes on ordinary New Zealanders. My colleague Lindsay Tisch well knows the sorts of costs that the Building Act is dumping on ratepayers and councils all around New Zealand. We will revisit the gaming legislation that again puts up all these sorts of costs. 
The answer which those members opposite do not understand is that the citizens and businesses of this country are far more capable of spending their money wisely than the bureaucracies of central and local government. That 10.4 percent rate increase is the death knell of the Local Government Act that that Labour Government has imposed on the people of New Zealand. It is a failure and Chris Carter should get down to this House and explain why a 10.4 percent increase in rates bills works.