Submissions invited on new Kaipara rates Bill

---

The Select Committee has announced that it is already moving to invite public submissions on the Kaipara District Council (Validation of Rates and Other Matters) Bill.

Commissioner chair John Robertson welcomed the news.

He said that he had also been heartened by indications that the Select Committee would be coming to the Kaipara to make it easy for as many people as possible to make their views known.

“I really do urge people to take this opportunity to make a submission in support of the Bill,” Mr Robertson said. “We need this legislation to tidy up past rating errors.”

Mr Robertson notes that the Bill is not about avoiding accountability for the decision-making and project management of the Mangawhai Community Wastewater Scheme.
 
Sabin wants answers
In his address to Parliament, MP for Northland, Mike Sabin, made it clear that the intention of the Bill was not to absolve those responsible for these errors and nor would he be supporting if it did.

Mr Sabin, as the local MP, was asked by the Council’s Commissioners to sponsor the Bill into the House for its first reading, as is the normal practice with local Bills.

He said big questions must be answered as to the woeful failures of the Kaipara District Council.

“No one is a fan of retrospective legislation. It is a last resort and reflects Council failure. Unfortunately, it is required, and is the only workable way to remedy irregularities and errors that were avoidable but, nonetheless, occurred.”

It was acknowledged by members across the House that this is not an unprecedented situation, with a similar piece of validating legislation, the Tasman District Council (Validation and Recovery of Certain Rates) Bill, having its first reading in recent weeks.

In Mangawhai’s case, the Bill does not affect the $30 million decision to expand the sewerage scheme, nor does it affect the inquiry by the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) into the Mangawhai Wastewater Scheme.
 
Ratepayers take action
Mr Sabin was highly critical in his speeches of the previous Council, and sought answers as to how, with such longstanding and deep-seated compliance and other fundamental financial mismanagement issues it could get clean audits year after year.

Meanwhile, Mangawhai ratepayers who refuse to pay for Kaipara District Council debts will have their day in court in August.

The case brought against the council by the Mangawhai Residents and Ratepayers Association is set down for August 16 in the High Court at Whangarei.

The Association claims the council borrowed without the ratepayers' knowledge to cover cost blow-outs that were also hidden from the public and the Auditor-General failed to pick up those errors.

■ For information and a guide to making a submission on the Validation of Rates Bill, visit Council’s website www.kaipara.govt.nz.
 

---