GEORGINA BEYER (NZ Labour--Wairarapa): I am very glad to speak on Vote Local Government also. It is something that I do know a little about. I would like to support what the previous speaker Martin Gallagher was saying in paying compliments to the Minister of Local Government who, along with this Labour-Alliance Government, has made a clear commitment and sent a clear message to local government, in other words, local communities in this country, that we wish to engage positively in the important work of legislation that needs to occur regarding local government.

I am very heartened to see that $5.481 million has gone into the appropriations for Vote Local Government. This is a 23.5 percent increase on the 1999-2000 estimates. Policy advice funding is increased by 52 percent, and this is where it will be key, because of the weight of local government legislation being developed and enacted in this term. There are still concerns held by the Department of Internal Affairs--which is this Government's principal port of call in regards to engaging with local government matters in this country--that it might not be enough. That has to be indicative of the way the previous Government treated local government with disdain.

We have now got a senior Minister who is a Minister of Local Government, which is something the present Opposition parties could not do when they were in power. In fact, in one triennium of local government, between 1995 and 1998, we had no less than four Ministers of Local Government--in one triennium! That is outrageous--and one of them was a retread, because the Hon. Maurice Williamson had to come back a second time. Of course, the last Minister under the previous Government was Christine Fletcher. She liked local government so much, she went to it and is now the Mayor of Auckland. So there we go.