In December 1999 Sandra Lee was appointed Local Government Minister in the newly formed Labour/Alliance Coalition Government. Responding to a groundswell of now coordinated unhappiness and pressure that had been building since the formation of the Local Government New Zealand association in 1996, Lee oversaw a rewrite of the Local Government Act of 1974 so that it was readable to the general public and addressed matters that had come up in the intervening 28 years. Jeanette Fitzsimons, co-leader of the Green party, was appointed chairperson of the select committee.