Smith Murray: Wellington Regional Council (Water Board Functions) Bill — In Committee 
Smith Murray: Wellington Regional Council (Water Board Functions) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:623;Page:18935] 
MURRAY SMITH (United Future) 
: 
 I want to begin by thanking the Hon Marian Hobbs for her endorsement of the arguments I was making with regard to Part 1 and I appreciate her support on that. I want to talk on the amendment in clause 6 and in doing that I want to also take the opportunity of correcting an exchange that took place during the second reading debate between my colleague Larry Baldock and Ken Shirley with regard to this issue. In particular I noted listening to the radio as I was driving back from a function that my colleague Larry Baldock talked about how some of this land was in Peter Dunne’s electorate Ohariu-Belmont to which there was an interjection from Mr Shirley telling him quite categorically because he lived in the area that this land was not in Ohariu-Belmont and I want to reassure him that effectively the Belmont Hills are indeed in Ohariu-Belmont at least to some extent. 
But the point that I want to make with regard to clause 6 is that this was another issue that was taken up by Peter Dunne in his first reading speech. He made the comment and it is worth quoting: “… one of the issues that arises—and I am concerned about it when I look at the provisions of clause 4(2)—is that around Wellington through the prudent management of the regional council over a number of years we have a significant number of regional parks which have been established for the enjoyment and the benefit of Wellingtonians and which are widely used.” He said: “I think of the Belmont Regional Park in my own electorate as a classic example. It is true that the topography of Wellington means that most elevated sites lend themselves to being good sites for windmills—there is a certain substance that seems to blow through the air that makes the windmills turn. One of the issues that is therefore of concern is that unless we are very careful there is the possibility of a number of those areas that Wellingtonians like to think of as good recreation areas becoming distorted damaged or overtaken by the high windmills that would be used to generate renewable energy. There would be a public reaction against that. So I think that one of the issues the select committee will have to address is the scope of the bill the limitations that might need to be imposed on any such wind farms or their equivalent that might be established and the conflict between that and good recreational practice.” 
That was certainly one thing in the Local Government and Environment Committee that we were very aware of and certainly we had one or two objections. Not many submissions were made but one or two were concerned with the use of the land. That is the reason we amended clause 6; to make it very clear that the provision that said in its initial format that the Act did not limit or affect the Resource Management Act could not be construed as being limited to that Act and instead provided that the Act does not limit or affect the application of any other enactments. 
In doing so we were sending a very clear signal we hoped to the Wellington Regional Council of the importance of consultation in terms of any use of this land and in particular of the land for wind farming given the value that Wellingtonians place on their recreational facilities It is important that there is consultation and accountability and that the requirements of the Local Government Act as well as the Resource Management Act are followed in order to give the public a very good say in terms of how this land should be used. 
But I would like to point out to the Committee that the select committee went beyond that and effectively asked for and obtained from the Wellington Regional Council a written assurance that any application to develop a wind farm would proceed on a notified basis. Whilst we did not think we should make legislative provision as a matter of law—and I think it was outside the scope of the bill anyway to do so—we did get that written assurance from the Wellington Regional Council and it is worth restating that for anybody who might look at the debate in the future on this bill because of any issue arising. We did get a written assurance from the Wellington Regional Council that any application would proceed on a notified basis. 
That then coupled with the new provision in clause 6 does mean that effectively the public will be fully consulted about any development of this land for use as a wind farm and will have an opportunity to talk about its impact on recreational use and use by the citizens of Wellington generally. The Wellington Regional Council I must say were very happy to provide that assurance. It made it clear that it had no intention whatsoever to do things without full consultation with the public and more important private companies would not be able to avoid doing that either.