Smith Murray: Wellington Regional Council (Water Board Functions) Bill — Third Reading 
Smith Murray: Wellington Regional Council (Water Board Functions) Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:624;Page:19276] 
MURRAY SMITH (United Future) 
: 
 United Future is pleased to support the third reading of the Wellington Regional Council (Water Board Functions) Bill. This is quite an important issue for the Wellington region and for the Hutt Valley in particular because the proposed use of wind power affects the Hutt Valley hills. That of course has consequences for Hutt Valley residents that need to be explored. In that context I am a little bit surprised at the absence of electorate MPs Trevor Mallard Paul Swain and Winnie Laban— 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: No no. The member knows that he cannot refer to the absence of members. The member will withdraw those remarks. 
MURRAY SMITH 
: I withdraw the remarks. 
I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. The point I was making was not about the presence or absence of members in the Chamber which is the rule that I understand you are alluding to but rather it was about the failure of those members to contribute to this debate at any time. That is a different issue altogether. My understanding is that the Standing Orders do not cover that point. 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Saying that members have failed to contribute to this debate and adding “at any time” is just another way of putting it. The member is still alluding to the absence of members in this debate. 
MURRAY SMITH 
: I will accept your ruling Madam Speaker. The Wellington Regional Council has explored three areas in the Hutt Valley for the use of wind resources. It is worth reiterating to this House some of the results that have been achieved—in particular the discovery of the huge advantage that the Mt Climie area which is in the Tararua Ranges near Upper Hutt would provide in terms of wind power. There were three areas that the Wellington Regional Council looked at: Mt Climie which is east of Upper Hutt in the Rimutaka electorate; the Puketiro site which is east of Battle Hill Farm Forest Park in Pauatahanui; and the Belmont hills between Lower Hutt and Porirua. 
Of those areas Mt Climie really stood out—not only by New Zealand standards but by world standards. I quote from the report that was presented to Greater Wellington Regional Council on renewable energy after the investigations that were made by advisers to explore the likely benefits of those areas. Page 5 of the report states: “From a wind resource perspective the most outstanding site of the three is undoubtedly Mt Climie. Of the possible 63 turbine locations at Mt Climie approximately 40 could be subject to a wind resource that will allow a capacity factor of approximately 65%. For 8% of the time the wind speed is above 90km/h when turbines are normally shut down compared with 1% or less in a more average New Zealand wind generation situation. Harnessing some of this energy will increase the capacity factor. Provisionally the balance of the turbines could be located on a ridge of slightly lesser elevation than the main ridge but will still be subject to a very good wind speed. With one megawatt turbines and say an average capacity factor of the whole site of 55% then the site has a capability of producing 300 gigawatt hours of electricity a year. To put this in perspective it is sufficient to power about 35000 homes or one third of those in the Wellington metropolitan area.” Clearly Mt Climie is a standout site that could be of huge benefit to the Wellington region. 
It is notable that the Tararua wind farm which is generally regarded as being at the top level of international wind farms has a capacity factor of just under 50 percent compared with Mt Climie at 64.6 percent. The average wind speed at the Tararua wind farm is 12 metres per second compared with 15.7 metres per second at Mt Climie. The Tararua wind farm is regarded as one of the best in the world which shows just how good the Mt Climie site is in comparison and therefore how valuable the site is not only to the Wellington region but to the national grid in general. 
The importance of that in terms of the Mt Climie site being able to power a third of the Wellington metropolitan area cannot be understated particularly in the environment in which we are looking at our electricity capacity for the future. With the cancellation of hydro schemes and our coming to the limit of our ability to develop hydro schemes we are being forced to look at other forms of power generation. This bill which facilitates the use of land for wind power is therefore a bill of some importance for the national interest. 
There were really two issues that arose during the select committee process—a process of which I was privileged to be part. The first was the use of public-private partnerships for the development of wind farms so that private enterprises in particular could access sites in order to develop wind farms. The second issue concerned the level of public consultation and the need for close consultation because of the public interest in this area particularly with regard to the recreational use of the Belmont area and the Tararua Ranges. 
 United Future members have always been very keen on the use of public-private partnerships. It was one of the four cornerstone agreements we made with the Government in order to provide confidence and supply—namely that the use of public-private partnerships for the development of infrastructure would be facilitated particularly in the area of transport. That of course has happened in the term of this Parliament which is merely one of the things United Future members have achieved—among a list of many things—while we have been here. 
In this case the bill in its initial drafting provided that the development of wind farms would be done by council-controlled organisations or council-controlled trading organisations. We impressed upon the Government the need to widen that criterion so that effectively anybody could develop power facilities there. That was done through the amendment to clause 5 of the bill which effectively enables such functions to be carried out by “another person” and not to be restricted just to council-controlled organisations. We are very pleased to see that amendment because we envisage that the development of wind power given its risky nature and the fact that a lot of technological development is yet to come is really something that expert companies such as Genesis Power might develop—it has already expressed an interest in the sites—rather than a council body itself might want to embark upon. 
In terms of public consultation there was a bit of a concern that a limitation in the bill stated that the bill did not affect the Resource Management Act. That provision has been extended to state that the bill will not affect any other enactment either. In that regard I note that the land covered by the bill is to be managed in accordance with quite a large number of management plans including the interim Forest Lands Management Plan 1996 the Water Collection Areas Asset Management Plan 2004 the draft Forest Lands Management Plan: Future Water Catchment Areas 2004 the Plantation Forest Working Plan 2000-2010 the Kaitoke Regional Park Management Plan 1991 the Belmont Regional Park Management Plan 1993 the recreation policies for the Hutt and Wainuiomata catchments as agreed by the council in 1996 and 2003 and the Environmental Asset Management Plan. 
The eventuality therefore that a wind farm could develop on a site without much public attention is I think unlikely to occur in reality. Notwithstanding that the Local Government and Environment Committee did write to the Wellington Regional Council to ask it to provide a letter of assurance that any development whether by the council or by a private company would require resource consent public consultation and public advertising and those assurances were given. So we in United Future are certainly satisfied that if there is going to be any development of this land for wind farming then the public will get a full say in the way in which that will occur. 
United Future members are very supportive of this bill. We are certainly supportive of the facilitation it provides to the Wellington Regional Council in the development of this land for purposes that are definitely in the national interest. We will be delighted to see the bill passed. 
Bill read a third time.