Naylor Jono: Canterbury Property Boundaries and Related Matters Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNaylor Jono: Canterbury Property Boundaries and Related Matters Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 02 June 2016. Volume:714;Page:11677. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JONO NAYLOR (National): It is a pleasure to rise. I think this is the first time since I have been in Parliament that I have been able to speak on a bill that is related to trying to put things right in Christchurch. Often our Christchurch MPs or the Local Government and Environment Committee MPs have had this task and it is I guess in some small part by speaking in support of this bill my opportunity as a parliamentarian to be able to contribute something towards helping to improve the lives and the ongoing livelihoods of those in Christchurch.This is I have to say an incredibly sensible bill and I guess a number of speakers have already said that. The level of support that this has right across the House I think really iterates to me the level of support that there is for wanting to find solutions to some of the difficulties that are being experienced in Christchurch and have been experienced since the first earthquake in 2010 and the subsequent earthquakes. There has been such a vast array of difficulties that people have faced. Of course that was highly publicised early on with people being without water people being without sewerage roads being a mess people having houses that were uninhabitable and the issues have gone on for a very very long time.The general public of New Zealand I think were initially very supportive and are aware of ongoing issues that have made the headlines and have been widely circulated. But this is a particular issue that has significant impact for homeowners making it difficult for them to be able to move on—I mean you basically need to know where your property begins and ends in terms of what you do with it. This is a problem that has not been widely known by the people of New Zealand. It has not been widely talked about but it is a significant problem none the less for those people who are experiencing it. So it is beholden upon Parliament to take some action and rectify the situation to put things in place to give people that level of certainty. From my perspective I think my understanding of this bill is that it does just that.In particular it is about taking a really practical approach to this issue. It is very difficult when you have had ground move—not necessarily in a uniform way—for surveyors to be able to follow any of the old boundary lines because earthquakes do not necessarily move in a straight line. So boundaries will not be or are not where they once were and are not easily defined. The provisions in this bill I think are great. There is going to be a sense of “common sensibility” applied across this so that surveyors will now be able to come in look at a property assess it and essentially exercise a level of common sense; so that property boundaries will largely be where property owners expect them to be. I think that is really crucial.If you think of the types of problems that people have had with boundaries over the years without earthquakes—often you will see a fence that has been built where someone did not expect it to be; you have all manner of issues with hedges and all sorts of difficulties that people have with their neighbours over boundaries—it is really an ongoing issue and has been for a long period of time. Instead of getting down into sort of really nitty-gritty problems and definitions of where boundaries should or should not be for surveyors to be able to apply some common sense and get stuck into this issue to ensure that where there has been this lateral movement—the spreading or sideways movement of land—boundaries are where people would expect them to be is to my mind incredibly sensible incredibly practical and will help bring some resolution to these issues.As usual the select committee—and it is a very hard-working select committee of course; the Local Government and Environment Committee has had a lot on its plate recently—put a lot of time and energy into this particular bill. I want to commend all the members of that committee especially the chairman Scott Simpson who I think has done a fantastic job in steering this bill through this process to ensure that we get a good outcome. There have been some amendments that the committee members made along the way that I think are entirely appropriate. They have taken what was obviously a very good practical sensible bill in the first place a little bit further and ensured that there have been some improvements.I guess in particular I want to draw attention to the amending of clause 10 to specify that provided the specified criteria are met there will be no liability for surveys and boundary determinations done in the interim period between 4 September 2010 and commencement of this legislation. As we all know it was not just one earthquake: there have been a number of earthquakes subsequent to those particularly devastating ones in September of 2010 and February 2011.So it is important that we actually recognise that this has been an ongoing issue for a period of time since then as well.But of course this is not a blanket waiver of liability. Very sensibly the committee members have looked at it and said that they obviously recommend the amendment to this clause in terms of the exemptions of liability—but it does not exclude things like negligence or bad faith or misconduct or non-compliance with statutory obligations and professional standards. So this is not a blanket waiver of liability for surveyors; this is just to ensure that where they have made their best endeavours to do the best that they can between September 2010 and now and where those lines that they have drawn have moved through subsequent earth movements they are not being held liable for that. I think that is eminently sensible. It is a practical approach as I have said a number of times already right across the board in this bill.I do just want to commend the Local Government and Environment Committee on its work and commend the Minister on bringing forward something that in a small way is going to help to bring some more resolution to homeowners in Christchurch who without doubt have been having all sorts of challenges over the last 5 or 6 years. This is a way that we can help them to put some things right. I commend this bill to the House.