Dean Jacqui: Riccarton Bush Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Dean Jacqui: Riccarton Bush Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 17 October 2012. Volume:684;Page:5926. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki) 
: 
 I am very happy to rise in support of the Riccarton Bush Amendment Bill at its second reading and congratulate the Hon Gerry Brownlee on his second reading speech. It was good to be reminded of the importance of the Deans family—not the Dean family—to Canterbury and Christchurch and to be reminded of the rich history and the generosity of the Deans family to the people of Canterbury and to New Zealand. I have a family member who lives on Kahu Road in Christchurch and so I often when I can go past Deans Bush. It is a beautiful place in the middle of Christchurch and so it is with great pleasure that I am speaking today on this amendment bill. It is special. My colleague Maggie Barry is going to be speaking later in this debate and I do hope she touches on some of the special botanical features of Deans Bush. In particular we know that it is a kahikatea flood plain forest. To me that means something; it means kahikatea which I know to be rather beautiful but that is it—that is all I know. So I am looking forward to Maggie Barry’s contribution later in this debate as it will indeed round out the knowledge of this House of this Riccarton Bush Amendment Bill. 
The purpose of this bill—it is always good to get around to the purpose of the bill—is to modernise and update the governance arrangements of the board that administers Riccarton Bush and Riccarton House and they are known as the Riccarton Bush Trustees. The purpose of this bill is to provide a better definition of to better define the board’s functions—which is very important—to provide for the continuation of its work so that it can continue doing its work but also to make provision for better definition and enhancement of its finance and administration functions. It also vests with the board the land at 30 Kahu Road in Christchurch so that is part of the purpose of the bill. 
What the bill does is it amends the Riccarton Bush Act of 1914 the Riccarton Bush Amendment Act of 1947 and the Riccarton Bush Amendment Act of 1949—here we are in 2012 having another crack at it. I understand that the trustees are not finished and would like some further work and that might come to the House at another time. 
The Deans family were the first European settlers on the Canterbury Plains in 1843. Riccarton House which is a wonderful old building is a grand—and it is grand—Victorian-Edwardian homestead that was built in stages between 1856 and 1900. Subsequent to the Christchurch earthquakes those buildings have become even more precious to the people of Canterbury and to New Zealand. It was about that time that settlement also occurred in the town I live in Oamaru. My town luckily has missed most of the impacts of the Canterbury earthquakes that have blighted Christchurch and the people of Christchurch. I think the people of Oamaru are very well aware of the importance of these buildings to Christchurch and are very supportive of every effort to rehabilitate those buildings that can be rehabilitated. 
The 15 acres of Riccarton Bush were gifted by the Deans family—a significant gift—to the people of Canterbury. That happened in 1914 and the Riccarton Bush Act of 1914 was passed by Parliament to provide for the preservation and management of the property. At that time the board was constituted to become the controlling body of that gift by the Deans family to the people of Christchurch. Then in 1947 the Christchurch City Council the Waimairi County Council the Heathcote County Council the Paparua County Council and the borough of Riccarton joined together to purchase Riccarton House. Thank goodness for local government amalgamations I say. They are much more efficient. So they banded together to purchase Riccarton House and the associated grounds from the Deans family to add to the original gift from the Deans family. 
The Local Government and Environment Committee considered this bill as with the previous member’s bill. There was not terribly much dissension amongst the committee. We had a look at this bill and I guess we will talk about the amendments made when we get to the Committee stage. But we did recommend some amendments to clause 2(1) and to proposed section 23(7) set out in clause 10 by extending the date on which clause 16 would come into force and that is around the provision of the first financial plan from 2013 to 2015. Of course as previous speakers have noted that takes into account the time frames which have now been extended because of the Canterbury earthquakes. We also recommended amendments to proposed section 23 to provide for the event that the council does not approve the board’s draft financial plan. 
The Riccarton Bush Amendment Bill at its second reading is getting a thorough going-over in this House and so it should because it is a bill and a matter that is very important to the people of Canterbury and also to the Christchurch City Council. I recommend it to the House.