Simpson ScottTHAMES-COROMANDEL DISTRICT COUNCIL AND HAURAKI DISTRICT COUNCIL MANGROVE MANAGEMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): I move That the Thames-Coromandel District Council and Hauraki District Council Mangrove Management Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Local Government and Environment Committee to consider the bill.Mangroves and their proliferation around the beautiful coastal shores and tidal estuaries of the Coromandel and the Firth of Thames have been the subject of much debate discussion deliberation and dithering over the last 20 years or so. It is with pleasure this evening that I rise as the member of Parliament for Coromandel as sponsor to introduce to the House this local bill on behalf of both the Hauraki District Council and the Thames-Coromandel District Council.The councils have not taken this step lightly. The two councils are predominantly rural and coastal in their character. Each council has a small ratepayer base which means limited resources are available to undertake all the functions required of local government. Both councils also have a ratepayer age demographic that is heavily skewed to those in the plus-65-year-old age group. Typically these are people who are often retired and living on fixed incomes which in turn only emphasises that every dollar taken in rates must be a dollar well and wisely spent on their behalf.This is a bill that provides for a public process allowing the two councils to develop an approved mangrove management plan. The councils are merely seeking the ability to create their own plans because the Waikato Regional Council has spectacularly failed over a long number of years to manage effectively or efficiently the vast proliferation of mangroves within the two councils' coastal boundaries. This failure has now so compromised the amenity quality of people's lives that it is at a point where something must be done. I congratulate the councils on taking this initiative and for boldly stepping up where the regional council has so obviously failed.This bill is not about why the mangroves are there or what has caused their proliferation or where they are. This is a bill merely about allowing the councils to develop their own mangrove management plan. Some years ago the Waikato Regional Council struck a special mangrove removal rate on properties at Whangamata. It has raised in that period of time something over $1.5 million but less than 10 percent of that $1.5 million has actually been spent on the physical management of mangroves. The vast bulk of that $1.5 million has been spent on lawyers consultants resource consents appeals the writing of reports and the review of those reports. No wonder the people of Whangamata want action and these councils—Hauraki and Thames-Coromandel—have via this bill found a way through the malaise.A streamlined cost-effective efficient community-based process is required to ensure the councils are mandated to implement a plan that reduces impediments to human amenity and allows access to improve recreational values. The district councils' desire to see limited resources more effectively utilised is at the core of this bill. The bill empowers each council to prepare a draft mangrove management plan in relation to the coastal area of its district to achieve and maintain acceptable levels of mangrove vegetation. This is not a bill that is aimed at removing or eradicating all mangroves—that is absolutely not the purpose. I know that there will be some who will criticise it as some kind of mangrove scorched earth policy; that simply is not the case. This is a bill to manage mangroves where they impede human amenity. Under the bill a draft plan would be approved through the special consultative process under section 83 of the Local Government Act 2002. The bill provides that the councils if they agree may prepared a mangrove management plan in a collaborative way including by adopting a single integrated plan for both districts should that prove to be a better and more efficient option. The plea that this bill makes is to give the responsible control and management of mangroves to the local communities that know and hold dear their harbours and tidal estuaries without the financial burden imposed by current processes.The lower Firth of Thames is an internationally significant tidal wetland protected by the Ramsar Convention and is an important wintering ground attracting thousands of Arctic nesting shorebirds such as the bar-tailed godwit and the red knot. The seaward advance of mangroves in that area since the 1940s has considerably reduced the feeding habitat available to the birds. Community concern about the impacts of mangroves dates from the early 2000s with notably the concerted effort since 2005 by citizens of the Whangamata community to address the spread of mangroves and to ensure the restoration of harbour amenity.People naturally think that mangrove management should not be that hard. To the south of my Coromandel electorate in and around Katikati Tanner's Point and Kauri Point in the Bay of Plenty Regional Council area they seem to be able to manage mangroves without any great issue. North of my electorate—Auckland City—seems to be similarly able to manage them. But throughout the Waikato Regional Council area there seems to have been no political or elected representative will to manage mangroves. It is as if the personal eco-political agendas of those involved have been allowed to get in the way of sensible prudent pragmatic management of an issue that on the face of it is so simple but one that has caused so much angst and heartache to say nothing of the costs to the citizens ratepayers and good people of the Hauraki and Thames-Coromandel districts.Mechanisms for allowing a transfer of authority under the Resource Management Act from regional to district councils do not adequately address the timing and resourcing concerns. The process undertaken so far under the Resource Management Act has been costly time-consuming and has simply not delivered outcomes. The Thames-Coromandel District Council has amongst all our local authorities around New Zealand the largest proportion of absentee ratepayers. Many of these visitors together with the resident population enjoy the amenity both ecological and recreational offered by the peninsula's various harbours and estuaries. They are indeed a key feature that gives the district its distinct character. This bill is asking the House to let the engaged communities of Thames-Coromandel and Hauraki look after their special harbour and estuarine areas without the burden of excessive process and regulatory costs. In conclusion I want to acknowledge with thanks the Thames-Coromandel and Hauraki district council officers the mayors Sandra Goudie and John Tregidga the local communities and citizens of Thames-Coromandel and Hauraki for their relentless focus in mangrove management issues. This is a simple local bill being promoted by two hard-working and caring local district councils frustrated by years of inaction at a regional level. I am very pleased as the local member of Coromandel to be able to sponsor this bill into the House this evening and I commend it to members for their favourable consideration and support.