Williams Poto: Greater Christchurch Regeneration Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWilliams Poto: Greater Christchurch Regeneration Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 22 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7533. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]POTO WILLIAMS (Labour—Christchurch East): Kia orana Mr Deputy Speaker. Greetings to everyone in Christchurch and particularly those in Christchurch East who I know will be listening—Grant Robertson: Who’s the MP there?POTO WILLIAMS: —I do not know; perhaps it is me—with great interest because we all know that the Greater Christchurch Regeneration Bill is an opportunity for us to transition from what has been to what could be. I want to spend a few minutes just reflecting not only on those who lost their lives but also on those who lost their homes those who lost their communities and those families who were displaced by the effects not only of the earthquake sequence but of what happened post-earthquake with regard to the red zoning of the land—people having to move from communities they have lived in for a long time and the disruption that has happened in our communities which will change not only their lives but our lives forever.I want to say that I am concerned that the regeneration plan the transition plan misses out some significant voices. It misses out the voices of our children who will be the people who take over the city in its new and shiny form once we have regenerated it. It misses out the voices of our communities and it misses out the voices of those who are most impacted. I urge the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery to reconsider the opportunity for our community voices to be heard during this process by extending the process to include those voices. I am concerned about the powers that the Minister does hold in this transition phase. The people of Christchurch are not being given the opportunity to take the power back into their hands. There is no doubt that the transition is required and that we cannot move from one organisation one entity one phase to another without a transition plan and without good thinking around that. However 5 years is 5 years too long. We have good people in our city who can do this work and should be charged with taking care of their own and should have the power to do that.I am concerned that the Minister has the ability to change plans that have already been set in place plans that have been consulted on with the community and plans that make sense to people who live in the city. I am concerned that the Minister also has the ability to acquire land and to set the compensation that may be offered to people who currently own that land. I remind the Minister that there are still some very disaffected people like the Quake Outcasts in the eastern suburbs of Christchurch where a decision that was made in the High Court has not been honoured by the Minister. I am concerned about the ability to dismantle the Resource Management Act. The Minister has the ability to change what is a very very good document and I am concerned that the appeal rights with regard to the Resource Management Act have to go to the High Court instead of going through the Environment Court. We have the ability to take evidence and to hear evidence.I am concerned that the select committee is going to take evidence complete its deliberations by the end of the year and that the report-back date is February. I completely concur with Megan Woods—it is a sensible idea to ensure that everybody has the opportunity to present to the select committee and the process should be extended out to March. There will be lots of people who want to have their say. There have been decisions made by this Government throughout the last 5 years that have impacted on the way people have lived their lives because they have not had the ability to have their say—or if they have had their say it has been disregarded. I am talking about the thousands of people who had to leave their homes when their homes their land and their properties were red zoned. Minister Brownlee I just want to remind you of the distress that is caused to people when they have to leave a place that they love behind. With regard to these processes please take full regard of the fact that our communities want to have a say and want their voices to be heard. What is the input for our community? We would really love for you Minister to spell out how they can be engaged in this and that you will give them the full regard that they deserve.This plan should not be about just regeneration. It should be about aspiration. It should be about a city that we want to create together for the people who will live there not only now but in the future. It should be about putting behind us the physical hurts the emotional hurts and the trauma and coming out of this process with something that is better than we currently have.I want to speak particularly about what is happening in the New Brighton area and I pay tribute to our local elected members and our mayor and councillors for their encouragement and I guess advocacy to ensure that New Brighton is part of the regeneration plan. If any of you have the opportunity to come to Christchurch I urge you to come to New Brighton to see what remains to be done. It is a very very visible representation of what has not been achieved in our city. I urge you to come. I urge you to see what still needs to be done. So I am encouraged Minister to see that New Brighton is part of the regeneration plan. It has its own specific area. One point though that I am concerned about is that the area does include the Rāwhiti Domain and what that may mean for that domain.Kris Faafoi: Talk about the golf course.POTO WILLIAMS: The golf course is actually excluded from that.Kris Faafoi: Oh thank you. I just wanted to be sure.POTO WILLIAMS: That is all right. When we look at the area that in schedule 4 outlines New Brighton included as the Rāwhiti Domain—I am sorry there you go Mr Faafoi. The Rāwhiti golf links is—Kris Faafoi: It is a public golf course.POTO WILLIAMS: It is a public course yes. It is not part of New Brighton apparently according to schedule 4. But what is included is the mall. What is included is a small area at the southern end of New Brighton which really is the heart of the revitalisation of our area.If we get this right in New Brighton it has the opportunity to lift the eastern suburb to be the gem of Christchurch as those of who live there actually know that it is. We love the New Brighton mall but I urge this Government to recognise that there has been significant work done on the revitalisation of New Brighton in terms of the master planning. Mrs Hayes mentioned Paul Zaanen who is part of a wider New Brighton conglomerate of groups such as the New Brighton projects Renew Brighton and the Strategic Urban Rejuvenation Force which have done an extraordinary amount of work to ensure that the plans for New Brighton include that the New Brighton master plan as devised by council has been consulted widely with our community. The vital piece that has always been missing from the revitalisation of New Brighton has been central government. I am heartened to see that New Brighton is part of this regeneration plan. I urge you to listen to the voices of local people. Please do not mess this up. New Brighton deserves much better than it currently has. I commend this bill. We will be watching it with great interest. I encourage you Mr Brownlee as Minister to sit in on as many of the hearings as you can to hear the voices directly from the people. Thank you.