Woolerton R Doug: Walking Access Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Woolerton R Doug: Walking Access Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:650;Page:19212] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 Firstly I want to congratulate the Minister in charge of the bill Damien O’Connor and his officials whom I know to be good practical people not carried away with ideology and working in dreamtime. I congratulate him on bringing together a bill that even Opposition members say is sensible and workable. I acknowledge also Mr Eric Roy who worked over many years to bring a bill like this to fruition and the other people who have worked on it including I might add Mr Bryce Johnson of the New Zealand Fish and Game Council. 
We in New Zealand First believe that the enviable lifestyle New Zealanders see as their right should be preserved. I said in the opening speeches that I have a brother who has a farm under family ownership just him and his son that covers 10 farms which was the norm when I was a—well I am still a reasonably young man—younger man. Things are changing out there in the rural community. The days have gone when people could go to several farmers down one road and if access was refused to a river stream or lake for some reason or another they could go to the next farmer to get access. Those days have gone because in many cases a number of farms are covered by one owner and it could be an owner who does not live anywhere near the property—which is not my brother’s case I hasten to add. 
When we look at private rights—and I know I am going to get picked up for this—it is a fact that we must also look at public rights. We must look to where many of us came from and we do not want to go back there. We must not go back and we cannot go back to the days of grace and favour where those in an enviable position or who were wealthy or were huge landowners gave their favour to people to go on to their land or whatever. I for one—and I am moving a little bit ahead of my caucus and I acknowledge that and I am also moving ahead of this bill—look forward to the day and I think we will get there when access is given to iconic places around New Zealand that are registered surveyed and marked with its own rights and with relevant trespass provisions and rules on what people can do and carry on those access ways. I think that we will get there but I am not whipping the cat over that. This is an amazing first start which is why I congratulated the Minister in my first speech. 
I acknowledge the former deputy mayor of Hamilton Martin Gallagher who fought long and hard in quite an acrimonious atmosphere to have public access around one of the very few waterways we actually enjoy in Hamilton. If members wants to have a laugh that is OK but we have a peat lake in Hamilton which we are pretty proud of are we not Mr Gallagher? He fought to have a walkway. Even today there are a couple of places where agreement could not be reached and the wooden walkway actually extends out on to the waterway and then comes back on to land. I do not know of any problems surrounding that. I do not think the burglary rate has increased. I do not think those local people suffer any problems because that walkway is there. But what I do know and what is important as far as this bill is concerned is that thousands upon thousands of Hamiltonians walk around that lake and enjoy that lake which they could not do so before. 
That is the case here. It is not about arguing about private property rights. It is about—and this bill sets up the New Zealand Walking Access Commission—reaching agreement in a modern world so that the increasing urban society and the decreasing rural society in this country can both reach their mutual aims. It is not about one group being pitted against the other. I am sad if some people tend to see it that way. I think we should look on these things as a modern approach to something that in the past was taken for granted when our population was far more biased towards the rural environment and our population was far smaller. A bill such as this was simply not needed in those days but just because it was not needed then does not mean to say that it is not needed now. So that is where I would like to see it go to. 
I think that there is little danger that this will turn into a bureaucracy. Mr Roy said it is a bit light on saying who will go on the Walking Access Commission but I would like to say from my farming experience that I have confidence that they will be practical people versed in the ways of the community that they serve and who have the common interest at heart. I am keen to see boards be it Department of Conservation or any other board around the country taking a closer interest in the people who will be on the commission whether they be from fish and game forest and bird whether they are hunters and that sort of thing and to encourage those sorts of people to be on the commission so that there is a wider perspective. It is not just about conservation it is not just about hunters; it is about serving the needs of our community in the widest possible sense. We believe this bill goes a huge way towards that. 
We had critics in my own caucus who raised the sorts of questions that are being raised here but this bill—as we went through it—satisfied them that this actually was a modern way forward and something that was absolutely necessary. This is the last speech New Zealand First intends to make on this bill. We heartily applaud this bill and look forward to supporting it into law.