Goldsmith Paul: Mount Maunganui Borough Reclamation and Empowering Act Repeal Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Goldsmith Paul: Mount Maunganui Borough Reclamation and Empowering Act Repeal Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 17 October 2012. Volume:684;Page:5921. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
PAUL GOLDSMITH (National) 
: 
 It is my pleasure to also talk on this bill the Mount Maunganui Borough Reclamation and Empowering Act Repeal Bill. I do want to start by paying tribute also to the work of Nicky Wagner as the chair of the Local Government and Environment Committee. I was very pleased and heartened to hear the comments of our colleague Annette King about how useful and effective Nicky Wagner has been as chair and that has certainly been my experience over the last year on the committee. We have steered a careful course in a committee where the Government has no clear majority and have got through in a spirit of collegiality and all working for the best of the country. 
I want to talk about the local member Simon Bridges as well. Indeed I was with Mr Bridges on Monday this week and we had the opportunity to go for a run around Mount Maunganui which is a beautiful part of New Zealand. Notwithstanding the fact that he looks quite pudgy Simon Bridges is quite a fast runner and quite fit and it was quite a challenge for me. But he is a very effective local MP and a very effective contributor to this part of the country. I was in Mount Maunganui to have the opportunity to talk to a large and boisterous crowd about the progress the Government is making. I touched upon issues of welfare reform being one of the most essential elements of this Government’s programme for the 3 years and how important it is for New Zealanders to get some boundaries round that system. I recall that back in 1938 when Michael Joseph Savage introduced welfare to New Zealand he promised that he would end poverty and that it would bring about the kingdom of God on earth. We have not quite reached those goals yet and it is important that this Government does for the first time in many decades bring some careful consideration to that broader system that is so important to the lives of many New Zealanders. 
I also talked about how in the dangerous and difficult world that we find ourselves in—the difficult financial situation—this Government is making great progress steering a careful path returning us back to surplus and governing this country’s economic services in a very effective manner. With that as by way of introduction I want to get on to the main point of this bill here which is the Local Government and Environment Committee’s having sent back to the House for its second reading this Mount Maunganui Borough Reclamation and Empowering Act Repeal Bill. 
We have heard but I just would like to reiterate that the bill seeks to repeal the Mount Maunganui Borough Reclamation and Empowering Act 1975 which gave the Bay of Plenty Harbour Board the authority to transfer part of the seabed of Tauranga Harbour to the Mount Maunganui Borough Council and authorised the council to undertake reclamation of that part of the harbour for sewerage and other municipal purposes. This is always a very difficult issue for councils around the country—balancing the need to have a cost-effective system with the need to preserve the environment. Many councils struggle with this. This council struggled with it and we had legislation to get us through and thankfully a number of years later the council reclaimed less than half the available area and the authority to undertake reclamation of the balance was revoked by the enactment of the Foreshore and Seabed Endowment Revesting Act of 1991. Really the upshot of that was that the Mount Maunganui Borough Reclamation and Empowering Act had no substantive legal effect. Nevertheless it is worth repealing this Act because it is useful to tidy up the statute book and the symbolism is important because this has been a source of grievance for the local Nga Potiki people. It has been something that has irritated people and sat on the statute book there in a way that they found difficult. So this bill repeals that Act and the Government of which I am very proud to be a member is supporting this bill. 
I think the main thing that the bill reiterates to me is that it demonstrates the way that this Government has been very effective in its coalition arrangements and in working effectively with the Maori Party on a number of issues. It has all been about working together so that we can have a coherent and stable Government doing the best for New Zealand in difficult times economically. The results speak for themselves when we cast our minds around the world and look at most of the developing world which is struggling under a lack of negative growth high inflation and watering of the milk with quantitative easing. New Zealand is continuing to have growth over these last few years effectively and that all comes down to the sensible considered and logical settings that have been delivered to this country through Bill English John Key and this National Government. With that in mind I will be very happy to support this bill and commend it to the House. Thank you.