Clark DavidDr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North): Markets make excellent servants and terrible masters. I want to say that why I support this amendment so strongly is that it is a way of ensuring that the market works in support of human aspirations and in terms of creating a livable environment for New Zealanders.Hon David Parker: An affordable one.Dr DAVID CLARK: An affordable one most importantly. That is I think also why the Government's approach can be described as so mistaken in opposing this change. I think the Government is opposed to any kind of planning. That is something that we fundamentally see over and over and over again from this Government—an approach opposing any kind of planning. I think it is on the mistaken understanding that business in New Zealand will not cope with change. When I talk to business people they tell me not that they do not want change but that they want a clear sense of direction of change. They want some certainty around what the future rules will be and what the future environment in which they will operate will look like. I think the same is true of people generally. We do not like change for change's sake but we do like to think that we would live in the optimal environment and have affordable housing in New Zealand. We in New Zealand do have some challenges. In Helsinki which is one of the great livable cities in my view the city council owns 65 percent of the land. When you own 65 percent of the land urban planning is pretty easy. It becomes a very simple thing to do. In New Zealand it is not true that the Auckland Council owns 65 percent of the land so we have a different proposition that we deal with here. What we do need to do is make sure that when we do have changes in terms of the urban boundary and so on there is real planning around what happens so that we get the best value for New Zealand citizens. In this policy which is represented in the amendment in David Parker's name that is before the Committee we are hoping that we will create an environment where there is more planning. The national policy statement on urban growth that is proposed in new section 46C(2) set out in clause 12 of new Part 6 must contain: (a) A prohibition on the use of urban boundaries within a regional district plan where official statistics predict there will population growth;" which suggests a way of doing planning that looks to where the growth is going to be and it makes sensible planning around it so that business and people and everybody can have an environment where we know what change is coming. What it will also do is give councils the opportunity to purchase land for future development at rural prices rather than having to buy off speculators and land bankers who have seen the changes ahead who have bought up the land and who then sell on to councils and other developers at extraordinary prices because they are making use of a system that is broken and that does not serve the citizenry properly but rather is tilted in favour of those land bankers and speculators in our housing market. It is not enough in my view for the council to progressively add more zoned land for development here and there on an ad hoc basis. That simply feeds the speculation that is out there already and it is—that speculation—the inevitable result of the existing status quo system for setting the boundaries. We need integrated transport and infrastructure planning and this particular change permits that to happen in a way that is good for the citizenry. It makes sure we have affordable new infrastructure affordable housing and livable cities in New Zealand. If New Zealand is going to be the kind of country that prospers in the future it has to be a place where talent wants to live. It has to be a place where talent can afford to live. So when we are talking about attracting overseas people with talents here when we have our own skills shortages to meet—we want to train New Zealand people but we also want to attract people—rather than presenting them with the most unaffordable housing market in the world where people overseas cannot even imagine coming to live in our biggest city this change that is proposed in this bill is one that I wholeheartedly support. I congratulate David Parker on putting this amendment forward. It is one that will make a real difference for our biggest city and could too I would suggest make a difference to other cities around New Zealand. Dr Megan Woods: Like Dunedin.Dr DAVID CLARK: Well Dunedin—I would like to talk about Dunedin. I would also like to talk about Queenstown. In Dunedin we have some serious infrastructure challenges born of a city that has been there obviously for some time."