Mackey Moana: Gisborne District Council (Alfred Cox Park)  Validation Bill — Second Reading 
Mackey Moana: Gisborne District Council (Alfred Cox Park)  Validation Bill — Second Reading 
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MOANA MACKEY (Labour) 
: 
 I am very pleased to take a call on behalf of the Government on the Gisborne District Council (Alfred Cox Park) Validation Bill which of course was introduced by my mother. I thank the member Anne Tolley who has just taken her seat for her stewardship of the bill through the House currently. I agree that it is disappointing we cannot get the bill through all stages in the House tonight and I assure the Gisborne District Council that it was not the Labour Party that had any opposition to that. 
The bill has been a very long time coming around and the reasons for that are many and varied. The council worked very hard on getting its bill prepared. When it had finally managed to get it completed it brought it to the House and submitted it to the Clerk but it was told that the rules had changed so it then needed to go back and rewrite the bill. But here we are! 
I thank the select committee for its work on this bill. I know that there was a little bit of consternation within the council that some of the changes made might not be necessary and that the council felt that validating legislation was not needed to correct the area of reclassification but from my reading of the situation I believe the select committee has taken good advice and I am sure the Gisborne District Council and the users of Alfred Cox Park will be well served by this bill. 
Alfred Cox Park is a reserve under the Reserves Act of 1977 and it was classified as a recreation reserve in 1985. When the area where the park is now was gifted to the council by Mr Cox it was stated that only buildings for the entertainment convenience and amusement of the public or other buildings of a civic nature should be erected on the land. I know that when lawyers become involved matters become very complicated but I can assure members that the buildings and the activities carried out on that land are very much of a community nature. 
It is true that we have a visitor information centre and that commercial activities are carried out on that site but those commercial activities are fundamental to the people of Gisborne and to our community. In that respect I urge members to see that even though there may be some financial transactions involved in shopping at flea markets playing mini putt and catching a bus on holidays those are very much part of the lifestyle of “Gisbornites” and I ask members to respect that accordingly. 
It is very amusing—I used to get the bus to university and back and I would be picked up and dropped off at Alfred Cox Park eight to 10 times a year. I never realised that I was aiding and abetting a criminal activity—and doing so repeatedly. I did not know that when my parents took me to play mini golf as a child—with my father hoping I would be the next Tiger Woods and being inevitably disappointed—that again I was aiding and abetting a criminal activity. I am pleased that Ron Mark’s bill in relation to the age of criminal responsibility was not enacted at that time because at the age of 10 I could have been facing some long time in a minimum security penitentiary for recidivist offending by carrying out financial transactions against the law. I am just pleased that Mr Mark was not around at that time. 
In all seriousness though it seems as if this is a trivial bill but it is not. It goes to the heart of many of the things we do in Gisborne that are important to us. As members know flea markets in most areas but especially in provincial areas are an incredibly important part of our community. We all go down to the flea market and buy our veggies and we meet people there whom we only ever see at the market. That is important and no one ever intended that that market would be contrary to the law. 
The visitor information centre is also an important part of our community not just because it brings in tourists and provides economic development in an area that relies very heavily on tourism but also because of many of the other activities that go on there to build up our regional identity in Gisborne and the East Coast. It is impossible to move that information centre and I doubt very much we would be able to find any land now within the Gisborne district that would be appropriate for an information centre even if we did decide to make the monumental decision to shift a huge centre like that. 
This park has been part of our community for a long time and part of my life for a long time. I played mini golf there many many times as a child. I have been to flea markets—the Labour Party has had flea market stalls there for as long as I can remember. I ask members to vote accordingly and to support the Gisborne District Council (Alfred Cox Park) Validation Bill 2005. Let us hope that we can get the bill through the House in a speedy fashion.