Tremain Chris: Walking Access Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Tremain Chris: Walking Access Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 23 September 2008. Volume:650;Page:19091. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
CHRIS TREMAIN (National—Napier) 
: 
 I rise to take a call in the Committee stage of the Walking Access Bill. It is a bill that sets out what I believe is the inalienable right of Kiwis to access key parts of New Zealand: our lakes our rivers our seas and our mountains. That right represents who we are and provides us with part of our identity as New Zealanders. Nowhere do we find that to be more so than when we look at Maori who on entering a marae or any meeting place will conduct a mihi and within that mihi they will whakapapa back to their maunga their awa and their beach.  
In my own mihi I say “Ko Tutaekuri toku awa.” and I relate back to the Tutaekuri River at the bottom of Taradale. I say “Ko Otatara toku maunga.” Otatara is the mountain the maunga just behind Taradale to which I personally relate. And I say “Ko Waipatiki toku one ki te tai Tokerau.” Waipatiki Beach north of Napier is the beach that my family particularly relates to. I think this bill is immensely important to all New Zealanders as we increasingly through the generations relate back to the land and what that land means to us as Kiwis. I can certainly say that when one is sitting in a pub on an overseas journey and thinking about New Zealand one thinks back to the mountains the lakes the sea and the rivers around the place where one grew up.  
Part 1 “Preliminary provisions” sets out the purpose of the bill which is to give us the ability to continue to have access to those important areas. Clause 3(a) states that the purpose of the legislation is “to provide the New Zealand public with free certain enduring and practical walking access to the outdoors (including around the coast and lakes along rivers and to public resources) so that the public can enjoy the outdoors;”.  
I will take up a point made by my senior colleague Nick Smith who talked about his electorate and some of the issues he has had within it with regard to accessing areas such as the ones he was speaking about tonight. In Hawke’s Bay we have not had such issues but I think about some of the wonderful aspects of Hawke’s Bay where the public want to get access—particularly in the area where my new electorate which I will be standing for at the upcoming election has grown to. The Napier electorate boundary has now moved north to include Mahia and Mahanga Beach but it also includes Lake Waikaremoana. If there is a more amazing walk in the North Island of New Zealand than the one at Lake Waikaremoana then I am yet to find it. The public access to that lake is at this point in time quite accessible through certain entry points and it will remain that way. I certainly have not had any complaints about the access to the lake.  
As we move down through Hawke’s Bay to Mahia and some of the amazing beaches that are there we find the access to those beaches is an inalienable right and people have that access. We have not had any complaints about access there. If we go down to the beautiful Mohaka River which wends its way through the province of Hawke’s Bay we find there is amazing trout fishing and white-water rafting. There is access to that river along the waterway and I have not had any complaints in that regard from the public either. Moving down to Waipatiki Beach and various other beaches we find there are no real issues there in terms of access for the public which is good.  
On moving out of the electorate and further south of Napier we are in Craig Foss’s electorate of Tukituki an electorate I am confident he is going to do well in at the next election. If we think about Tukituki we realise there are a number of potential issues around the subdivision of Ocean Beach and also around access to Cape Kidnappers. Access is currently available along the beach the land above which is currently owned by the very well-to-do Julian Robertson who has developed the cape and is turning it into an amazing wildlife sanctuary. That will do amazing things for Havelock North and for the wider native bird community. But I guess over time people may want access to that area and there could be issues around the fact that it is private land now.  
But those are examples of people who are prepared to negotiate access and that is the experience that the National Party has had. That is why we have reached a good position with the removal of clause 3(b) which originally stated that a purpose of the legislation was “to provide for walkways to be declared over public and private land:” There were always going to be issues there in terms of property rights with the Government coming along putting its foot down and saying it would allow people to get across private land when it is our experience on many occasions that where people want to get access most farmers or people who own private land are happy to work with the public to provide access in one way shape or form. They do not want to allow carte blanche access without their knowledge to various lakes and rivers but they will certainly work in conjunction with the community to provide access.  
I think this is a good bill. The National Party will be supporting it through the Committee stage and through the next reading. I think the purpose clause outlines an excellent way in which we can work towards improving the access to our lakes to our rivers to the seashore and to our mountains. Thank you Mr Chair.