Hawkins George: Resource Management (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Bill — Procedure Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Hawkins George: Resource Management (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Bill — Procedure Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:657;Page:6191] 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS (Labour—Manurewa) 
: 
 I will begin by saying that I think the Resource Management Act has been a very good Act. It is very easy to find examples of where things have not gone right. One can always dig those up. The Resource Management (Simplifying and Streamlining) Amendment Bill has to make sure that red tape is cut. However will it work? I think we have to look at the situation as it is. People came to the select committee hearing and made their submissions with passion. I was disappointed that I was not able to sit on the committee very often because I was on the Auckland Governance Legislation Committee that was sitting at the same time dealing with Auckland issues. 
I want to talk about what is going on in Manurewa in regard to this bill. If someone wants to build one of these things called a bloke’s shed and it happens to be going up against the boundary that person will run into real conflict. The resource consent cannot be gained very easily. I understand that and I want to see things change. The reality is that the people who administer the Act at the moment are the same ones who will be in charge of this new Act once it passes through the House. We have to change those people and I think that is the real problem. We have to change the way these people see things. When someone asks to have a bloke’s shed built on the back of his or her section up against the neighbour’s property these guys see that there is at least 3 months’ work in it for them. Of course it is not made easy. I hope that these things will change quite considerably. I think the Act itself has been fairly important in terms of making sure that developers do not run roughshod over the assets of a community. The environment is very very important. 
I want to tell members about a situation in Weymouth. Two macrocarpa trees are growing right on the boundary of someone’s place. They are not beautiful trees and the next-door neighbour wants to get rid of them because they are blocking the light and making the property damp. But the person who lives about eight houses down the road thinks they look pretty good and then the debate starts and the council ends up taking sides. I do not want this bill that is before us now to start a chainsaw massacre. 
Chris Auchinvole 
: It won’t George; it won’t. 
Hon GEORGE HAWKINS 
: I think it very well could and I think we have to be careful about that. When we see how some people in Auckland will do anything to clear a bit of land to build on we have to be very careful. Auckland is even better than Christchurch as far as a city with trees goes. There are some wonderful places in Auckland. But people get passionate. Remember One Tree Hill when it used to have a tree? People became very emotional when the tree was cut down. Aucklanders love their trees. Of course we would be remiss if we did not make sure that people cannot go out there and just chop down the tree. We cannot say to people: “Well that tree has been there for the last 100 years. It’s going to stay.” and have them reply: “No it’s not. I’m going to chop it down. It’s my tree.” We most certainly do not want that to happen. 
It is interesting that at the moment the chief executive of the local council has more say over the tree than the person who owns the land that the tree is on. However there are people in our community who are not responsible who do not care what their neighbours think and who do not care what the wider community thinks. We do not want to let them get their chainsaws out and hack down every tree because they do not like them. Councils are notorious for putting so much red tape in the way of people. I have a case in Manurewa at the moment. It took the council 26 years to notify a person that a fence was the wrong size.