Whaitiri MekaMEKA WHAITIRI (Labour—Ikaroa-Rāwhiti): E Te Māngai o Te Whare tēnā koe. Otirā e ngā mema o Te Whare nei tēnā tātou katoa. I am pleased to take a call on the second reading of the Resource Legislation Amendment Bill. It has been almost 2 weeks since I have been in this House and there has been a lot that has happened. If I can ask for your indulgence Mr Deputy Speaker I just want to acknowledge the victims of flooding particularly the chairman of our Local Government and Environment Committee Scott Simpson in terms of the Coromandel and those in west Auckland. My thoughts are with those communities particularly our families that do not have insurance. Can I just put that on record. Secondly can I just acknowledge the successful hosting of the largest cultural event in New Zealand Matatini in my area of Kahungunu. I just want to acknowledge Ngāti Kahungunu's hosting of the many kapas that came and also acknowledge the overall winner Whangarā Mai Tawhiti which obviously comes from my electorate.This bill is flawed and I want to use the time in this contribution not to repeat what my colleague the Hon David Parker has said but to talk about the process—to talk about the shambolic process this particular bill has gone through—which has led us to have these grave concerns about whether this bill actually meets the undefined problem that the Minister is talking about and that is a lack of housing up in the Auckland area. Can I just put on record that this bill was referred to the select committee in December 2015. Clearly we were going to rise about a week later. We heard 210 submissions throughout the country. About 2 June 2016 which is approximately 4 months later hearings were completed. If you think about it that is 4 months of hearing over 210 submissions.Then we had a departmental report which was delayed month by month and it received two extensions from the Business Committee. The select committee members were told that one of the reasons why we were constantly pushing out the report-back date was that Cabinet had not signed off the proposed changes. That tells me that in the National Government's own caucus there were real concerns around this particular bill. Although not confirmed I think the delays were because the Government did not have the numbers to pass it through the House even though it had the numbers at the select committee.Then we go on to 2 November 2016 and we had the second stage departmental report presented to the select committee with some 400 pages. Because of the time delay members were unable or unwilling to make changes. So throughout the 400 pages that we had at the select committee we listened to what submitters said. We were active members of that select committee to make the changes submitters had shared with us time and time and time again.Then on 9 November we heard the Māori Party had cut a deal with the National Party and it said that it was going to support the bill. The reason why it gave its support was apparently because of iwi engagement plans—iwi engagement plans. The co-leader Marama Fox the member who just resumed her seat talked about the importance of iwi being engaged. I want to put on record that we currently have 124—124—iwi and hapū co-governance arrangements with councils as a result of Treaty settlements. Before this piece of reform 124 existed. I do not want people to feel that this is going to be the silver bullet that gets iwi to the table. It is currently there in our Treaty settlements—124.There was a concerted effort by many to ask the Māori Party to withdraw its support. In fact over the February break this year at Te Rā o Te Raukura talking to many of the Māori Party supporters they were unaware that a 3-minute video had been put together by—hold on Mr Deputy Speaker—the chairman of Ngāti Kahungunu Ngāhiwi Tomoana and the former captain of the All Blacks Taine Randell who is now a director on the Ngāti Kahungunu asset holding company. We had the mayor who is actually a National Party candidate Lawrence Yule. We also had growers and agricultural people. We had representatives at council level who participated in this video. Why Mr Deputy Speaker? Because they realised that the Government was not listening to them. Their video—3 minutes—which is up online and anyone can google it was aimed at the Māori Party asking the Māori Party to withdraw its support.So this is the process; 14 months later it comes back here. There was a huge disagreement in the select committee because apparently the Government Ministers would not allow us to report back with our minority report. So it came back to this House without a report. I think that is shambolic and it calls into question the sanctity of the select committee process to ensure that we are making good sound decisions around legislation that we present back in the House. On this particular occasion I do not believe that was followed—I do not believe that. For 14 months we to-ed and fro-ed—all sorts of things were happening—and of course at the end of the day the people whom I represent in Hawke's Bay have already made a delegation.I want to just touch briefly on new section 360D inserted by clause 105. I want to share what submitters said in relation to new section 360D in terms of the broad powers given to the Minister. Here is one quote: I recommend that the broad powers that would be given to the Minister under section 360D(1)(a) (b) and (c) not proceed." Who wrote that? That is from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. Here is another one: "The new regulation making powers are far-reaching and HBRC and LFNZ have concerns at several levels including: (i) the extensive use of regulations … (ii) the use of regulations imposed by central Government … (iii) the uncertainty as to what the regulations may contain; and (iv) the uncertain status of Ministerial policy statements…" Who wrote that? Hawke's Bay Regional Council. Here is another one which says: "We submit that 360D be deleted from the Bill on the basis that: The proposed regulatory powers are an excessive grant of power to a minister". Who wrote that? Pure Hawke's Bay. Here is another one: "The Council supports a number of the changes proposed through the Amendment Bill but is concerned that there are other aspects that may result in communities being less able to self-determine environmental outcomes which is currently a central premise both for the Council and in the Resource Management Act 1991." That is from Hastings District Council.Again going back to the Māori Party co-leader around these hapū and the gains that they have received for Māori and hapū around here there are existing gains that I mentioned early on—the 124. One of them is actually in my own electorate of Hawke's Bay. This again is from the Hawke's Bay Regional Council which notes: "Lastly with the recent enactment of the Hawke's Bay Regional Planning Committee Act (HBRPC) 2015 it is important that the RLA Bill and any amendments made to it (including changes sought by Local Government New Zealand) must not supplant compromise or weaken this legislation. The HBRPC Act has resulted in fundamental and positive changes to the way in which HBRC operates and works with tāngata whenua. Vitally it was an agreed part of the treaty settlement negotiations with nine treaty settlement entities." I hope that proves that there is wide-ranging opposition to new section 360D particularly from growers councillors and iwi in the electorate that I represent particularly in the Hawke's Bay area.I put this to the Minister for the Environment: there has been no business case presented that says the Resource Management Act (RMA) is the cause of the housing crisis suffered around this country. There is no business case that the housing crisis requires the Minister to have broad powers to override local plans which is what this bill is doing. This is what this bill is doing. It is giving the Minister broad powers to override local plans and that is why Labour cannot support this.It was interesting too that the Minister talked about Labour's lack of long-term planning when it comes to housing. Let me make it really clear Mr Smith: Labour will build 100000 affordable homes we will address speculators in the market and we will provide 5100 extra emergency beds. That is what I call a comprehensive housing plan not this dithering around with the RMA which is there to protect our environment. Kia ora tātou."