Prosser Richard: Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeProsser Richard: Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 01 July 2015. Volume:706;Page:5006. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RICHARD PROSSER (NZ First): I rise to take a brief call in this Committee of the whole House as we debate the Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill. It is a brief call because in a material sense not a whole lot has changed since we debated the bill at its second reading. During that debate I gave notice that New Zealand First would be seeking to have the bill either withdrawn or sent back to the Primary Production Committee for re-examination in the light of what is effectively a new age since it was first introduced to the House. New Zealand First opposes this bill but we might be persuaded to support it if it were returned to the select committee where it might be able to be refurbished as it were in line with everything that has changed since the 49th Parliament first considered it back in 2009.I say that because as it stands this bill is simply a mess. I go back to what the Hon Dr Richard Worth said about it during the first reading on 5 March 2009: “This bill has no fewer than 58 clauses covering 17 items.” Well it did but it does not now. I look at the Supplementary Order Papers relating to it. Of the two that have survived between them they cover no fewer than 21 of those clauses which are variously amended or deleted altogether. And there will be more. Of that we can be quite certain. Even with the Supplementary Order Papers as they are laid out passing this bill in its present form—after the passage of so many years with the loss of all the institutional knowledge and memory of all the fine members who were on that original select committee who have now long since departed this House—will cause only as many problems as it solves. When I suggested during the second reading that the bill be withdrawn on the grounds that there was nothing so pressing as to require its passing given the lack of priority that has been afforded it over these past 6 years that drew the ire of some of the members from the Government side who proclaimed rather indignantly that it was important for the people whose lives it had the potential to affect. Mr Parker obviously touched on that.Well that may be so but obviously it is not so important to the Government that it has been bothered to do anything about it for the equivalent of two entire terms of Parliament. Now that it is finally going to do something it is a safe bet—15 will get you 20—that they are going to get it wrong. I say that because of the sheer number of inconsistencies with existing legislation as it has evolved over the years that this bill has languished on the backburner. Some of them we examined earlier; some are addressed by the Supplementary Order Papers that we have before us. I say again that there are going to be more. I say to the House: send this bill back to the select committee and let us make sure that we have everything right before we pass it into law and then discover all of the things that remain wrong with it because when that happens we will be revisiting it again anyway.I say to the House: is it not more sensible and a better use of the taxpayers’ coin—better in the long run for the people whose lives are going to be affected by it—to get it right once and for all rather than to just close our eyes and press the button and hope knowing that in all probability there will be issues still unresolved and problems unsolved and things left uncorrected in what is now a rather tatty and outdated bill? Actually my erstwhile colleague the Hon Damien O’Connor is the last man standing from the Primary Production Committee of the 49th Parliament which has brought us this far essentially. Everybody else who has had input into this bill is gone. Their knowledge their memory is not available to us.In previous elements of this debate we have touched on the Auckland Art Gallery and the volcanic cones the Lookout Point Reserve in Ōāmaru the Dunedin Octagon the Port Chalmers Bowling Club and the Otago Aero Club. These new Supplementary Order Papers include matters pertaining to the Wairau Hospital site east end the Marlborough District Picton office land the Māhinepua Bay reserve some other reserve land in the Far North District near Ōpua and the Waikumete Cemetery in west Auckland. So by my basic maths that is something like 11 of the 17 original items heralded by the good Dr Worth and 21 of the original clauses that are either amended in some way or deleted altogether. And there will be more; I will bet the farm on it. In fact I would bet the average National member’s mortgage on it—if in fact I was certain that they even had one. So I say to the House once again for the sake of the people whom this Government concedes may be affected by this bill whose lives may be affected by it: let us get it right. Let us send this bill back to the Primary Production Committee—or indeed another committee altogether—and have a fresh set of eyes across it because 6 years is a long time and another 6 months to ensure that all of the bugs are actually ironed out is probably a worthwhile investment under the circumstances.As things stand New Zealand First cannot support this bill for the simple reason that we believe it will still contain undiscovered mistakes and we do not believe that it is responsible for Parliament simply to rubber stamp legislation into law with our eyes clamped shut and our fingers in our ears just to make the thing go away. If this bill is to be done at all it needs to be done right. The way to ensure that is to let a new set of eyes go over it and bring it up to date so as to make sure that we are not simply making things worse. New Zealand First does not support this bill.