Shirley Ken: Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill — Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Third Reading 
Shirley Ken: Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill — Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:612;Page:9286] 
Hon KEN SHIRLEY (Deputy Leader—ACT) 
: 
 I commend the Hon Nick Smith for the speech he has just delivered to this House. He is a former Minister of Conservation and one who I know has made a great contribution to conservation in this country. The issue is that this bill exposes this Government. This bill has found it out. Members will recall that the Minister of Conservation Chris Carter said in this House that there was no way he could uplift the reserve status of Card Creek to allow the power scheme on the West Coast that it so desperately needs to be proceeded with and said that that would be a breach of the Conservation Act. He even misled the House and had to apologise as members may recall when he gave quotations that referred to Ngakawau many many miles away. He tried to deceive the House was found out and had to apologise to the House. The Labour Government has been caught out here. This bill is the mechanism whereby the reserve status of the land at Card Creek on the West Coast could be amended to let a very sensible scheme proceed. 
The facts are that there is an existing power scheme on Arnold River the adjacent catchment which generates some 5 megawatts of electricity. It has been there for many decades and the proposal of TrustPower fully supported by West Coast local bodies and the community was to create another dam on Card Creek create a relatively small lake and increase the power generation from 5 megawatts to 65 megawatts of much-needed electricity. The point is that the West Coast of the South Island has a prevailing wind and a very heavy consistent rainfall. It is not like the dry eastern catchments of Lake Tekapo Lake Pukaki and the other catchments that feed our hydro schemes because it is not subject to the risk of dry-flow years. So the Card Creek hydro scheme was very sensible. It would have made the West Coast—and I hope one day with a change of Government it still will make it—self-sufficient in power. Not only would the West Coast be self-sufficient but it would export electricity to other areas through the national grid. Moreover there are two very tenuous transmission lines into the West Coast that need substantial investment in upgrading. That power scheme would have overcome the need to make that investment. In other words that investment could have been made elsewhere in our electricity security. But this Government through some form of crazy ideology refused to let that scheme proceed. 
We now have the mechanism in this bill that proves the falsehood of what the Minister of Conservation Chris Carter told this House whereby the status of reserve land can be changed. There are 260 examples of situations where the status of reserves has been changed for exactly such a purpose. As we know the conservation lands on the West Coast take up 80 percent of the West Coast’s area. We are talking about 0.02 percent of that area and will it be ruined for conservation purposes? No. There will be a nice mountain lake surrounded by bush and for many people and even in an ecological sense that area will end up with a mountain lake that adds to its conservation values. Over and above that of course the TrustPower project proposed an additional 200 hectares of Mount Buckley would go into reserve. The point has been made and I repeat it that there would have been a net conservation benefit. It would have been win-win. The country would have got the power and the West Coast would have got its self-sufficiency in power. But no that will not happen because of this Government’s rhetoric and the refusal of the Minister of Conservation to make that amendment to the status of the land. This bill was the mechanism whereby that scheme could have been made possible. That it will not proceed is deeply regrettable indeed. 
Again I repeat the politics of it. It is not too late. If Damien O’Connor who tries to sit on the fence and say that he represents the West Coast is true to his word—because he said he supported that hydro scheme—then he could vote for the amendments to the bill. I have a letter from Jim Anderton to the local people stating that he supports the scheme and is working on his ministerial colleagues to try to get them to change their minds. If he is true to his word he will vote for the amendments. That makes two members from the Government who will do so. I hope that United Future’s position is still the same as it was. Mr Copeland has been an absolute champion of this issue. He has asked parliamentary questions week after week. He sees the logic of the Dobson scheme so I know that United Future supports it. National has indicated its support for the scheme and ACT and New Zealand First champion it. The numbers are there as long as Damien O’Connor and Jim Anderton are true to their word. And why would we expect otherwise? I believe them to be honourable members. They have said they support that scheme; here is their chance to support it. 
That would be democracy in action. It would mean that the Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill would be used appropriately as a tool to amend the reserve status of that land at Card Creek. That is what the bill is for. A Supplementary Order Paper is before the House that I certainly support. I think the question is where Mr Anderton and Damien O’Connor are in our hour of need. Will they come to the House to support this bill which will then have a majority in Parliament? A sensible solution with regard to this bill would then be found and TrustPower’s very important power scheme on the West Coast could proceed. 
 We know this country faced an electricity crisis earlier this year. We were lucky: the rains came and the lakes filled. Yet I am advised that our hydro lakes are at half the capacity they should be at this time of the year going into spring. The hydro lakes have not had the benefit of the rainfalls. I believe that this Government could well be facing another power crisis at the end of next summer as we move into the uncertain autumn period. 
The Government says it is against using our coal to generate electricity because that breaches the Kyoto Protocol. But the Department of Conservation largely stops us from using our coal reserves—another problem on the West Coast with regard to Pike River. The department has delayed that scheme for about 5 years thus putting the Pike River coalfield development through incredible hurdles. I understand the department is now considering whether it will appeal the resource consents. The Environment Court studied that development and said that yes it should go ahead. But the Department of Conservation is still holding it up. This Minister of Conservation will not do anything to facilitate that development either. So the Government says that we cannot use our coal because of the Kyoto Protocol but it is actually importing 600000 tonnes of Indonesian coal through the Port of Tauranga to feed the Huntly power station. We have no other option. With the Maui gasfield expiring in the next 2 years and actually having smaller reserves than we anticipated a year ago the only option for this country is to use coal. 
Shane Ardern 
: Or nuclear. 
Hon KEN SHIRLEY 
: Or nuclear power indeed and that should be considered as an option. There are problems with that I acknowledge but it should not be dismissed out of hand. Indeed we may chuckle but we are the only country in the world that through some form of crazy rhetoric will not even consider the option of nuclear power. 
So we are not going to use coal to generate electricity and this Government is stopping us from using a prime catchment in a very reliable rainfall area like the West Coast where an existing hydro scheme can be expanded from 6 megawatts to 65 megawatts with minimal disruption to the environment and some would say actual net conservation benefit. This Government because of its rhetoric refuses to allow that scheme to go ahead. 
This bill is the perfect vehicle under which that hydro scheme could have been implemented. The Minister tried to tell us that it was impossible to change the status of reserve land. This bill and the 260 amendments that have been made elsewhere prove that it is possible to do so.