Kaye Nikki: Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Kaye Nikki: Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 13 June 2012. Volume:680;Page:2943. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central) 
: 
 I am very pleased to speak on the Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill. I would like to start by acknowledging the local member of Parliament for Waitaki Jacqui Dean. What we are seeing within this piece of legislation is the initiative of a local MP—and obviously this bill is to do with the local authority for Waitaki—who has done her work she has done her research and she is doing what she thinks is best for the community.  
What we are going to be talking about this evening is three pieces of land. Contrary to what the Opposition has said—it has talked about the transfer of assets as such a bad thing—we all know that across local authorities across New Zealand every day there are situations where assets are transferred between local authorities and public citizens. This is not a scary thing that happens. This is something that happens every day. But in this situation and this is why we are currently here before Parliament we are dealing with three parcels of land. I want to just take us through those three parcels of land first because I think there are some unique situations around each of them.  
But the first thing I want to do is also acknowledge again that you have got a hard-working diligent MP who has done her research worked with the local authority worked with Ngai Tahu and iwi and come up with a proposition so that this can go to a select committee people can have their voice heard but also put on the parliamentary record what has happened with regard to these three pieces of land. Contrary to the Opposition members who say this is a very scary thing that is before Parliament members on this side believe actually this is a well-researched piece of legislation by a good local MP.  
So the first parcel of land that we are dealing with— 
Scott Simpson 
: Who was that local MP? 
NIKKI KAYE 
: The local member is Jacqui Dean just so members and anyone listening can hear what a great local member of Parliament she is. The first piece of land that we are talking about is the Palmerston Showgrounds piece of land. The provisions will allow Waitaki District Council to sell the land to current lessees. The second is a piece of land called lot 1. This will allow the Waitaki District Council to regularise the sale of the section to the current registered proprietors and allow title to their property to be unencumbered by any notation relating to the Reserves Act. That does not sound scary to me. Does that sound scary to other members? 
Scott Simpson 
: Not at all. Not at all. 
NIKKI KAYE 
: Not at all. There are situations right across New Zealand that happen on a regular basis with local authorities where situations arise where they transfer parcels of land. For the record let me just say that on this side of the House we understand that actually sometimes to grow your assets and to improve your asset base you might actually do transfers. It is a radical notion—it is a radical notion—but New Zealanders do it every single day in their households and with their businesses and that is all that the Parliament is dealing with in this piece of straightforward legislation.  
I just want to deal with the third piece of land because this piece of land—and Mr Twyford has mentioned it but also the local MP for Waitaki Jacqui Dean has mentioned it—is where there has been a fair amount of discussion in the public domain. This piece of land has been referred to as Forrester Heights but is also known as Lookout Point. It is a lovely piece of land. I have never been there but I have as a student when I was travelling to Dunedin travelled through the beautiful town of Oamaru. I was delighted when I was doing my research this evening because I was not aware that you can catch a live show at an opera house and that you can spoil yourself with some lovely made soap and with a cheese platter at the local cheese factory and I just want to acknowledge that this evening.  
But with regard to this Lookout Point piece of land what happened here was that it was originally purchased by the Government from Ngai Tahu in 1948 as part of the Kemp purchase. There was an administrative oversight in 1937 which mistakenly vested the land in the Waitaki District Council as a reserve. What actually happened here was that the land was vested as a reserve but what was meant to happen was that it was an endowment. It basically got reserve status and it was supposed to be reserved as an endowment. So we see this as a clerical issue.  
However we acknowledge that it is really important for people to have their voices heard. We do understand that this bill has come to Parliament because the Waitaki District Council believes that it is an important piece of legislation to have in Parliament and because Ngai Tahu have recognised that they have confirmed this view. So I am very pleased to support this bill going to a select committee and I commend it to the House.