Locke Keith: Eden Park Trust Amendment Bill — Second Reading Third Reading 
Locke Keith: Eden Park Trust Amendment Bill — Second Reading Third Reading 
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KEITH LOCKE (Green) 
: 
 The Green Party will be supporting the Eden Park Trust Amendment Bill. The Green Party is supportive of the redevelopment of Eden Park and is looking forward to a very successful 2011 Rugby World Cup. 
Perhaps the Government could give some reassurance to Labour or at least to Labour in the form of Trevor Mallard. He seemed to be concerned before that the waterfront stadium did not go ahead. He wanted a better use of that waterfront area other than for parking a lot of cars on certain wharves in the vicinity of the planned stadium. 
The Government has given support to the development of Queen’s Wharf. It is called party central but hopefully it will be much more than that. Hopefully the Government will reassure Trevor Mallard by giving some indication of assistance to further development east of Queen’s Wharf so that we really have something a bit more like the Wellington waterfront which is a pleasure to walk along each morning on the way to Parliament. 
Hon Maurice Williamson 
: What? Are you going to walk around the Auckland waterfront on the way to Parliament? I am confused. 
KEITH LOCKE 
: Yes that is right; perhaps we will move Parliament up to Auckland once we have a good waterfront there! 
I raise three points about the way we could help the Eden Park Trust Board financially. One of those points—I think it has been touched on a little bit previously by Nikki Kaye—is public transport. We are concerned that the Government is not moving ahead quickly enough with Auckland public transport particularly rail. One of the things that inhibit people going to Eden Park and helping its receipts is that if people go to Eden Park they are often forced by the lack of public transport to go by car and for a big event they have to park a long way away. I live a fair way away from Eden Park but people park outside my place on the day of a big game. Once the stadium is expanded to 60000 seats people will be parking a very long way away and perhaps not even bothering to go to the game if there is no decent public transport. So we are trying to give a push to the Government to move ahead particularly with the electrification project. 
The second point is that perhaps there could be some little suggestion to the Rugby Union to not keep extending the rugby season. We are getting viewer fatigue; audiences have been declining. That decline reflects on the receipts of the New Zealand Rugby Union and its payments to the Auckland Rugby Football Union and Eden Park Trust Board. There will not be fewer games at Eden Park because the extension is really putting extra games in Dunedin and places like that. Making that suggestion is one thing that can be done. 
Another thing comes out of some of the discussion of late around the game between Kelston Boys High School and Auckland Grammar School. I take the point of Richard Boock the leading sports columnist in New Zealand who was on the radio this morning talking about how we have to get back to the way we thought about sport traditionally as being a game and think in terms of how in every game of cricket or rugby there has to be a winner and there has to be a loser and not to bank everything on the winner and nothing on the loser. I think that view is reflected in audiences. If audiences say they will not go to the game because their team is losing—and Auckland has been losing a bit recently—then it is not good for the receipts of the Eden Park Trust Board. If we can get back to the more traditional concept—hopefully reflected in amateur sport although it was not reflected in the game between Auckland Grammar School and Kelston Boys High School the other day—that winning is not the be-all and end-all but playing one’s best is what counts then I think that will mean that people will come to the game regardless of whether their team is likely to win or lose and they will respect the achievements of the other side if it happens to beat the home team. The receipts of Eden Park would go up. 
Those are just a few little suggestions to help the new trust board on its merry way. Thank you.