Simpson ScottSCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): It is a real privilege to stand to support these two bills in their third reading. The select committee that I chair the Local Government and Environment Committee paid a lot of attention to these two bills. In fact we had an opportunity to visit the actual racecourse and have a tour around the site of the proposed development. For those of us who are not Cantabrians it was a real eye-opener and an opportunity to see just what a great development this is going to be. The original legislation that created the racecourse and its trustees dates back to 1878 and as somebody mentioned in an earlier debate at one of the earlier readings of these two bills that actually pre-dated the invention of the motor car. So it gives some idea about what was in the minds of the people who set this up back in 1878 and the foresight they had to set aside 112 hectares of Canterbury land that in those days was actually a long way out from the centre of Christchurch. These days of course the Riccarton Racecourse is right and central in the city of Christchurch. As part of the Government's plan to help the regeneration of Christchurch it has been a real pleasure to work with the trustees to work with Ngāi Tahu and to work with the city council in developing this practical sensible plan to create a really high-quality property development that will help ease the housing requirements of Christchurch and at the same time go a long way to supporting the regeneration of Christchurch. A significant proportion of the land of these 40 hectares is going to be designated for affordable housing. The Minister for Building and Housing in his speech made it clear that that has been designed specifically to meet the HomeStart cap of $450000. A minimum of 180 of the 600 homes that will be developed on this site will meet that criteria and I think that is a very very good step. Christchurch is expected to grow by about 80000 residents between 2013 and 2043 and so there does need to be further opportunity for residential growth and residential development in a city that not only is growing generically but also is in a regrowth and a regeneration phase. These bills could not have come to the House and be at their third reading today if it had not been for the cooperation and support of a really good collaboration of stakeholders that have been working very hard to ensure that we are at the point we are at today. I particularly want to thank the board of trustees at the Riccarton Racecourse for its help and assistance in nurturing this through for working its way through it and for its hospitality on the day when the trustees showed us around. But we should not underestimate the input of the Christchurch City Council for its role in helping bring this about and of course Ngāi Tahu and Ngāi Tahu Property which will be the developer of the site. I want to also mention as I have done in previous contributions in the House the submitters who came to us and gave us the benefit of their insight and their wisdom on this development. Naturally some of them were a little bit concerned about some of the impacts in the neighbourhood. This is an area of Christchurch that has great social facilities and great community facilities and this development will add to that. But they wanted to express their views and the committee I think listened carefully and respectfully to them. I also want to thank the officials who were working on the bills. Just in terms of the contribution of the Hon Ruth Dyson I absolutely think it is a bit rich for that member to stand in the House and complain as the Labour Opposition so frequently does that the Government is not doing anything about housing when in fact in relation to Christchurch both the AMP and the Massey index research show that housing in Christchurch is actually 40 percent more affordable than it was when Labour was in power. Those are facts that Labour members conveniently forget. They also forget that interest rates are now at about 4.5 percent—very low indeed—but when they were in power interest rates were about 10 percent. Rents have dropped 5 percent last year in Christchurch and in Christchurch housing values increased only 2 percent in the last year. All those indicators point to the fact that the Government's approach is working. These are pragmatic sensible pieces of legislation. These two bills go a long way to helping reinforce a need for a growing Christchurch a regenerating Christchurch and it is a good practical sensible step that the Government is very happy to support. I commend the bills to the House.