Bishop Chris: Wellington Town Belt Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBishop Chris: Wellington Town Belt Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 16 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:9843. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CHRIS BISHOP (National): Mr Tirikatene just said that the Wellington town belt is part and parcel of Wellington. Well I would actually go further than that. He is right of course; it is part and parcel of Wellington. But actually it is hard to imagine Wellington—the great city of Wellington—without the town belt. It is hard to envisage this fantastic city with all of the things that make it so great. It is hard to imagine Wellington without that town belt which has been so eloquently described by my colleagues across the House not only on my side of the House but also across the House in the debate this evening. It is a taonga of Wellington. It is a treasure of Wellington. It is something to be admired and to be retained and to treasure in this great city. So it is part and parcel of Wellington but actually as I say it is hard to imagine Wellington without the town belt.I take a great deal of interest in the town belt. I have walked there I have tramped in it and I have experienced the outdoors in it. Actually most Wellingtonians probably when they think about it over the years that they have been Wellingtonians will have experienced the town belt and probably have not ever turned their mind to its legal status. They will not have turned their mind to how it exists in a legal form—who manages it who operates it. They probably have not even thought about that. They just take it for granted because the forefathers of Wellington had the vision and the foresight to set aside green spaces for Wellington—Catherine Delahunty: Foremothers.CHRIS BISHOP: —and foremothers as well. Thank you Miss Delahunty. I do just want to pick up on a comment that Jan Logie made. She said that green places are important. It was a classic Green Party speech. The Greens have this odd idea that they have a monopoly on ecological wisdom that they have a monopoly on environmental protection that the Green Party is the only party in Parliament that can stand up for the environment that only they care about fresh water that only they care about clean rivers and lakes and that only they care about climate emissions and things like that. So we hear this sanctimonious drivel often. But actually all parties in Parliament care about green spaces. The National Party certainly cares about setting aside particular parts of our land mass and our country that cannot be developed.Actually it has been a great week for that concept because this was the week that the Government introduced the Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill and put it through its first reading. So this is a great week for the environment a great week for conservation and a great week for the idea and the concept that there are some things so sacred that they should be set aside for future generations to enjoy later on—that concept of preserving things for future generations that highly conservative concept. Indeed we are a conservative party along with being a liberal party. So it has been a great week for that. I want to pay tribute to the Local Government and Environment Committee for the important work that it has done on this bill at the select committee chaired by Scott Simpson. He has done a great job. I also want to say that Grant Robertson has done a good job of shepherding this bill through to its second reading stage in the House.I want to make just two points about the importance of this bill. Firstly it actually strengthens the protection for the Wellington town belt because interestingly its current status is that it is recognised or is managed by the Wellington City Council under a trust deed. It is an odd legal quirk I guess you could say but that is the way it has been and that is what happened back in 1873. So actually putting this into legislation as a local Act will strengthen it in some ways or at least give the Wellington town belt the imprimatur of greater legitimacy and greater legislative protection—I think that is important. The second thing is as my good colleague Brett Hudson has pointed out that we do not get any Ginsu steak knives out of this bill but we do get another 130 hectares of reserve and open-space land added to the Wellington town belt.Just finally in terms of the Public Works Act we have heard some discussion and we have just heard some comments from Jan Logie about the Public Works Act. I agree with the amendments that have been made to the bill by the Local Government and Environment Committee. I think they are sensible amendments. I have got to say that I have read the Labour Party minority view in the select committee report; I think it makes a plausible case. I think I can sort of see where it is coming from but I actually think that where the majority got to on the committee was the right approach which was to bring what will become a local Act into line with the provisions of the Public Works Act. I think that seems sensible and so I do not really see the Labour case. I can understand where Labour is coming from in its minority report but I think really the majority of the select committee members came to the right judgment.The Wellington town belt is something that is very important that we recognise in Wellington. It is something that as I said earlier many Wellingtonians would not even realise is called the town belt because it is just inherent in what makes Wellington this fantastic city and region that it is. It is I think a good bill and I think one that will receive widespread support in the House. With that I commend the bill to the House.