Sage Eugenie: Greater Christchurch Regeneration Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSage Eugenie: Greater Christchurch Regeneration Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 31 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:10108. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]EUGENIE SAGE (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Deputy Speaker. I am very pleased to be speaking in the third reading of the Greater Christchurch Regeneration Bill. The Green Party supported the bill when it was introduced but then withdrew that support at the select committee in response to the public submissions and our better understanding there of the way in which the bill failed to provide enough local leadership to Christchurch and to the extensive ministerial powers. So I am very pleased with the work that the Minister has engaged in subsequent to the select committee with Opposition parties and with the Christchurch City Council to deliver a much better bill.It is in the next phase of post-quake recovery that in Ōtautahi Christchurch we have got a real chance to build a sustainable creative and people-centred city. We can create a city that is so much more than just a reconstruction of buildings of infrastructure and of transport links. We can create in Ōtautahi Christchurch a city that could lead New Zealand in the way that residents live work and play and the way in which visitors enjoy the city. We want a vibrant liveable city—one that attracts visitors investment culture and that is really lively.And so the anchor projects have been a source of frustration. We want to see some of the money that was proposed to be spent on the stadium for example not being spent on a potential white elephant but on creating a much more liveable city. It has been disappointing that the city council has had to slow the work that it has been doing on building new cycleways because of the financial constraints that it has in part because of the reluctance of the Government to renegotiate the cost-sharing agreement.But this is a day to celebrate the changes that have been made in this piece of legislation and the changes in the framework for Ōtautahi Christchurch going forward and the new governance structure there. It is providing the basis for ensuring that we live in a beautiful city; one that weaves its past—the central role of Ngāi Tahu—into the present and future and that recognises the many diverse cultures that now call this city home that celebrates its wonderful position in a stunning natural landscape on a floodplain created by the Waimakariri River sheltered by the Port Hills threaded by the Ōtākaro Avon and Ōpāwaho Heathcote rivers and beside an estuary that hosts so many different bird species.It is a beautiful location but some of the last 5 years have felt quite oppressive in Christchurch. One of the pieces in this bill that I really welcome is schedule 6 with its long list of legislative instruments that the bill is revoking. Some of those emergency orders were obviously necessary but others that overrode due process under the Resource Management Act and other legislation reduced the ability of citizens in Christchurch to have a say in major decisions influencing their future and their city’s future. So this bill is in part giving the city back to the people of Christchurch so that we can have much more influence on the major decisions about the city’s future.I like others would like to acknowledge the work of the Christchurch City Council and the Mayor the Hon Lianne Dalziel because I do not think that if Opposition parties had not been working alongside the council and saying to the Government and the Minister “We need to make changes in this bill” we would have been successful. The Christchurch City Council has had a crucial role in highlighting the need to restore local leadership in Christchurch to the city council to Regenerate Christchurch and to the other councils—Selwyn District Council Waimakariri District Council Environment Canterbury and of course Ngāi Tahu.So now we are providing the legal framework the governance structure but much will now depend on how Regenerate Christchurch and how the city council in particular use the opportunities that this bill provides to involve the community in strategic decisions and planning for the future of the residential red zone the central city and areas like New Brighton. There are certainly provisions through the regeneration planning process and there is quite a lot of flexibility there to engage in different sorts of consultation and that is something we would encourage Regenerate Christchurch to do. We note as the Minister did that some significant powers still remain in clause 42 to override existing Resource Management Act plans and policies regional land transport plans and council bylaws. The Minister has called these powers a backstop and we—and I am sure the community—will be watching quite closely as to how those are exercised. If they are done wisely and in a circumscribed way that may well be fine but we do not want them to compromise the opportunity for much more public engagement through the regeneration plan process.We have seen through Share an Idea an outpouring of creative and thoughtful ideas from Christchurch citizens about their vision for an accessible green and sustainable city and it has been the community that has sustained that vibrancy and that feeling through projects such as Gap Filler and Greening the Rubble. It is these community collaborative gravel-led projects that have put Christchurch on the map internationally. There are the Pallet Pavilion the Luxcity festival the mosaic chair and Greening the Rubble sites around the city. It has been those projects that have helped give us hope post-quake rather than the big anchor projects led by Government.One of the areas of the bill that I think we should all celebrate is the fact that the definition of “regeneration” includes improving community well-being and it also provides for resilience. That is a much-talked about phrase these days but making Christchurch a more resilient city must involve planning for climate adaptation planning for sea-level rise. That must be a central part of the regeneration planning and it must ensure that we have commercial and residential buildings and infrastructure development taking better account of sea-level rise better account of more extreme weather events.We heard in select committee this morning from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment that Christchurch has more homes on low-lying areas that are at risk from sea-level rise—some 10000 homes—than either Auckland or Wellington. The city council looking to the future tried to introduce some planning provisions that sought to control development in areas of potential coastal hazard. The Government and the council withdrew those in the light of the response from property owners. It is too hard to leave it to local councils to have to deal with how to respond to sea-level rise on their own. There needs to be more national leadership here and this a role where central government has to work in partnership with local councils and not just leave it to the councils.We were very pleased to hear the Minister’s comments in the Committee stage about the former coastal wetland at Bexley which was reclaimed and built on against the advice of the Department of Conservation that he was reasonably supportive of that returning to its natural state. Areas like Bexley wetland the sand dunes along the coast and the margins of the estuary are really important in providing resilience and in giving the city a buffer against intense storm events against more flooding; giving it the flexibility about where to locate stopbanks along the rivers and ensuring that there are areas where the water can go in those intense storm events. So we have to ensure that that is part of the regeneration plan for the residential red zone.As Poto Williams has said EVO::SPACE and others have already done a lot of public consultation to surface a lot of community ideas about what should happen in the residential red zone. In the Green Party we are committed to the Avon/Ōtākaro park becoming a reality. We think that should connect the city with the sea the city with the eastern suburbs and would strengthen Christchurch’s identity as a beautiful creative and enjoyable city for residents and visitors. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do this with the land in the residential red zone. The future plans for that area need to acknowledge the residents who lived there and have had to leave homes in there and have those demolished. It needs to provide not just for formal sports facilities but also for a lot of informal community gardens restore the mahinga kai sites recognise wāhi tapu and look at some detailed feasibility studies on projects like the Eden Project example.We also need in the regeneration a much greater commitment to sustainability principles being implemented in new buildings so that they are more energy efficient they make much greater use of wood and they are more friendly to be in. There is a great opportunity to use wood in the rebuild; we have not seen that. But I am pleased that the Green Party can now support this bill and acknowledge the work of the Minister and the Christchurch City Council and other Opposition parties in achieving good changes to the bill.