Blumsky Mark: Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Bill — In Committee 
Blumsky Mark: Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:675;Page:14430] 
MARK BLUMSKY (National) 
: 
 I enjoy having the chance to speak on the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Bill before the dinner break. I wanted to speak in this part because I am hoping some of the officials are still within the precinct. I was on the Local Government and Environment Committee considering this bill and it was a very long and a reasonably arduous process. For a Luddite like myself for want of a better word I am not good on the Resource Management Act at all and this bill was an education and a half on the Resource Management Act. It was also an education on how to rewrite a bill. This bill has been just about totally rewritten by the select committee. When we look at the changes that have been made we see that they are quite comprehensive and I think that the bill is better for it. The Parliamentary Counsel Office has done a sterling job on guiding us through that and I acknowledge it and the other officials who have been involved in the process. 
There is always an upside to everything. For me the upside to this one—and for this I thank the Auckland Regional Council—was that we had a stunning trip on a helicopter to view the Waitakere Ranges which is something I had never experienced. Being a Wellingtonian I did not fully appreciate the beauty of the Waitakere Ranges. They are stunning and of course they are worth protecting. I can fully understand why there is passion in the region passion in Auckland about these ranges. I was also lucky enough to be sitting beside Marian Hobbs on the helicopter. It was a good thing they had shut the door on the helicopter because there was a debate at the time about who would push whom out of the helicopter! That was the upside. 
The downside is that I have found this to be very disturbing legislation—totally. There are a number of reasons why I found this legislation very disturbing. The first is that it came before us in 2006; it is now 2008. This took a heck of a long time to get through the select committee process. In fact it took so long that I just about had to reread the papers to remind myself of a lot of the issues because it did not get the numbers to bring it to the Committee of the whole House until just the other day. This is controversial legislation. For it to sit on the Order Paper for as long as it has means there was concern about the numbers. Obviously those have been rectified but the fact that it took so long to come before the Committee was a concern. 
For me the second concern is in regard to the council activities. I am uncomfortable with the way that the local community has not picked up on this local bill as with other local bills that have come before the select committee I have been on for the last few years. I would have thought that when local bills come before us they actually have a pretty high degree of local support but I do not believe that this one has. I think that is incredibly disturbing and sad. 
There has been talk about the poll and the sponsor of the bill rabbited on beautifully about how fantastic the support was. But as the deputy chair of the committee John Carter alluded the question was a sop. When people were asked whether they supported protection no one would have said no to that. The result was a bit different from the result of the poll I heard that Labour had in its caucus and I must let people know about that. The poll on protecting the heritage area was a farce. To use that poll as the reason for assuming that the population of Waitakere supports this legislation is wrong. 
But I became most concerned about the public submissions. Picking up from the commentary on the bill we had 221 submissions with the majority coming from individuals and groups in the Waitakere area. To quote from the commentary: “Submissions were almost equally split between support for and opposition to the bill.” I repeat what I said earlier: I think it is wrong that a local bill comes from the area and has that sort of division in it. The amazing thing about this bill is that neighbours were on absolutely different sides of the fence with regard to the arguments about this bill. Neighbours were arguing with each other as to what they thought the ramifications of this bill were. That is not good local government. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. 
MARK BLUMSKY 
: Can I take this chance to congratulate the New Zealand and the English cricket teams on a great game of cricket.