National War Memorial Park (Pukeahu) Empowering Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
National War Memorial Park (Pukeahu) Empowering Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 26 September 2012. Volume:684;Page:5701. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
National War Memorial Park (Pukeahu) Empowering Bill 
In Committee 
Debate resumed. 
Parts 1 and 2 and schedules 1 to 4 and 6 to 10 ( 
continued 
)  
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North) 
: 
 I just want to add a short contribution to what I said before that brief interruption. I just wanted to finally say that for the local community it is really important that we follow good process as closely as possible and it has been discussed by a number of members that the process around this bill is not ideal but has become necessary due to various circumstances which have been well rehearsed. 
I just want to say that through engagement from Opposition parties and support of the Government and assistance to the Government we have been able to strengthen the process and to ensure that those Orders in Council are perhaps the least desirable process by which the Government will progress the matter of the Memorial Park and the construction work that has to go on around it. The introduction of the review panel meeting more regularly the extended consideration of Orders in Council in the event that those are required and the explicit reference in the legislation to make it clear that Orders in Council are the very last resort those things possibly may have been introduced by the Government without support from the Opposition but they were ideas that were generated by the Opposition and I think they are in the bill because of the constructive way in which parties across the House have worked together to build the most robust and sensible process in legislation around this that is possible. That is one of the valuable parts of Opposition parties engaging in a constructive way around legislation like this. 
Just in closing it is pleasing to see that this legislation will be progressed. It will certainly make the veteran community very happy. I am sure it will make all New Zealanders very happy to see that the Memorial Park will be built in time for that centenary of the Anzac Day landings. 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Chair me tatau e wananga nei i tenei o nga pire hei whakanui te ahuatanga o te hunga kua haere ki tawahi. Kai te pirangi au ki te whakatakoto i etahi korero mo Te Pati Maori ka mutu mo te Supplementary Order Paper 131 i whakatakotohia ki mua i te aroaro o te Minita i tenei ra. Tuatahi me ki kai te tautoko ake i te hiahia te tumanako kia tu tenei o nga Whare hei tohu mo te hunga i haere ki tawahi kare he raruraru kare he manukanuka mo tera o nga take. Kai te ahua rongo ake i nga awangawanga a wetahi mo te tere o tana haere me te kore whai me ki te huarahi e tika ana engari na runga i te ahuatanga o te kaupapa nei ehara i te mea he nui nga raruraru o tera. 
Ko te tino putake o taku tu he korero mo te wahi ki a matou mo te Supplementary Order Paper ara kia hangaia tetahi wahanga hou ko tera wahanga ko te 3A. He aha tona putake? He whakauru korero e pa ana ki te Tiriti o Waitangi. Ko te tikanga o nga korero e penei ana: “All persons exercising functions and powers under this Act must take into account the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi)”. Me ki kei te whai tenei wahanga o te ture i enei kupu korero tonu i era i roto i te Resource Management Act 1991. Me ki i tangohia mai ai tera wahanga o te Resource Management Act ka metia atu ki tenei pire no reira ehara i te mea kai te noho taupatupatu nga kupu. Kao. E orite ana nga korero e rite tonu ana nga korero o roto i te Resource Management Act me tenei o nga kaupapa. 
He aha te take o tera? Me ki kia whai wahi te ao Maori i roto i nga nekeneke whakahaere me ki o tenei o nga kaupapa. Kua tae mai wetahi korero me ki o te hunga kainga o te mana whenua o tenei kainga tenei ta Grant Robertson e korero nei kai te hiahia ratou ki te whai wahi i roto i nga korero e pa ana ki te wahi nei; ka tahi. Ka rua e hia ke nei nga momo iwi nga iwi kaua ko te tangata whenua engari ko nga iwi kua eke mai ki roto o Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara. Kai te pirangi ratou kia whai wahi i roto i tenei o nga kaupapa ano hoki. No reira ma tenei o nga kupu korero ka whai wahi tuatahi ko te mana whenua tuarua me ki ko nga iwi kua haere mai ki te Whare i Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara.  
Ka toru naku i whakapa atu matou ki te Port Nicholson Settlement Trust me te Wellington Tenths Trust ahakoa kai raro ratou tetahi wahanga me ki o te Port Nicholson Trust i te raruraru hoi ano waiho tera ki te taha. I tona mutunga mai kua ki mai nga ropu e rua nei ara nga runanga me ki e rua nei kia tautoko Te Pati Maori i tenei huarahi ara te whakatakoto i etahi kupu tautoko ko te noho a nga iwi kainga ki roto i nga nekeneke o tenei pire. Ehara i te mea he nui te Supplementary Order Paper he pakupaku noa iho. He ruarua noa iho nga kupu engari ko tona tuturutanga ina ke te nui o te ahuatanga o nga kupu nei. Kua kite atu tatou i tenei rarangi korero i roto i wetahi atu pire a ka mutu he aha tona putake tuatahi? He whakanui i te ahuatanga o Te Tiriti o Waitangi i roto i nga ture o te motu ka tahi i tona tuturutanga ko tera o nga hiahia o nga mana whenua o nga iwi Maori kia whai wahi i roto i nga korero i roto i nga whakahaere i roto i nga whakaritenga e pa ana me ki i tenei wa tonu nei ki tenei o nga wahi ki tenei o nga Whare ki Pukeahua ka rua.  
No reira koi nei te whanui te wharoa o te Supplementary Order Paper me te tumanako ia ka tautoko mai nga taha o te Whare i tenei o nga huarahi. Ehara i te mea he uaua he mama noa iho tona putake engari ina ke nga whainga ka puta mena ka tapirihia atu tenei Supplementary Order Paper ki te whanuitanga o tenei pire. Koi nei te inoi atu ki te Whare kia ata aro mai ki tenei o nga kaupapa ka mutu ki te Minita tonu tera pea ka whai wahi a ia ki te tautoko i tenei o nga wahanga. No reira huri noa kia ora tatau. 
[ 
Greetings Mr Chair and to us debating this bill that honours those who went overseas. I want to outline some views that the Maori Party has on this bill and about the Supplementary Order Paper 131 that was submitted to the Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage today. Firstly we support the wishes and hopes of the House on the parliamentary complex that this stand as a memorial shall we say for those who fought and fell overseas. We have no problems or concerns with that issue. We are hearing concerns from some about how fast the bill is moving and not shall we say following due process but it is not as though there are many problems with that.  
The main reason for rising to take the call was to put forth our position on the Supplementary Order Paper and to have a new 3A section created for it. What would it be for? To have a statement about the Treaty of Waitangi included in it. The wording will go like this: “All persons exercising functions and powers under this Act must take into account the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi (Te Tiriti o Waitangi)”. This makes it consistent with the actual wording in the Resource Management Act 1991. In fact it was taken directly from that section of the Resource Management Act to include here. Therefore there is no conflict in the wording—none. They are the exact words in the Resource Management Act and this one of the Acts.  
Why is that? Let us say so that Maoridom can participate in the mechanisms of this one of the Acts. Word has come to me from locals from local tribes like what Grant Robertson states that they want to participate in the consultations relating to this place; that is the first one. The second is that there are several other ethnic groups and tribes quite apart from the home people who have settled in Wellington over the years. They too would like an opportunity to participate in this Act as well. Therefore it is by this statement that the local tribe and other tribes or ethnic groups who have come to the House in Wellington be able to participate. 
The third point is that I have been in contact with the Port Nicholson Settlement Trust and Wellington Tenths Trust on behalf of our party. Despite the problems among them namely the Port Nicholson Trust part—but we will leave that situation there. At the end of it all these two entities have endorsed the move by the Maori Party to include references to the Treaty of Waitangi in this bill to ensure local tribes’ involvement. It is not as though the Supplementary Order Paper is a huge one; it is quite a small one really. There are only a few words involved however the depth and significance of these words are immense. We have seen these words in other bills but in the end what is its first priority? In the first instance it is to magnify the Treaty of Waitangi in the laws of the country and to authenticate it. Secondly it is to satisfy the wishes of local tribes and Maoridom to participate in discussions and arrangements let us say in the first instance about this place and this House of Pukeahua.  
So that is the extent and long-standing nature of this Supplementary Order Paper. The hope is that all sides of the House support it. It is not as though it is a difficult thing to consider; furthermore there are numerous benefits that would accrue should this Supplementary Order Paper be added to the broader part of this bill. This then is the plea to the House that it really take due note of this bill and finally to the Minister that he finds favour with this of the provisions. So to us throughout thank you. 
] 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Deputy Leader—Labour) 
: 
 I want to take just a brief call to finish my contribution in the Committee stage of the National War Memorial Park (Pukeahu) Empowering Bill because we are taking this as one question. I just want to note one area that I did not mention in my previous couple of calls and that is that there are extensive schedules to this bill. It is important to note what they do and what they involve and it picks up some of what Te Ururoa Flavell just mentioned. A number of different organisations and people are drawn into how this park will develop through the schedules and that includes the Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust and the wider Taranaki Whanui because they are a landowner within this park. So I just want to make the point for the member that within the schedules there are a number of places in which they have a role in the development of the park. 
One of the more curious matters that arose during the select committee process was around the maps that are in schedule 10 of the bill. I just want to note for the record that although these maps are indicative of what will happen they are not of course exactly to the exact centimetre in terms of scale of what will happen. 
One thing I want to note about these maps is that this is the place in which local Wellingtonians will discover that over the next couple of years they are to face significant change and disruption in their movement around the city. Annette King’s constituents as they come in from Rongotai to the bright lights of Wellington Central and come round the corner from Sussex Street behind the Basin Reserve will discover that they will now be driving a little further before veering left and heading up towards Aro Valley and so on. This will be disruptive. There needs to be an intensive community engagement programme to ensure that not only the residents of the Mount Cook area but also the residents of wider Wellington and those who visit Wellington will be aware of this. 
I know that the officials and Mr Finlayson are working on that engagement programme. I just urge that it is as open as possible and that it uses all the new technology that is available to ensure that people are kept involved and kept informed with those changes and disruptions because they will be significant and they will last for some time. Mt Cook School which Mr Finlayson and others have been working closely with is aware of these changes because State Highway 1 will now angle beside its back fence. We need to make sure that the school continues to be kept engaged and kept informed and that any changes or improvements that are needed during this time are acknowledged. 
In the schedules we have these plans. They are exciting and they will deliver us this wonderful green space and National War Memorial Park but we need to recognise that there will be significant disruption for Wellingtonians. 
The last thing I want to say is just to give some credit to the Wellington City Council for its involvement and cooperation in this project. It is not only contributing a significant amount of money but also needing to work very closely with the New Zealand Transport Agency and the Ministry for Culture and Heritage in order to ensure that the law is upheld and the processes are done properly. We are very grateful for its contribution to this. 
ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First) 
: 
 I will take just a brief call on the National War Memorial Park (Pukeahu) Empowering Bill as we are only 5 minutes away from the dinner break. I spoke in the House on this bill yesterday and on the merits of this park and certainly New Zealand First is very supportive of this as the National War Memorial Park. However today I would like to bring to the attention of the House an aspect that we also must not forget and that is the welfare and the interests of our veterans. 
It is all very well as a nation spending $12 million on this park and it is a wonderful thing that we are doing to commemorate the many hundreds of thousands who have given of their lives for this country over the last century but we still have a lot of veterans alive today in this country who are suffering and are in need of care from the State. Many are suffering from all sorts of ailments as a result of their service to the country and in many cases they are in a perilous state. Many are getting very very aged and frail. So although it is wonderful that the veterans are supportive and are very appreciative of the fact that this war memorial park is an honour to them in respect of the living and of those who have fallen on behalf of our country I think it is also important at this time that we remember that we still have a duty of care to the many many veterans who are still with us today. There are both old and young veterans who are in various states of ill health and have problems that are as a result of having gone overseas on behalf of their country fighting in various theatres of war and who now as a result have medical problems ailments and the like as do their family members as well. 
If I could say just one thing it is that I hope all parties in this Chamber can also remember that we should not just be building monuments and parks; we should also be very much remembering those who are here today. I think that would be an even greater honour to those who have fallen. Those who have fallen would always want to ensure that their friends and comrades who are still living but suffering as a result are taken care of by this country. I implore and say to the Minister and the Government that although there was a war pensions review 2 years ago by the Law Commission there is still a lot of outstanding work to be done on that for the War Pensions Act review and there is a lot of work to be done in terms of veterans’ affairs. I just hope that between all of us in this House all MPs we can get around this and get in behind what is a physical stone structure and also a green park but at the same time put a lot of emphasis— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch) 
: I am sorry to interrupt the honourable member. The time has come for me to leave the Chair for the dinner break. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. 
HOLLY WALKER (Green) 
: 
 I am pleased to take a short call at the Committee stage of the National War Memorial Park (Pukeahu) Empowering Bill. May I start by saying as I believe my colleagues have at other stages of this bill that the Green Party is strongly in support of the objective of a National War Memorial Park at Pukeahu and that we share the desire if it would be possible for this to be completed in time for the Gallipoli centenary and Anzac Day 2015. We believe the proposed memorial park will provide New Zealanders and overseas visitors with a dedicated space in which to reflect on the loss and sacrifice of life in numerous armed conflicts to pay respect to the dead to contemplate the causes for which those conflicts were fought and also importantly to consider the cause of peace and to reflect on how future armed conflicts may be avoided. It also would provide a haven of much-needed green space within the busy environs of the capital city. 
However we have found ourselves unable to continue to support the bill despite some of the amendments made at the select committee because of our fundamental concerns about the extraordinary powers granted by the legislation. 
But I would like at this point to acknowledge the work of the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee which I sat in on for the duration of this bill. I think the first point to note about that select committee process is that it was an extremely constrained one and very challenging for the committee to do its work within the time frame and indeed for the officials to do the work within the time frame allocated and that is part of the concern that we have with this bill. But within those constraints I think the committee did work well and I enjoyed my experience on the committee. 
I am pleased to say that some of the amendments that the committee has made are minor improvements to the bill—for example the adoption of changes recommended by the Regulations Review Committee which somewhat improve the transparency and accountability of the Order in Council process by making sure that Ministers have to explore every other available option relevant before moving to making Orders in Council and indeed to beef up and improve the community forum and improve the number of times that that community forum is delegated to meet. 
So there are some changes the committee made that do improve the bill but unfortunately the fundamental concerns that the Green Party has with the legislation remain despite those changes because not only does it remove and replace normal planning processes which limits the ability for the public and key stakeholders to participate in decision making about the park but also it grants the ability for the Crown to make wide-reaching changes by Order in Council without the usual parliamentary scrutiny. We in the Green Party are very concerned about the precedent that these powers set about the primacy of the rule of law in New Zealand. We heard at the committee a particularly interesting submission from the Legislation Advisory Committee which expressed concern that if we put aside the rule of law in the case of this legislation in order to expedite what is indeed a noble goal in the National War Memorial Park it will become easier to put it aside again for future legislation. Indeed we believe that that is what has already taken place with the fact that we have this legislation this extraordinary legislation in front of the House in the first place. 
This legislation is based upon the provisions provided for in response to the Canterbury earthquake which was a national emergency. We were told at the time that those provisions for Order in Council and those extraordinary powers granted to the executive by that legislation were necessary only because it was a response to a drastic national emergency and were so extraordinary that we need not be concerned about their use elsewhere. Yet here not so very long after that we have a piece of legislation effecting those same powers for what is absolutely not a national emergency. In fact it has been foreseen for a very long time that we might want to commemorate the centenary of Gallipoli in some appropriate way in 2015 and indeed the plans for this particular memorial park have been in place for a long time. The urgency with which this legislation has been addressed was necessary only because of a decision to halt funding for the project—a long pause in its progress—and then a very rapid decision to advance with it after all. That is not good process. 
The question was put that the amendment set out on Supplementary Order Paper 131 in the name of Te Ururoa Flavell to insert new clause 3A be agreed to. 
A party vote was called for on the question  
That the amendment be agreed to. 
Ayes 59 
New Zealand Labour 34; Green Party 14; New Zealand First 8; Maori Party 2; Mana 1. 
Noes 61 
New Zealand National 59; ACT New Zealand 1; United Future 1. 
Amendment not agreed to. 
Part 1 agreed to. 
Part 2 agreed to. 
Schedule 1 agreed to. 
Schedule 2 agreed to. 
Schedule 3 agreed to. 
Schedule 4 agreed to. 
Schedule 6 agreed to. 
Schedule 7 agreed to. 
Schedule 8 agreed to. 
Schedule 9 agreed to. 
Schedule 10 agreed to. 
Clause 1 agreed to. 
Clause 2 agreed to. 
Bill to be reported without amendment presently.