Robertson Grant: Wellington Town Belt Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRobertson Grant: Wellington Town Belt Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 06 April 2016. Volume:712;Page:10282. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central): I am pleased to begin a couple of calls that I hope to take now and then perhaps a couple later on to both introduce the bill back into the Chamber through this Committee stage and to highlight some of the core elements.The first thing to say is that we come to the Committee tonight with this bill towards the end now of a very long process. I am going to seek the indulgence of the Committee to give a little bit of a history lesson around the town belt to set the context for what we are doing. But the history I am talking about at the moment is the history of the piece of legislation. As I said in my first reading speech my particular personal involvement in a piece of legislation to protect and enhance the town belt goes back to the period around 2001 when the Hon Marian Hobbs the then member for Wellington Central was attempting to do exactly what we are doing tonight: to provide a strong legislative basis to protect the town belt in perpetuity and to provide the ability to enhance it. It is now some 15 years on from there that we finally find ourselves in the House with a piece of legislation.My involvement in that 2001 stage was not the beginning of this. I do want to acknowledge in the Chamber tonight that in the gallery are people who have worked for decades to support and enhance the town belt: the Friends of the Wellington Town Belt group—and I am particularly thinking of Joan Quinn who is in the gallery tonight—and others as well who have done so much over so many decades to ensure that Wellingtonians have the facility have the beauty that is the town belt available to us. I want to acknowledge Joan particularly and all of those who have worked on the town belt.This is a local bill and therefore I am introducing it and have it in my name on behalf of the Wellington City Council. This is an initiative of the Wellington City Council to protect and enhance the town belt. Many councillors and staff have worked hard on this bill over a long period of time—and their lawyers I might say. I want to acknowledge in the most recent triennium councillor Helene Ritchie who has led the council in terms of its consideration of this and also Michael Oates who has been with it throughout its gestation period as an official at the council. These are the people who make bills like this happen and I think it is important that we acknowledge them at the outset.The Wellington town belt as most members of Parliament will know is the horseshoe-shaped green space that encircles the city. Its life began I might say a little before the Town Belt Deed which we put into law tonight was signed. So that was 1873. The New Zealand Company as it began its process to establish Wellington City wanted from the outset to have some green space. John Ward the New Zealand Company’s secretary made this instruction in 1839: “It is indeed desirable that the whole outside of the Town inland should be separated from the country by a broad belt of land which you will declare that the Company intends to be public property on condition that no buildings be ever erected upon it.” That is from 1839.What then followed as has been the history of the town belt was not quite exactly what was intended. From 1840 onwards things began to look a little different than the New Zealand Company had intended. Clearly there was a series of issues around the use of the town belt because—we have had a few conversations about the New Zealand Company as we have gone through this legislation and I do not think that the New Zealand Company can get away with looking completely altruistic with their creation of the town belt for two reasons that I want to talk about.The first of those is that actually part of the motivation of the New Zealand Company was to drive up land prices inside the city of Wellington by having an area of land that could not be used because that actually would help. That was sort of how the New Zealand Company operated from time to time. But quite clearly the other core element was that parts of this land were in fact already under the ownership of those iwi who had been here for some time.It is very important at the outset to acknowledge Te Ātiawa Ngāti Ruanui Taranaki and Ngāti Tama whom we collectively call Taranaki Whānui and also Ngāti Toa Rangatira. Both Taranaki Whānui and Ngāti Toa Rangatira were the occupants of this land—the inhabitants of this land. It is without doubt that through the Treaty settlement processes for both Taranaki Whānui and Ngāti Toa Rangatira—we recognised the Taranaki Whānui in the Port Nicholson settlement legislation.The Crown recognised the breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi that led to the acquisition of lands that are included within the town belt. A process was gone through and I do want to acknowledge here all those who were part of the Port Nicholson Block Settlement Trust who were able to see that the town belt was now such an iconic part of Wellington that they desired it to remain in that place. So in this legislation—which Mr Chair I am sure you are pleased I am going to actually speak directly to now—we do make a specific acknowledgment of the role of tangata whenua in the management of the town belt and we do something that is unusual in legislation which is that there is a preamble that runs through the history of the town belt and also explains exactly the process that those iwi went through and who had their own ahi kā over particular areas within the town belt. It is important and unique in many ways that this is what we now have in terms of the town belt.I do want to acknowledge again at this point in the process the importance for mana whenua of this land and the partnership that the Wellington City Council has been engaged in for some time through the Wellington Town Belt Management Plan. But in law we now have a process by which the management of the town belt and the role of tangata whenua is specifically recognised.As I was saying on the history of the town belt land has been alienated from it. The original idea was a 632 hectare area of land. Little by little that was whittled down for various reasons—some legal some not. The Public Works Act eventually had a say and we have ended up where we are today with approximately 400 hectares remaining in the town belt as it is today.But it is important to acknowledge that in the early times of the city land was lost from what was wanted to be the town belt and for me that is one of the great strengths of this piece of legislation. We now have the capacity to add land to the town belt—to enlarge the town belt and perhaps get it back to the status that was originally envisaged. What we will do as we pass this legislation when it goes through its third reading is we will add another 120-odd hectares immediately—immediately on the passing of this legislation. That is something for this House to be proud of—that actually we will be adding to the town belt straight away and creating the facility to continue to add land to the town belt over time.In the process of the bill going through the select committee we had to take out one small parcel of land that we were going to add which is still the subject of first right of refusal under some of the Ngāti Toa settlements. It is a small parcel of land but it was important we kept faith with that. Subject to that settlement going through we will be able to include that final parcel of land. But an additional 120 hectares is I think very very important.The early stages of the piece of legislation are the preamble and it is also important to note in this first call the principles of the town belt legislation which are the management and partnership with mana whenua and that the town belt must be protected and enhanced—that is it. If any future council or any future Government intended to do something that did not protect and enhance the town belt that would be against the law and that is why I have been so passionate about getting this piece of legislation before Parliament. It is not because the Wellington City Council has not done a good job of managing the town belt over the years but that we do now have a legal instrument that says the town belt must be protected and enhanced and defines the fact that it must be kept as a public recreation ground and defines what that is. I can come back to that in later calls for those who want that.The town belt is also to “be accessible to all and for all [Wellingtonians] to enjoy” to “be available for a wide range of recreational activities” and for “community participation in the management of the Wellington town belt to be encouraged and supported.” They are the core principles and they are the things that underlie why a piece of legislation like this is so important. I will return in a later call to some details.