Finlayson Christopher: Hawke’s Bay Regional Planning Committee Bill — In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFinlayson Christopher: Hawke’s Bay Regional Planning Committee Bill — In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 11 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:5684. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations): I move That the Hawke’s Bay Regional Planning Committee Bill be now read a third time. I acknowledge the iwi from the Hawke’s Bay region involved in developing this legislation and welcome some familiar faces to the gallery. I acknowledge that it has taken a long time to reach this very important milestone. I also acknowledge those who are representatives of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council. They too like their iwi counterparts have travelled a long way to be here in Parliament to listen to this the third reading of the bill. To those of you who have worked so hard to make this possible I offer you my very very sincere thanks. It has been more than 5 years since Cabinet agreed to establish a planning committee of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council through legislation. The committee is the outcome of a significant amount of both careful and creative thinking about how best to manage the diverse and complex nature of the natural resources in the Hawke’s Bay.At the beginning of this process we considered a number of existing models around New Zealand to see whether any of those would be suitable for the situation in Hawke’s Bay and I acknowledge the Hon Nanaia Mahuta here. We actually had a good look at the Waikato model and whether that could be transplanted across for example. But because of the sheer number of rivers and waterways within the region we actually found that none of those models would work. Having one board for each of the rivers in their catchment areas would result in clumsy administration as well as being very difficult and uneconomic to manage. So a completely new approach was required and who better to do it than Fran Wilde who at the relevant time was chair of the Greater Wellington Regional Council and there is a considerable body of opinion including me that she should still be the chair of the Greater Wellington Regional Council. She had been the chief Crown negotiator for Ngāti Pāhauwera and she had the inspired idea of devising a committee that was tailored to the Hawke’s Bay situation.It is a committee that takes an overarching collaborative and unified approach to resource management so I acknowledge Fran’s meticulous work. It is not the sort of once-over-lightly superficial exercise that some may expect Crown negotiators to get involved in. If you adopt that approach in the interests of saving a few thousand here and there then you fail—not you Mr Assistant Speaker of course; I am talking about one. It is certainly not a recipe for success in Treaty negotiations hence the need for hard-working dedicated Treaty negotiators. In practical terms this committee which comprises equal numbers of council and iwi members has already been successfully working in interim form—since at least 2012 the committee has been operating—and it is demonstrating the benefits of a coordinated and a collaborative approach from elected representatives from both the council and iwi in the Hawke’s Bay region. By improving iwi participation and governance on natural resources costs in resource management processes for local authorities businesses and the public will be reduced over time.This bill gives effect to the Crown’s commitment made in the Ngāti Pāhauwera deed of settlement and again recorded in the Maungaharuru-Tangitū deed of settlement to work with iwi and hapū to introduce legislation to establish this committee. The bill ensures that the relevant iwi post-settlement governance entities are entitled to appoint representatives on that committee. It sets out a framework for the committee but it does not specify all its operating provisions. These will be discussed and agreed by committee members.What is the purpose of the bill? Well the purpose is to improve the involvement of iwi in the region to oversee the development and review of a regional policy statement and regional plans for the region prepared in accordance with the Resource Management Act 1991. It does not mean that the committee will make actual decisions on behalf of the full council. The committee has strong recommendatory powers. An important feature of the committee moreover is that it is a permanent committee and can be discharged only by unanimous agreement of all members—iwi and council members alike. The rationale behind this is that the committee is involved with resource management issues that span a much greater time frame than local body elections. Under schedule 7 of the Local Government Act committees are deemed to be dissolved at or following triennial general elections of members. In order to function effectively and ensure continuity of planning the committee needs to span local body election cycles so the bill needs to provide for this section of schedule 7 to be overridden.There are many people who have contributed to this legislation both within iwi and within Crown agencies. As I have already noted I particularly want to acknowledge Fran Wilde. She is unable to be here to mark this occasion because I think she is in Oslo but it was her creativity and drive that contributed significantly to the formation of this committee. She and other Crown negotiators do a great job.I also wish to acknowledge the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council. Its efforts and its willingness to engage with the hapū and with officials have been vital to the ultimate success of this legislation. The council has shown a real commitment to having an ongoing relationship with iwi in its region. In its approach to its obligation to consult with iwi on resource management matters the council actually had two options. It could make separate arrangements over seven separate catchment areas or it could work with all the iwi in the region to cover the whole of the region and it chose the latter. The resultant legislation is a good example of a strong co-governance model that is well resourced.Most important I want to acknowledge the tireless work of the iwi leaders involved in the development of this very important legislation.The bill has taken time energy diplomacy—at times—patience and pragmatism so that we could all arrive at a piece of legislation that satisfies all parties that are involved. The legislation is the basis of a new and an on-going relationship between the regional council and the iwi of the bay and I commend the bill to the House.