Chadwick Steve: Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Bill — Second Reading 
Chadwick Steve: Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:642;Page:12025] 
STEVE CHADWICK (Labour—Rotorua) 
: 
 I am excited to take a call on the second reading of the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Bill. Too right it is all about politics. Let us just examine the politics behind this bill. This bill is a local bill. This bill has been put up by three territorial local authorities and one regional council and it says everything about the two major parties in this House. On this side of the House is a party that supports local decision-making. This bill has been developed by these local authorities over the last 30 years and not once did any of those three territorial local authorities and the regional council ask for a national park—but of course the member opposite who lives in Titirangi and is a list MP Paula Bennett is a new member. I defer to my colleague Lynne Pillay who has worked alongside these authorities listened to them listened to iwi and found a resolution that matches and gets around both the Resource Management Act and the wishes of these authorities. 
This is interesting politics. This is exactly how we want to see this huge territorial area of Auckland working. We all know that in this House. We want to see local authorities working collegially with the support of regional councils. I say: “Bring on more types of legislation like this. Well done Waitakere.” This legislation is progressive it is really good thinking and it is so positive to see authorities that work together off the rank. I congratulate those authorities today on this work. 
The bill has certainly had a long gestation; it was under the original guardianship of the Rt Hon Jonathan Hunt who told us 30 years ago that this is what people in that region wanted when they saw the incremental creep of development and expansion from Auckland as the metropolitan city. They chose to live in the Waitakere Ranges. They chose to live out there for a lifestyle and for a love of the ecology and the environment. [ 
Interruption 
] He is now a great MP but not 30 years ago—it was Jonathan Hunt. He will be really thrilled to know that collectively today we are going to protect his beloved Waitakere Ranges for whenever he returns home. I am sure he will stroll around them with great joy in his heart. 
I also acknowledge the passion of my “westie” colleagues Lynne Pillay David Cunliffe Chris Carter and Darien Fenton who cajoled lobbied amended and determined progress on the bill. I say to the members opposite that yes we needed to get support to get this bill through and we were determined to wait until we did the groundwork with other parties as is the role of a good MMP Government to get the numbers to get such lofty legislation through to this stage today. I say to Lynne Pillay that that is no mean feat and I take my hat off to her as a colleague and fellow electorate MP. 
Let us just look at what Paula Bennett said about the bill. She was opposed to it. She is a new member and has no idea about the complexities of district planning or about regional council responsibilities with the Resource Management Act. She said: “Let’s just have a national park.” Well I do not think that member opposite ever wrote to the Minister of Conservation saying: “Let’s make Titirangi and Waitakere a national park.” 
Paula Bennett 
: That’s not true. I have tabled the letter. 
STEVE CHADWICK 
: If the member did I say good on her. But this was our approach—supporting those councils. So there was a member going against the local authorities in the very region in which she lived and who had disclosed the idea of a national park. 
The Local Government and Environment Committee worked really well on this bill—and we had a challenge as my colleague Nick Smith says. It was complex for us. It was certainly very complex trying to work through the overlapping and making sure that we were not putting this bill above the precedents and order of the Resource Management Act. But when the select committee went out to Waitakere in Auckland we saw Opposition vehemence. Those who came told us about public meetings where the community was whipped up into a state of anxiety and fear by Opposition members with preconceived notions that people’s very lifestyles would be degraded by this bill. I found that really sad and it is not the way responsible members of the House should act. They should be showing leadership to find solutions for legislation that is before a select committee not sustaining bad feelings out in the community. 
I especially want to acknowledge the work of the Hon Marian Hobbs the previous Minister for the Environment who shared some of Nick Smith’s concerns. She also had an in-depth knowledge of the Resource Management Act and how it applied to the very lofty but cross-boundary approach that these local authorities were undertaking. Her contribution was enormously helpful when the select committee heard 200 submissions and considered advice from officials. 
The members of the select committee always understood that this area is of great significance. We heard about the significance of its cultural value and environmental value to the people of this region. We saw for ourselves the growing pressures of urbanisation on this very very fragile ecological area which has a very high rainfall. People have only to go there to see that for themselves. I believe we got the balance right in managing urban growth and development with the sustainable protection of the natural and cultural value of the Waitakere Ranges. The ranges are very very special; so are the foothills—and the ranges and foothills had to be taken as one. This area is the playground of Auckland people and this bill will strengthen their playground. 
We truly considered the social and economic aspects as well as the environmental aspects and that is what we were expected to do under the provisions of the Local Government Act 2002. I think this legislation is quite iconic because it encapsulates all the aspects of that Act. We took considerable advice to match the provisions of this bill with the provisions of both the Resource Management Act and the Local Government Act—especially in new section 10AA inserted by clause 9 where we attempted to clarify and give certainty to this relationship. 
Opposition members did a very good job in building up fears and anxieties in that community. They said the bill would add costs and endless restrictions and cause delays in granting consents. But that is not the case. In fact this is rather elegant legislation. Through the use of local area plans and the consolidation of the local area plans of three local authorities we have simplified the Resource Management Act process. That is the very issue that the member opposite will take out to the community during the next election. That member will use rhetoric to say that the Resource Management Act is a load of old crock and needs to be fixed. Well it was fixed 2 years ago with 14 amendments to the legislation. Only 1 percent of consents have gone to the Environment Court. The legislation has certainly been amended and strengthened. 
In conclusion this bill is a local bill. It is what the people of the area want. It had 80 percent community support. The bill was promoted by the Waitakere City Council the Rodney District Council and the Auckland Regional Council. The bill will provide a long-term policy framework with statutory support and it will now address the cumulative effects—something the Resource Management Act cannot do on its own. We all acknowledged that fact in the select committee. At this time in the local body electoral cycle the bill will provide long-term certainty beyond the 3-year electoral cycle. The Waitakere Ranges will possess a nationally significant status under this legislation.