Simpson Scott: Riccarton Racecourse Development Enabling Bill Riccarton Racecourse Bill — First ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSimpson Scott: Riccarton Racecourse Development Enabling Bill Riccarton Racecourse Bill — First Readings[Sitting date: 22 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7542. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): We have been concentrating this afternoon on quite a bit of Christchurch legislation and this is another piece of legislation—in fact two pieces of legislation—that is going to further assist the regeneration of Christchurch after the dreadful earthquakes some 5 years ago. As chairman of the Local Government and Environment Committee I am very much looking forward to going to Riccarton to hear submissions on these composite bills because I think the Minister for Building and Housing the Hon Dr Nick Smith really set out in his introductory speech in these first readings what an elegant and sophisticated solution this particular series of bills is in terms of finding a nice answer to achieve several things.Firstly the position of the land at the Riccarton racing club that the board now administers when it was first established back in the 1800s was of course right out in the countryside and it was a long way from what is now urban Christchurch. So the club has in fact a very large area of land there and these bills will enable some 40 hectares of that Riccarton Racecourse area to be developed for housing—much-needed housing. Notwithstanding the comments of Dr Megan Woods housing is needed and I am sure that she acknowledges that. There will be other infrastructural issues that will result but I am sure it is not beyond the wit of Cantabrians and Christchurch people in this House and the Christchurch City Council to actually work their way around them in order to take advantage of the opportunity presented by these two composite bills being passed by this House.So we have the potential to make use of 40 hectares of what is now prime land that can be developed for residential housing in what is an urban environment within the city bounds of Christchurch. It will provide an opportunity for some 600 new homes to be constructed on land that is currently locked up due to legislative provisions made more than 100 years ago in this House. The Canterbury Jockey Club that venerable institution that Megan Woods made mention of in her speech will be able to free up some funds in order for money to be reinvested in infrastructure for the racing club and the board I am sure will oversee that in due course. So that is a nice finessing of a situation that could not be provided for unless this legislation passes its way through the House.When we go to Riccarton—and as chairman of the committee I do not have any objection at all to having hearings at the jockey club at the Riccarton racing club; I think that that is probably very appropriate and we may be able to align that with a tour of the site maybe. The select committee is well-known for travelling to Christchurch and we will look forward to doing so once again. If that means that our thorough and diligent scrutiny of this bill involves a trip to the racing club then so be it. Far be it from us to prevent that occurring.So these bills will revoke the reserve status that is currently in place over the land at the Riccarton Racecourse. The Government has been committed for a long time—in fact since the earthquakes—to ensuring that every possible avenue for imaginative innovative thinking and solutions can be applied to ease and provide for the future of Canterbury and Canterbury people and this is another step along that way. So when the racing club board came to the Minister with this suggested option I am pleased that he was quick to pick up on it. He took advice and has brought these composite bills to the House.And too I want to just acknowledge the role of the Business Committee and the common-sense approach that it has taken in order to facilitate that these two bills be treated effectively as one piece of legislation involving one series of debates one session of select committee hearings and one process. I think that is a common-sense approach and it is a credit to the members of the Business Committee that they have enabled that to occur.It is no secret that the Christchurch housing market has been under pressure for some time. The construction of a further 600 residential homes on this 40 hectares of land will go some considerable way to easing that pressure and in a timely manner. Although there has been an awful lot of progress made over the last few years and building consent figures have been at record highs in Christchurch there is still much new housing required. So the board of trustees that governs the Riccarton Racecourse Reserve has been seeking opportunities to better utilise the land that they have stewardship over for some time. This neat little use of legislative finessing provides an opportunity for the racing club board to free up that land and then at the same time have up to 600 new homes built. Most of those—many of them—will be in that affordable bracket that price range that has been so elusive to so many people for so long.I am conscious that the racecourse is subject to Ngāi Tahu’s right of first refusal and this right of first refusal will be acknowledged and established in Part 9 of the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998. Acknowledgment of that is made under that legislation and we will be considering those matters. My colleague Nuk Korako will be vigorously paying attention to matters that relate to Ngāi Tahu. He is a staunch and vocal advocate for the iwi and I am sure that he will not be any less forceful in the keen scrutinising of this legislation as he is with every other piece of legislation.This on the face of it appears to be what I think is a very good piece of legislation. It is a piece of legislation that has the ring of common sense around it and I think that with the support of members across the House we should be able to find that a good result is achievable. The Government actually welcomes this proposal. It is an initiative that has actually come from the Riccarton Racecourse board itself and it wants to use just part of its 123-hectare land bank in order to free up residential homes or the facility to build residential homes. The racecourse is going to benefit financially Christchurch City will benefit via the creation of new residential homes Cantabrians will benefit by having access to new residential properties and it will be part of that regeneration of Christchurch that we have been talking about so much this afternoon. This is a bill that has all the hallmarks of good legislation about it. I am confident that as we go through the select committee process the committee will pay very careful and diligent attention to the detail of the bills and we will if fine tweaking and finessing are required of the legislation in any way be giving very careful attention to those matters. I commend this bill to the House.