Tirikatene RinoRINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. I too am very pleased to speak in support of this bill at its third reading the Tasman District Council (Waimea Water Augmentation Scheme) Bill. This bill is some 20 years in the making. There's been a lot of work that has gone on and I do want to acknowledge the Hon Dr Nick Smith for shepherding this bill through the House and for paying the acknowledgments to all those that have been involved. We're at the last sort of phase within this parliamentary process and of course it is critical that we pass this bill because there are a lot of contractual and ongoing commitments that need to be met for it to actually get built—and that's what we want to see. We want to actually see this project come to fruition and be able to service the Waimea district.I don't intend to take long with my contribution today. I merely want to acknowledge the Tasman District Council under the leadership of Mayor Richard Kempthorne and all of his team who have been involved working very hard with the local communities and with all the affected groups and I must also say with all of the relevant iwi as well to ensure that we can stand today in this House and speak strongly in support of it.I want to just speak to one particular point which came through the committee stage which was raised by the Governance and Administration Committee and that was around the iwi of Te Tau Ihu the eight tribes of the top of the South Island and just ensuring that they were supportive of the additional recognition of their rights of first refusal which would arise on a possible future decommissioning of the site. I can speak in this House today and say that the bill does have the support and I acknowledge all of the iwi concerned but in particular the one iwi who actually are part of the scheme which is Ngāti Kōata who are committing some of their tribal lands to the actual infrastructure project. So I'm pleased that those issues were addressed with all of the iwi concerned but in particular with Ngāti Kōata who will have ongoing relationships with the Tasman District Council and that will be continuing from now and well into the future.Returning to what this bill is about it is about water infrastructure. It is about storing that water and making sure that when it's needed in those dry summer months there is water available to service the rural lands and to service the urban communities as well. I want to acknowledge the Government and our support partners. Our Government has continued the commitment of funding through Crown Irrigation to ensure that financial facility is available to the project likewise through the environment fund as well that's also committed to the project.So this is really a collective effort from the people of New Zealand through the Government in terms of their contributions and I know that we are entrusting—and this project is actually being led by the Tasman District Council with the local community. It's entrusted to them to actually bring the whole project to fruition and I certainly look forward to the day when the dam is operational and I'm sure that will be a day which many in that community who will benefit from the water infrastructure will be looking forward to as well. So with that I commend this bill to the House. Kia ora tātou.