Sage Eugenie: Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Sage Eugenie: Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 13 June 2012. Volume:680;Page:2945. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
EUGENIE SAGE (Green) 
: 
 I am pleased to take a short call on this Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill. I congratulate the member for Waitaki Jacqui Dean on representing her community and bringing the bill to this House. In my short time here I have noticed that small local bills that might on their surface seem uncontroversial can actually reveal a range of issues beneath them when they get to select committee and when the public has an opportunity to make submissions. I suspect that this bill may be one of those.  
The Green Party will be supporting this bill going to the Local Government and Environment Committee. As others in the House have explained it does seek to rectify several drafting errors. As the Hon David Parker has noted—and I thank him for explaining a bit more of the history of the third piece of land at Forrester Heights—the first two changes in the bill are uncontroversial. They seek to fix errors by the Waitaki District Council in purporting to sell land that the council did not in fact have the power to sell. Obviously those errors have implications for the current occupiers of the land so should be resolved. Similarly with the land under the former caretaker’s cottage at the Palmerston Showgrounds that also has been sold purportedly and it was not clear then that it was the Crown rather than the council that had title to the land. So that error should also be corrected.  
The land at Forrester Heights and Lookout Point as its name suggests has got spectacular views of the coast and of the harbour. It is said by the Waitaki District Council that it was an administrative error way back in 1937 when the letter “d” was omitted from the word “reserved” so the land become reserve rather than endowment land and open to the Oamaru Borough Council then to do whatever with it. This change in this bill which concerns a lot of local people has much wider implications because of course by vesting the land with the council as endowment land the council can sell it. Even on the council website there is a very attractive brochure that promotes the Forrester Heights subdivision as having spectacular sea views being north-facing sun-drenched safe secluded and sheltered. To me that suggests that the land has quite important scenic and amenity values which the community may well want to hold in public ownership. So I look forward to the submissions from the community when this bill comes before the select committee about whether the reserve status has in fact been incorrectly given and whether the land should stay as reserve and should stay in public ownership.  
It was also instructive to look at the council’s draft long-term plan. The council pointed out that it was having to increase its rates and increase its revenue generation—and the Forrester Heights subdivision proposal is part of the council’s property plan process—because of increased insurance costs and also because of reduced Government funding for local roads. As other members have mentioned this money from Forrester Heights may be going to the opera house but the fact that the council is having to sell potential assets because of reduced Government funding highlights what this Government is doing with local government. Not only is it reducing the funding for local roads but also it is seeking to interfere more in local government and direct local government through the extensive powers that the bill we considered yesterday is giving to the Minister of Local Government. Potentially he will push councils and direct them to sell more assets such as this important land at Forrester Heights.  
Because of the potential can of worms that there may be in relation to the status of the land I look forward to the bill being considered by the select committee and to hearing public submissions on it. Thank you.