Dean Jacqui: Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Dean Jacqui: Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 14 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6601. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki) 
: 
 I move  
That the Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill be now read a second time 
. The Waitaki District Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill considers three pieces of land in the Waitaki district those being in the town of Oamaru. The purpose of this local bill is to revoke the reserve status of the Palmerston Showgrounds to revoke the reserve status of land in Witham Street in Oamaru and to clarify the status of land known as Lookout Point or Forrester Heights. 
The first two matters in the bill are straightforward. The bill revokes the reservation of the Palmerston Showgrounds land under the Reserves Act 1977 and vests ownership of the land in the Waitaki District Council. The council had thought it owned the land and entered into a sale and purchase agreement with the current lessees. When the ownership is vested in the council with the passage of this bill the council can then sell the property. This is an issue that might well make the junior whip across the House yawn with boredom but I can assure that member that to those people who live at the Palmerston Showgrounds this is a matter that is actually quite important to them and so to— 
Grant Robertson 
: Senior whip. 
JACQUI DEAN 
: Oh I am sorry it is the senior whip. Well you would never know to look at him would you? 
The second item in this bill is the second parcel of land—which again the council thought it owned so it was a mistake on the behalf of the local authority—in Witham Street in about the centre of Oamaru and not too far away from where we live by the way. The council sold the land to the current occupants. The council wishes to put right this mistake and to be able to vest ownership of the property in the current proprietors. Again when I meet those people as I do occasionally when I am out buying bread they ask how the bill is coming along because it is something that they are a bit anxious about. They really would like to have the status of the land where their home is and where they live clarified. So those are the first two issues brought with the Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill. 
Thirdly the council wishes to clarify the status of Lookout Point which is also known as Forrester Heights. For those people who have been to Oamaru Lookout Point is the beautiful piece of land to the south. You look down and you see Oamaru Harbour Oamaru out to Pukeuri out to the north spread out before you. It is truly a beautiful part of Oamaru and a very nice part of the town on a beautiful piece of land. 
The land was originally purchased by the Government from Ngai Tahu as part of the Kemp purchase. That parcel of land now known as Forrester Heights was included in the original subdivision of the town of Oamaru back in the 1900s. The land was set aside in 1885. Under a  
Gazette 
 notice in 1885 it was “ ‘reserved for the purpose’ of an endowment in aid of the funds of the Oamaru Borough Council.” Although the junior whip for the Opposition may yawn at this point this is actually quite pertinent to this bill and it does matter to a lot of people— 
Chris Auchinvole 
: Senior whip. 
JACQUI DEAN 
: Oh senior whip? Are you sure? He is? Oh OK. The confusion has been whether the word “reserve” relates to whether the land has been designated a reserve under the Reserves Act or whether “reserve” means set apart— 
Chris Hipkins 
: How are Jemima and Big Ted? 
JACQUI DEAN 
: —I know I am probably speaking too quickly for the whip but anyway we will box on. 
The Local Government and Environment Committee received extensive advice on this very point. Based on the evidence presented to us by submitters—and we received some quite extensive submissions on this point from a number of submitters and I want to thank them for the work they did on this bill—and also the advice the committee received from officials the committee concluded that Lookout Point is not a reserve and confirmed it as being vested as an endowment in the council in aid of borough funds. 
It is interesting to note that this issue was also canvassed by the Primary Production Committee as part of the Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill in clauses 18 to 20. In its select committee report the committee noted that Land Information New Zealand and the Department of Conservation which both have an interest in this had reviewed their records and they were satisfied that treating Lookout Point as a reserve was—and I will quote from the report because I think it adds weight to the decision of the committee—“a genuine mistake resulting from the various meanings and legal uses of the word ‘reserve’.” So it has been the most terrible tangle and it has certainly tied up the local community for a number of years. 
The Local Government and Environment Committee received a number of submissions on the Forrester Heights part of the bill. There were around six or seven submissions in favour and 10 against this particular provision in the bill. There were no submissions against the first two provisions that I outlined but there was certainly more controversy around this third provision. 
Also I want to take time to thank all those submitters who took the time to join us by teleconference to travel to Wellington or to write in with their submissions and very helpful photos and documentation in aid of their submission. I can assure them that the committee looked at each and every submission and argued—as committees do—over every point raised. I am happy with the conclusion that the committee came to. A number of those submitters focused on the status of Forrester Heights on its status as reserve land or otherwise and a number of submissions and submitters focused on the past present and future potential uses of the land known as Forrester Heights. 
I want to cover now matters that were not considered as part of the bill. Any proposed use of the land is a matter for the Waitaki District Council and is out of the scope of this bill. I do not propose to tell the local authority what to do with the land. It is not the job of Parliament to do that and it is out of the scope of this Waitaki bill. Whether the land has been used perhaps wrongly or rightly as a public reserve since the 1890s whether the land has under-runners and is prone to movement or not or whether the land should or should not be subdivided and sold is not the business of the Local Government and Environment Committee and indeed is not the business of Parliament. I am firmly of the view that through this bill Parliament has been asked to clarify the status of the land and it has been asked to do only that. It is for the local authority together with the local community to decide any use that the land might be put to in the future. 
I am very happy to bring this bill to the House on behalf of the Waitaki District Council. This has been a difficult and longstanding issue for the Oamaru community. I was pleased to hear the Waitaki District Mayor Alex Familton tell the committee during his submission that whatever the outcome of this bill whatever the status of the land he would put any future use of that land back to the community. I applaud him for that. I commend the bill to the House.