Lees-Galloway Iain: National War Memorial Park (Pukeahu) Empowering Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Lees-Galloway Iain: National War Memorial Park (Pukeahu) Empowering Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 28 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:4809. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North) 
: 
 After the speech from that member which strayed so far from the substance of this bill can I say that it is rather amusing to hear Mr Banks from the ACT Party speaking so passionately about a memorial. It will be a memorial to that member and his party that will be constructed in the not too distant future. 
I do want to come back to a very important piece of legislation. The Labour Party will be supporting the National War Memorial Park (Pukeahu) Empowering Bill despite the truncated select committee process which requires the bill to be reported back by 18 September and despite the fact that this bill overrides aspects of the Resource Management Act. We are a constructive Opposition party and we do want to work with the Government where it is appropriate on a project that truly is of national significance. It is a pleasure to finally see a roading project that is of genuine national significance. 
It completes as other members have said a memorial project that was first envisioned really immediately after the First World War or the Great War as it was known at the time—a time when New Zealand was reeling from the deaths of over 18000 of our people who went to Europe and served on behalf of our nation and on behalf of the British Empire. Countless others were injured and countless families were impacted by that really astonishing conflict at a time when the Industrial Revolution had delivered the firepower to create untold damage to people to buildings and to the landscape but had not yet delivered the manoeuvrability for soldiers sailors and airmen and women to be able to manoeuvre around that firepower. 
The effects were devastating and it was out of that devastation that Prime Minister William Massey first explored the idea of a war memorial which of course was first constructed in 1932 with the Carillon followed a few decades later with the Hall of Memories then early this century with the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior and now this project to complete the memorial which is obviously not just to those people who served in the Great War the First World War but also ultimately to those who served in South Africa in the Second World War in Korea in Malaysia and in Viet Nam. Of course we will soon need to add to that list the veterans of our peacekeeping activities in East Timor and those in the Solomon Islands where we have been lucky enough not to lose anybody in combat and of course what is really front of mind for all New Zealanders at the moment those who have fallen in the conflict in Afghanistan. Of course we particularly remember the five who have fallen this month. 
They will be remembered in this National War Memorial Park. It will be a place where New Zealanders can pause reflect on that sacrifice made over the generations by New Zealanders reflect on what it means to build a peaceful world what it means to live in a peaceful nation and what it means to create tolerance and understanding and reflect on our work to find a future without conflict and without that level of sacrifice. It is for all those reasons that we do support this piece of legislation. 
It is disappointing though—and I am sure there will be a lot of people out there who will be disappointed—that it requires this empowering legislation that does override the Resource Management Act and that real traction on this project has taken such a tremendously long time. The idea of the memorial park was first articulated by the then Prime Minister Helen Clark at the time that the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior was first unveiled. Progress was made through to 2008. As recently—well as long ago in fact—as 2009 the Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage Chris Finlayson was saying in response to questions from his own backbenchers that the Government had the project in hand that it did not necessarily want to carry on with the vision that Helen Clark had articulated but that it was making good progress. Well it is lamentable that the progress was not as solid as was made out by the Minister at that time and we find ourselves now more than 3 years after that event debating a bill that gives the Government the ability to rush a project that did not need to be rushed. 
But as I have said we in the Labour Party wish to be constructive and we know that this is a project that New Zealanders want to see fulfilled and that we now need to put aside the unfortunate delay and get on with the project. However we also need to acknowledge that this legislation gives the Government significant power and we need to have the right checks and balances in place to ensure that that power is used appropriately and wisely. 
We are committed to the memorial park and we support this legislation but we do want to see some changes and we hope that these changes are given proper consideration despite the truncated select committee process. The role of the review panel that is established in the legislation needs to be widened in our opinion to include oversight of the consents that are granted. Given the range of consents and the overriding of appeal rights we think that it would be right and would give public confidence to the review process if the review panel had this role. It is especially important in terms of the environment and heritage considerations that will go along with this project. 
The review panel needs to be able to report on its work regularly. We think that a 6-monthly basis would be appropriate. We think that report should be made to a select committee and the most appropriate appears to be the Regulations Review Committee. We would also like to see prior consultation procedures with interested stakeholders before Orders in Council are proposed. The community forum that is established in this legislation could easily fulfil this role. Finally we would also like to see put into the legislation a role for the community forum in being consulted on the final design of the park. We think this is just simply about ensuring that what is created is something that the community can appreciate and that they will be able to buy into. 
As I said this is the completion of a vision that truly goes all the way back over nearly the full century that the completion of this memorial park will acknowledge on 25 April 2015. It is the completion of a vision that many Prime Ministers have articulated most recently of course Helen Clark who was so instrumental in ensuring that that Unknown Warrior was brought back to New Zealand and that we had that focal point of our memorials. This memorial park will be a proper completion of this project and something for all New Zealanders to celebrate—truly a project of national significance.