Smith Nick: Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Smith Nick: Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 13 June 2012. Volume:680;Page:2947. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 I want to compliment David Parker Eugenie Sage and also Denis O’Rourke on those thoughtful contributions on this bill the Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill. I also want to compliment Jacqui Dean the sponsor of this bill. Jacqui Dean in my view is one of the most activist local members of Parliament that we have in Parliament. She has done some magnificent work in terms of the twilight reserve in the Mackenzie Country which was announced earlier this week. There is the Mackenzie Sustainable Futures Trust which she has been the flag bearer for as well as initiatives such as this bill. I also note her bill in respect of Easter trading and the exemptions that she is trying to get for her community. She is a very effective member of Parliament for Waitaki.  
I want to make three points about this bill. The first of those is that it is interesting that when one of the really hot bills of the week is about being able to sell assets and buy others—in the form of the Mixed Ownership Model Bill which I think we will be debating tomorrow—there is a pretty strong consensus within the Parliament that it is actually really sensible for public entities whether they be councils or otherwise to sell some land and to use that asset to do other things. In this case the member has promoted the view that these 10 hectares of land could quite suitably be sold and that the money should be used to fund things like the opera house in Oamaru—a magnificent building and actually a project that Jacqui Dean worked on as the deputy mayor of that community of Oamaru.  
I just have to ask the question of members opposite: where is all the rhetoric about no asset sales? I thought asset sales were the end of the world! I keep seeing these brochures everywhere: “Labour Stands New Zealand First Stands and the Greens Stand For Absolutely No Asset Sales”. And yet we have a bill here that is to facilitate the sale of land to allow communities to be able to rejig their capital balance sheets and use these assets. It might have been appropriate in the 19th century for them to be owned by a public entity but actually subdividing and selling the land and putting that asset into other things is perfectly logical. I just challenge the members opposite: if the logic applies to councils being able to sell these three blocks of land and use that money for other assets is that not exactly what this Government is doing tomorrow with the Mixed Ownership Model Bill? I am just hoping that Eugenie Sage Denis O’Rourke and David Parker will reflect on the sensible speeches that they have given this evening and will make sure that they do the same tomorrow.  
The second point I want to make is that I actually think in the debate about local government—and I was fascinated when we debated the bill yesterday—that members are saying that we should give local communities more say over their future and that local democracy is what it is all about. Well if we have local democracy should not councils be able to rejig the mix of land and reserves that they have in their communities so that they work best for the area? I think it is horribly bureaucratic. The reality is that many of our reserves and blocks of lands that were set aside were set aside for the needs of communities 100 years ago—you know those smatterings of little reserves that get negligible use. It would actually be really sensible for us to give councils more flexibility and more local democracy to be able to make decisions on blocks of land like this. Really we should be reflecting on why it is that it requires a bill of Parliament for the local Waitaki council to change the status of 10 hectares of land. Should we not as parliamentarians really be reflecting on whether our laws actually do give local democracy and do let councils have a say about their areas of land and how they might be more usefully used for communities as they manage their assets?  
I am a member of the Local Government and Environment Committee. I am going to look forward to hearing the community on this bill. I really do encourage this House around those issues of local democracy sensible utilisation of communities’ assets and rationalisation. It is really good sensible policy that is being promoted here by Jacqui Dean. I just hope that the consensus that the Parliament can find on this bill can be found on other bills because it is good sensible policy.