Muller Todd: Wellington Town Belt Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMuller Todd: Wellington Town Belt Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 16 September 2015. Volume:708;Page:6715. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TODD MULLER (National—Bay of Plenty): It is very exciting to be able to stand and speak to the Wellington Town Belt Bill. It is a bit of a red-letter day as an honourable member mentioned before. For me there are a couple of reasons for this.Firstly I think that this may well be the only time in my political career when I stand shoulder to shoulder on a bill with a man with whom I used to be a student union president. So I acknowledge you Grant and—Grant Robertson: That’s right. You’ll come around again Todd—don’t worry.TODD MULLER: —one or two times it may be—your commitment to this legislation. I also acknowledge the Friends of the Wellington Town Belt. It is great to see that you are here to see the fruits of your collective effort coming in front of us today.Secondly it is good to be talking about something other than avocados. I am sure that it was a very enjoyable conversation earlier.Thirdly I am someone who is passionate about history and actually I am passionate about wide open spaces. So for me there is a convergence here of two things that I am actually quite interested in—and I am seriously interested in this. If you go to Hagley Park in Christchurch or if you go to Maungakiekie Cornwall Park or One Tree Hill you will see examples of our forefathers’ vision in terms of how we create the best place for people to live and of how we get that convergence if you like between places for us to live work and play. I am sure that they used different terminology back then. The Wellington town belt is very much in that same tradition as the vision of those people all those years ago holding a view of what this great city could look like into the future.As we have heard already this afternoon in 1839 those visionaries drafted the initial settlement plan for Port Nicholson. That is an interesting name. Perhaps they should have stayed with it; it sounds slightly more romantic than Wellington. But anyway it did change over time and of course it is now Wellington City. That initial plan to have the town belt hectarage as public property on the condition that no buildings could ever be erected on it was visionary for its time.If you think back to 1839 in England where most if not all of our directions came from back then the idea of a town belt was a novelty. Yes there were parklands in Britain but they were where the wealthy went to cavort on Saturday or Sunday afternoons. Those who lived in the more intense industrial areas of town had no such places. So the vision was to create some green space where people could go regardless of their socio-economic status and enjoy that space. These spaces were called the “lungs” of the city. That was the vision that informed the New Zealand Company all those years ago and it is what we are talking about here in order to ensure that we enshrine it in legislation that is relevant and effective for 2015 but that stays true to that initial vision.As we have heard that initial settlement deed was passed over at 1061 acresby 1873. I need to get this right Mr Robertson so that it is on the record that I am endorsing and supporting you on this issue only. One road—1061 acres; 1 rood and 2 perches. I think I have got that right. It was granted to the city in 1873 as a public recreation ground. Now of course the town belt is 400 hectares and it stretches from Mount Victoria to Te Ahumairangi Hill. But of course that deed when established in 1873 provided the council with its authority to hold and manage the Wellington town belt. Obviously it had certain rules and regulations to underpin it but what we have found through this process—and obviously we will talk through this more specifically when we are in the select committee—is that the old town belt was difficult to interpret. Obviously there are a range of statutes that are now not aligned with other particular bills and Acts which we need to get some congruence around.In particular this bill will provide certainty because it becomes the principal source of the council’s powers for protecting managing and enhancing the Wellington town belt. The bill is in four parts and no doubt we will have time to talk about that in the future. I am pleased to see that in Part 2 not only are the powers listed there but so are the responsibilities that lie with the council in respect of being very overt within a management plan and that of course will get discussed regularly. I would love to carry on but I shall sit down now and look forward to the select committee discussions.