Woods Megan: Riccarton Bush Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Woods Megan: Riccarton Bush Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 17 October 2012. Volume:684;Page:5927. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram) 
: 
 It is my pleasure to take a call on this Riccarton Bush Amendment Bill at its second reading. I do want to as did my colleague the Hon Annette King acknowledge the local member the Hon Gerry Brownlee who has brought this legislation to this House. But I also want to acknowledge the Riccarton Bush Trustees for their very hard work that they have put into this piece of legislation along with the Christchurch City Council’s legal services team who have done much work in preparing the bill that we are examining now. 
Riccarton Bush is an incredibly important part of Christchurch and its natural and built history—Riccarton Bush and Riccarton House which members have alluded to—stand on that land. It has been an incredibly important part of our city for some time but I would like to suggest that it is even more important in Christchurch as it is recreated post-earthquake. That heritage has become something of a contentious issue in our city. This is a very important part of our heritage. It is part of our natural history and it is also part of our built history. We are having the second reading of this legislation at a time when much of Christchurch’s heritage buildings are being subjected to the wrecker’s ball. There are many people who are feeling a great sense of grief and a great deal of loss of heritage in our city. So anything that this House can do to protect heritage and to ensure that something of our past remains in Christchurch is something that members on this side certainly are pleased to support. 
I noted that Gerry Brownlee in his speech in this reading of the bill talked about Hagley Park and its role in dividing the Presbyterians and the Anglicans in settlement Christchurch. I would like to suggest that maybe some new parks are going to be needed between the current Anglican Church synod and the people of Christchurch over its decision to bowl the Christchurch Cathedral. These are things that Christchurch people feel dearly. Their attachment to our history and our built environment is something that runs very deep. As members and I have noted in the previous reading of this bill this is an incredibly important part of our history. It speaks to so many aspects of it from as I said our natural history through to very early Maori settlement history pre-dating Ngai Tahu through to the colonisation of Christchurch and to how it was that our city grew where it grew and the different strains of migration involved in that. 
There are a couple of other things that I would like to acknowledge in this call that I am taking on this bill. I have already acknowledged the work that the trust board has done in terms of preparing this legislation to bring to the House but I would also like to acknowledge the Riccarton Bush Trust and the members of that trust who did come along to the Local Government and Environment Committee hearing in Christchurch. It was probably somewhat of a surprise for committee members there to know that members of the trust had gathered around listening to the first reading speeches on this piece of legislation and that it was an incredibly important occasion for them. It was important because they had put so much work into this. They know that to preserve this incredibly important part of our history that work was needed. I think it was touching for all members of the committee to know that those trust members had watched the first reading and had taken it on board. It is also worth noting that members of that trust did bring a book to gift to our Parliamentary Library that further outlines the history of this incredibly important part of Christchurch. I would like to acknowledge the members of the trust who did that and to thank them for their gift to our library. 
One of the things that I would especially like to commend in this legislation is the way in which the board was very involved in putting together this piece of work and the way in which the local people were consulted. I think the way in which this piece of legislation was worked through the way in which local communities were involved and the way that there has been absolutely no contention whatever with this piece of legislation shows us what happens when you actually do involve local people in decision making. When local people feel that they have a stake in what is important to them be that their heritage building their local school or anything else that is important— 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: Their regional council. 
Dr MEGAN WOODS 
: Their regional council—that is right the Hon Ruth Dyson—and whether or not they get to vote for their local regional councillors. So it is very important. You can see the difference. What we see is great anxiety in Christchurch about so many decisions that this Government is making at the moment. But when such as in this bill local people are consulted and it is done very well we can see the very real difference that is made. 
We do support the tidying up that is in this legislation. People have talked about the various pieces of legislation that it tidies up. I think an important point to note in this is that although there was some suggestion that there should be a repeal and a new piece of legislation for many people it was incredibly important that there was the perseverant of the historical Acts because they were as much a history of Riccarton Bush and Riccarton House as the grounds and the flora and fauna itself. The legislation was an incredibly important part of the story of how this part of our city had come to be such a protected part of our land. So we very much welcome this tidying up. 
We welcome this particularly—and I made this point in my first reading speech—in light of the local government reforms that are currently going through this House. Who knows whether Riccarton Bush and Riccarton House would be deemed a core service under the new regime that we are going to be living under soon with the local government reforms that would come through? This bill gives this incredibly important historical site within our city protections and importantly it gives the funding that it receives some protection even under those local government reforms. There are many people ourselves included who are sort of not quite sure what is going to fall under this core funding and whether or not it is going to fall outside of what the Government opposite considers to be core—you know V8 Supercars races garden shows. Who knows when it would come to Riccarton Bush and Riccarton House? 
So we congratulate the local member the Hon Gerry Brownlee on bringing this bill to the House and sponsoring this local bill to the House so that we can ensure that this incredibly important part of our heritage is preserved. In fact we would welcome that honourable member bringing more bills to this House that would look to preserve the heritage of Christchurch. We think that it is a great road for him to go down. [ 
Interruption 
] We look forward to the “Cathedral Bill”—that is right Ruth Dyson. We would welcome it and indeed offer support if the Hon Gerry Brownlee were to bring a bill to the House seeking to protect the Christchurch Cathedral Cranmer Court and the list really could go on. Perhaps the Hon Ruth Dyson in her call on this bill might suggest a few other bills that the Hon Gerry Brownlee could bring to this House because it will be a very long catalogue of heritage bills that we would like to see here. 
So well done to everyone in bringing this legislation. It is important. It was important before the earthquakes in Christchurch but it is even more important in post-earthquake Christchurch. I think that it shows us what can be achieved when we work with our local communities rather than imposing decisions on them and when we involve local people in local decisions and we let their voices be heard. There are so many salient tales for us in this piece of legislation and so many key learnings that we need to draw out from how this was done: involve local people have good and accurate information to make your decisions on and respect your past. Labour is happy to commend this bill to the House.