Woodhouse Michael: Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWoodhouse Michael: Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 19 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3394. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (Minister of Immigration): It is a great pleasure to take a call in the second reading of the Reserves and Others Lands Disposal Bill. I do so not only as the previous Minister for Land Information but also as the National member of Parliament based in Dunedin for whom the three issues that this bill relates to in the Dunedin area are very important. I want to take issue with both Mr Prosser and Ms Sage over the inference that this bill is somehow before us because the Government is running out of work to do. I suggest that quite the opposite is the case. As the Minister I was working very hard with the Leader of the House in what was a very crowded legislative programme in the lead up to the 2014 election to bring this bill back and to have it passed into law.There are some very important things in this bill and Mr Prosser and his party seek to have the bill dismissed. Well that will make him welcome at the Port Chalmers Bowling Club I am sure. They will be buying drinks for him; as will certainly the members of the Taieri airfield who are very keen to ensure that the changes being made through this bill are passaged in a timely manner. And indeed they have been lobbying me—Hon David Parker: Come on—a timely manner?Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: Well in a more timely manner. And I think Mr O’Connor did articulate the problem that has been faced by successive Ministers of Land Information insofar as the bill is intended to be non-controversial and there were a couple of matters that were quite the opposite. Mr Parker is the architect of the bill and I would make no criticism about that because those matters did become apparent after the bill’s introduction.I want to acknowledge and congratulate my friend and colleague the very smart Jacqui Dean member for Waitaki. Mr Prosser has mentioned—but others may not be aware—that the issues concerning Lookout Point have been dealt with through a local bill brought to this House by that hard-working member for Waitaki because of the importance that the Waitaki District Council and the people of Ōāmaru placed on those issues. I presume that Minister Upston will be bringing a Supplementary Order Paper in the Committee stage to have the relevant clauses—18 to 20—removed because indeed the effects of those clauses have already been made thanks to that local bill.I do want to turn to the issues related to matters in the greater Dunedin area and in particular the Octagon. I think the matter is important to the Port Chalmers Bowling Club in respect of the recreation reserve and its ability to be able to formalise the leasing arrangements with the Dunedin City Council. I daresay they will not be building statues of Louise Upston down the main street of Port Chalmers any time soon—or of any National MP for that matter—but they may be building statues in the Octagon.Hon David Parker: Was the Star fountain an illegal structure?Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: Well Mr Parker raises a very good question about the Star fountain. It was built before I was born and when that member was in nappies—I think it was about 1963. But actually in order to tell that story one needs to go back to the very early stages of the establishment of Dunedin City. In 1854 in fact the Dunedin Public Lands Ordinance proclaimed that “it shall not be lawful to erect any building whatever within or upon the centre area of the square called Moray Place”. Of course Moray Place shrouds what we now know as the Octagon and it was a barren piece of land for about 10 years. Even after the gold money came rushing into the city in 1861 Bell Hill was a barrier between the Exchange and the Octagon which really prevented the Octagon from being the true spiritual centre of the city that Charles Kettle envisaged. So when with hammer and sickle Bell Hill was cut through not only creating a passage through the Octagon but also joining effectively the city together with one main street the Octagon then became the centre of the city.Despite that ordinance it appears to have been completely ignored for over 100 years. In fact Cargill’s monument was first erected and then when the central carriageway was erected the monument itself was moved south to the Exchange. Of course the Burn’s statue then fast followed and other structures in complete breach of first the Dunedin Public Lands Ordinance and then the reserves legislation that was passed in 1957 which confirmed the prohibition on the erection of buildings or other structures—they did not have to be buildings. Thanks to an endowment I think from The Star the Star fountain was erected in 1963. It cost about £5000 in old money. I am sure Mr Parker and other MPs who grew up in Dunedin have fond memories of heading there on a Friday night and watching the display of the fountain and the magnificent colours to the tune of the Waltz of the Flowers I think it was. I am trying to remember when it was. It was probably in the early 1990s. When the last big renovation of the Octagon was done the Star fountain was taken away and a stage was erected. It was intended to be a permanent structure but the 1957 legislation that this bill intends to remedy prevented that structure from becoming permanent. Years after it was built and it had become the centre of plenty of events—I think the Christmas lights were switched on from that stage and so on—the council was required or took it upon itself to de-erect that structure because it was in breach of the present 1957 legislation. This bill changes that. That is actually very important.I have been approached by those city leaders who are in charge of the commemorations for the First World War—the WW100 committee down there—and they have a plan which is as yet not funded but I am hoping that they will be able to raise some funds to create a statue of a soldier and his mother looking down lower Stuart Street towards the Dunedin Railway Station. They have got a very elaborate structure planned but it will be unlawful to erect that structure in 2017 or 2018 as they hope to do unless this legislation is passed. So I challenge Mr Prosser and his New Zealand First committee to come back to this House during the Committee stage and say why this is so trivial and unimportant to the people who are affected by it including in Dunedin that it should be dismissed. Certainly the Taieri Airport stakeholders have been on at me and probably to many other Dunedin-based MPs to have those changes made and indeed I was talked out of following the clever thinking of Ms Dean in creating a local bill because of the undertaking that we had that this bill would be passed now that the controversial features of it have been removed.I want to acknowledge John Bezett probably the longest-serving Dunedin city councillor his advocacy to get this thing through and his colleagues. I also think that the stakeholders in the Winton Racecourse the Braemar Hospital and the Wairau Hospital will appreciate the many other benefits that will come out of this bill when it is passed. We have probably stacked up a few other reserves issues around the country in the time since this one was last fashioned and I do hope that we can get back to the cycle of passing one of these bills in a reasonably more timely matter every Parliament or two. These are important matters for local communities. I support this bill. I am pleased to see it up. I am looking forward to its passage and I commend it.