Shaw James: Wellington Town Belt Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeShaw James: Wellington Town Belt Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 16 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:9836. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JAMES SHAW (Co-Leader—Green): It is a delight to stand in support of the Wellington Town Belt Bill. I would just like to start by commenting on some of the things that I have previously heard so far in this second reading debate. One can usually rely on Paul Foster-Bell to politicise what is usually a completely non-political and non-controversial bill. But then it is generally Paul’s self-bestowed role to defend indefensible causes and in so doing on this occasion preserve the ability of Government to knock a seven-lane highway through the town belt which of course it has managed to do.In referring to “Alastair” I am presuming he was referring to his colleague Alastair Scott a Wellington Central resident and the MP for Wairarapa and a keen follower of National Party orthodoxy along with Mr Foster-Bell himself.The Green Party does support this bill. I will refer to some of the clauses that have been referred to by previous speakers as well particularly clause 23. But I would like to start by just acknowledging the effort that has gone into shepherding this bill through particularly on behalf of the member of Parliament for Wellington Central Grant Robertson who as has been mentioned has done a sterling job of this over a number of years. This bill has been in development in its current form since 2010. As was mentioned previously Mr Robertson did start work on this in 2008 but he has told me a story in which he actually first met some of the key stakeholders and shall I say objectors to this legislation as far back as 2001—well before he became a member of Parliament and when the seat for Wellington Central was merely a glint in his eye. I think this has been a bill that has had a very long gestation period and I do want to acknowledge Mr Robertson for his leadership on this. I would also like to acknowledge the efforts of the Wellington City Council and the many people around the Wellington City Council who have been part of the process up to this point.I would like to acknowledge that this bill actually came to the House complete and having already received 250 submissions. Before the bill even got to its first reading 250 people had submitted on it it had been through a full process it was beautifully drafted it had already passed parliamentary counsel and I would have thought actually that at that point it was pretty much ready to pass through virtually all stages of the House.But of course we know that the Government did object to the idea that the bill might provide a barrier to its ability to complete its roads of national significance programme particularly its intention of putting up to seven lanes of motorway on the Hātaitai side of the Mount Victoria Tunnel and it was not going to allow that to happen. That is where the changes to the bill that have been made subsequent to its initial drafting have come from. There I am referring of course to clause 23 “Application of Public Works Act 1981”.As the bill is not in my name I may have a little more latitude to speak around clause 23. One of the things that Mr Robertson mentioned is that the bill as amended removes the clause that said that Wellingtonians were interested persons in this bill. As a number of speakers have already mentioned Wellingtonians are actually very interested persons in their town belt and so it is a great shame that that clause has been changed the way that it has and that Wellingtonians do not have the rights to act as interested persons under the law which they did have in the initial draft of the bill.As I mentioned the main objection from the Government side here which had to be accounted for in order to get the bill passed at all was really the ability to apply the Public Works Act so that the Government could complete the roads of national significance programme through to the airport.I do think that we did manage to shift that at least a wee bit so that it was not just in reference to specific roads because making a law that is supposed to last for perhaps another 100 years or longer to apply with a single project in mind is actually quite bad law. Even though there was that objection that change in that clause I feel that it actually made it through the select committee process and was improved with that in mind.I do also want to acknowledge that there were a number of submitters—and actually there have been people all the way through this process—who have been concerned about whether this bill undermines the town belt in terms of its reserve status. I want to say that I and the Green Party are also satisfied based on the best advice that we received—and there was a lot of very high quality advice received—that not only does it not weaken the status of the town belt it actually does enhance it. So the Green Party does support the bill despite our reservations around the changes to clause 23. It is a great thing that what has been a multiplicity of law gets cleaned up that the future governance arrangements have been dealt with and that the town belt’s legal status is much clearer now—or that once the bill passes and becomes law it will be a lot clearer.Also I am very pleased to note that this legislation actually does increase the size of the town belt and so it does restore to some extent the original vision. One of the most fascinating parts of the process for me as we have been examining the bill was looking at the original maps of the original town belt reservation. If only we had managed to preserve that original intention it would be an even more glorious space for Wellington even more of an actual belt—you can actually see it as a belt when you see those original maps and get some idea of the vision of the people who originally put this together.The third thing that I would like to say about it—and a number of other Green Party members who have spoken on this bill previously have also mentioned it—is that this bill does recognise mana whenua and does provide a pathway to recognition of the original rights and ownership of Māori here in the Wellington region. We think that goes some way towards the post-colonial nature because of course the original town belt was a deeply colonial construct. This does move us forward into the future and we are really satisfied with that.As a Wellingtonian as someone who has lived inside the town belt in the times that I have lived in Wellington as I was growing up—Grant Robertson: In houses as opposed to—JAMES SHAW: —in houses in the town belt; not on leased land and so on but shall I say within the confines of the town belt. I grew up here and explored it many times as I grew up. It is a real source of pride to me that we are now moving this bill through the House. Thank you.