Dyson RuthHon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills): It is a pleasure for me to take a call in these third readings of the Riccarton Racecourse Development Enabling Bill and the Riccarton Racecourse Bill. As was made obvious during the early stages of the debate Labour supports these bills. But I have to say it is a bit rich actually even for the Minister for Building and Housing—even for that Minister—to have him claim credit for the development of 600 houses in Canterbury which were entirely instigated by the board of the Riccarton Racecourse. I do not think that Minister is a member of the board. That Minister was asked to shepherd this legislation or part of this legislation through the House and good on him for doing that. Good on him for getting the support of so many members of this House. But for him to claim credit for the development as if it were a State housing or social housing proposal just beggars belief. But they have got to be desperate for any glimpse of light any silver lining on the dark cloud of the few weeks that they have had. Usually after a Budget the Government sort of bounces around the place. Well the only place this Government has been bouncing since the Budget is down. It has been showing its true colours—increasingly arrogant and out of touch with the wishes of everyday New Zealanders. It has been totally ignoring the big issues. The big issues that people are concerned about do not seem to be anywhere near this Government's agenda. It has totally ignored the housing crisis—arguing about whether or not it is a crisis does not help a single person move into a warm dry affordable home. It totally ignores the jobs issue it totally ignores the wages issue and now it is ignoring the increasing cost that families in New Zealand have to face when sending their children to their local school. Education costs jobs housing and health underfunding are all issues that are totally ignored by this Government. Under these two bills 600 houses will be built on what is currently Riccarton Racecourse land and 30 percent of those houses are going to be sold for less than $450000. That figure has been described as affordable. I certainly hope it is because we know that unlike when we were young when we grew up and knew that if we worked hard and saved hard that we would be able to put a deposit on a home and call it our own—many members in this House have had the opportunity to do that to buy a home. Sadly for many New Zealanders now even $450000 in Christchurch is well out of their range of affordability. I hope that a lot of people who currently cannot afford to buy a home are able to buy one of those affordable homes. But I am sure that despite that we are still seeing the Kiwi dream of owning your own home being totally off the agenda for many New Zealand families and particularly for young people. So 40 hectares of the current entire Riccarton Racecourse area is going to be turned over for housing. As I said earlier this is a move that was entirely instigated by the board of trustees of Riccarton Racecourse and I want to pay tribute not just to the current trustees but to former trustees as well. They have had a huge responsibility since the instigation of the Christchurch Racecourse Reserve Act of 1878 to provide this public racecourse for the benefit not just of Cantabrians but of all New Zealanders and more recently from the Reserves Act of 1977. So those two pieces of legislation are what is being changed by these two bills—the Reserves Act and the Christchurch Racecourse Reserve Act of 1878. We had a Government bill and a local bill initially. I queried during the Committee stage about whether it was the first time that we had had a Government bill and a local bill being heard in tandem and I want to return to the answer to that question. I had hoped that the Minister would have been able to answer it during the Committee stage. I hoped even more that he would have been able to address it in his third reading speech but he did not. I guess for many in the National Government and particularly the Ministers of the National Government they will be hoping that the passing of these bills—and I certainly support their passing—will quieten down the noise around housing issues. But what it will actually do in reality is put an even stronger spotlight on who is doing what to address the housing crisis in New Zealand. We know one of the organisations that really put its hand up and said: We can see our people in trouble with nowhere decent to sleep at night—including children sleeping in cars and garages for heaven's sake—in New Zealand in 2016." Te Puea Marae put their hand up and said: "We will help." I want to pay a special tribute to them. I think that was a courageous thing that they did. They did it for the right reasons. They did it with the help of hundreds of other community organisations and individuals who donated goods and services to Te Puea Marae. What we saw this week was a blight on the integrity of our Parliament. We saw private information—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! [Interruption] Order! That is not in the bill—that is not in the bill.Hon RUTH DYSON: —about an individual from Te Puea Marae who are providing housing in the same way as is being provided under these two Riccarton Racecourse pieces of legislation that we are debating. We saw the chairman of that marae being undermined and slighted—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order!Hon RUTH DYSON: —because he had put his hand up to address the housing situation.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! Look I have allowed quite a wide range on the overall housing stuff but you are getting into specifics in Auckland and I asked you to come back to this bill.Hon Simon Bridges: Ruth Dyson.Hon RUTH DYSON: As I—Mr Bridges. As I noted earlier in my contribution during the Committee stage I did talk about whether or not somebody who followed Parliament closely would be able to advise us in the House about whether this was the first time that both a private local bill and a Government bill had been heard together at the Committee stage. As I said I was disappointed that the Minister did not answer me and no other member of the House was able to provide that information. But I am now able to advise the House that the Maraeroa A and B Blocks Claims Settlement Bill which was a Government bill and the Maraeroa A and B Blocks Incorporation Bill which was a private bill were cognate throughout their passage through the House but that neither of those bills had a Committee stage. So we have set a new precedent. We have set a precedent—of course it is new—in this House with the debating of these two bills one a private local bill and one a Government bill being held at the same time during the Committee stage. Of course it was sensible to do that because both bills are needed in order to change those two pieces of legislation that control the ability of the Riccarton Racecourse board of trustees to alter its legislative mandate and enable it to turn those 40 hectares into a housing development. I want to make some concluding comments not in any criticism of the legislation because we are supportive of it but just to raise the concerns that were raised right at the original first reading—actually that were raised by my colleague Dr Megan Woods following her discussion with surrounding residents of this area. This was not concern about the housing development in itself but concern about the increased traffic pressure. We know how bad the traffic is around that part of Christchurch. It is not Auckland—it does move—but it is pretty congested. It is one of the peak traffic points. There was no engagement with either the city council or the regional council in terms of what additional transport opportunities might be opened up as a result of this significant increase in housing. I would like to see the Minister for Building and Housing now take an additional step and work with the city council and the regional council to see how we can ensure that during the development of the site we do not end up with unpleasant road congestion as a result of these additional homes. The surrounding area as the Minister pointed out is magnificent. It is close to the university it is close to schools and it is close to parks. There is lots of activity in this area. They have an excellent member of Parliament. Dr Megan Woods is the member of Parliament for Wigram. Riccarton is actually divided between two electorates and the people who live on this side of Riccarton are very grateful they are in the Wigram electorate—Dr Megan Wood's electorate—rather than the others. Can I just say in conclusion that a lot of people who contributed to this deserve to be thanked particularly the board of trustees and the city council and of course the Local Government and Environment Committee and its officials. Thank you."