Twyford Phil: National War Memorial Park (Pukeahu) Empowering Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Twyford Phil: National War Memorial Park (Pukeahu) Empowering Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 28 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:4816. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
PHIL TWYFORD (Labour—Te Atatu) 
: 
 It is my pleasure to contribute to this debate on the National War Memorial Park (Pukeahu) Empowering Bill. This legislation would not have been necessary if National had not taken away the project funding that Labour had allocated in the closing period of the fifth Labour Government. The park would have been ready for the 2015 centenary of Gallipoli and we would not have had the need in this House to pass empowering legislation if that had been done. But I want to say that Labour supports this bill. We believe that New Zealanders will see the need for this legislation and that New Zealanders will appreciate the plan that is in place for this war memorial park. 
I want to say to the Green Party members here today “Enough with the sanctimony. Enough.” I feel absolute exasperation that the Greens would come here and lecture the House on this bill because it overrides the Resource Management Act because it overrides the Historic Places Act and because it overrides the Public Works Act. These bits of legislation are not some kind of religion. They are not our constitution. They are legislation that we have there to govern the process of resource management and land use. They are practical bits of information that are there for practical purposes. With this project we are not rebuilding the Clyde Dam and we are not desecrating some national landscape. What we are doing is converting a piece of urban cityscape into what will undoubtedly be a fantastic national memorial for the people of Wellington and the people of this country and I urge the Greens to reconsider their position on this. 
This as Iain Lees-Galloway said will be a park of national significance. I want to just talk in the minutes remaining about how this is an exercise in constructing and building a special place in Wellington for people to come—a place of contemplation a place of reflection. I think it will be a tremendous contribution to our national life as a country. Like other members will have done I have looked at the concept drawings for the memorial park and I think they are appropriate. They are grand and they will leave as a legacy for this country a really special place for people to come and reflect on our history and on the sacrifice that generations of New Zealanders—men and women who fought overseas and particularly those who gave their lives—have made. 
I just want to stress how valuable it is to create places like this. There are one or two others in New Zealand that I can think of. The Waitangi Treaty grounds are another place where the history is palpable when you are there. It is a place of reflection where you can contemplate this nation’s modern history. I think as Andrew Williams said that the cenotaph at the Auckland War Memorial Museum is another similar place. In another city that I am familiar with in Washington DC where I lived for several years the Lincoln Memorial was perhaps my favourite of all the Washington memorials—an amazing place where people would go day and night to remember the abolition of slavery the civil war and in fact the civil rights movement. That particular place in Washington DC is a remarkable place to go to visit to soak up the ambience and to reflect on the country’s history. 
I also want to just note that it is interesting I think that in order to create this park of national significance it is necessary to remove the traffic from this place. It would be unthinkable to build a war memorial park of the kind of scale and the ambition and the quality that we will want for this park without getting cars out of it by building a tunnel. Increasingly in our cities people are recognising that it is time to reclaim the streets of our cities from the car because when you—as we have done for so many years—build cities around the motorcar it creates uncivilised environments that are not fit for pedestrians are not fit for people to spend any time in and are certainly not fit for places of reflection or contemplation. I think that we are seeing more and more in our cities a pedestrianisation and a reclaiming of our streets from the cars. 
The last point that I wanted to make is about the number of provisions that Labour is requesting be inserted into the bill as a condition of our supporting the legislation. We ask the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee to consider these matters. First that the role of the review panel that is established under this legislation be widened to include oversight of the consents. Given the range of consents and the overriding of appeal rights under this bill we think it would give the public some confidence in the process if the review panel is given this widened role. That is especially important in terms of the environmental and heritage considerations. We also believe that the review panel should report on its work on a regular—perhaps 6-monthly—basis to a select committee such as the Regulations Review Committee. We would also like to see prior consultation procedures with interested stakeholders before Orders in Council are proposed. The community forum that this bill would establish could fulfil that role. Finally we would also like to put into the law a role for the community forum in being consulted on the design of the park. I know that Grant Robertson who is the local member of Parliament has some concerns about elements of the design of the park particularly around vehicle access. We think it would be useful to involve the local community and interested parties in the design of the park. 
This bill sets the stage for what we believe will be a fantastic memorial for those who have given their lives overseas for our country. It will create an outstanding public space in Wellington for all New Zealanders and particularly for the people of the Mount Cook community. This is going to be an extraordinary addition to their community. I want to finally pay tribute to the former Prime Minister Helen Clark whose vision it was after the opening of the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior to develop the national memorial in this way. Helen Clark had that vision she took the initial steps funding was put in place and the process was set in motion to build this memorial park. Labour is pleased that the Government has finally come to its senses and brought this bill to the House. Thank you. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.