Bishop Chris: Wellington Town Belt Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBishop Chris: Wellington Town Belt Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 04 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:10785. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CHRIS BISHOP (National): They used to call that medium-paced trundler for the Black Caps Gavin Larsen “The Postman” because he always delivered. Ron Mark is a bit like that with his speeches—he always delivers. That speech really was extraordinary. It had everything. It had philosophy quoting Santayana. It had the ode to Helene Ritchie. It had the hubris—you know the promise from the Opposition cross benches that a future New Zealand First - led Government will bring back health and well-being in the Local Government Act. It had the grandiloquence that always comes with Mr Mark’s speeches. It had the history the stories of the past—the failed selection attempts or the failed campaigns down in Canterbury. But it happened to be very boring at the same time. What an extraordinary speech. Who knows how he does it but Ron Mark always delivers.I have been offshore for a few weeks—Grant Robertson: Who are you—Ewen Chatfield?CHRIS BISHOP: A good Hutt Valley man Ewen Chatfield—a good Hutt Valley cricketer. Still playing club cricket old Ewen—I played against him for the parliamentary team earlier this year. A great guy.I have been offshore for a few weeks and I was eagerly watching the House and wondering what bill I would speak on first when I came back from being offshore. I was wondering: “Will it be following the redoubtable David Bennett on a finance bill having to rebut some of the things that Grant Robertson said and having to deal with the things that Grant says to David? Or would it be following Mr Twyford on a housing bill and listening to the flecked anger that comes across the House? Or would be the Wellington Town Belt Bill?”.It is the Wellington Town Belt Bill that I have to speak on and it actually is a pleasure because as I said in the second reading debate on this bill the Wellington town belt is a taonga of Wellington. Wellingtonians probably actually take it for granted in some ways. They do not probably ever turn their minds to the legal status of the town belt and as I said in the second reading it is hard to imagine Wellington without that 500 hectares of open space that is available for all Wellingtonians to enjoy.I want to pay tribute to a few groups and people. I want to pay tribute to Grant Robertson the local member who has shepherded this bill through. Actually it was not until Grant was speaking about the bill that he made reference to Marian Hobbs. I was not aware that Marian Hobbs—I mean I should have really thought about it. Of course Marian Hobbs would have been involved as the former local member but also as a former Minister for the Environment although that to be fair was a slightly unhappy tenure for her. But she was a former Minister for the Environment and a noted lover of green spaces.One of the first rugby matches I ever attended in my life at Athletic Park was with Marian Hobbs. It was that South African test in 1998 when Carlos Spencer missed about six goals in a row and we lost in that terrible season of 1998. Marian Hobbs is an old family friend and I want to pay tribute to her—watching no doubt from wherever she is at the moment—for the work she has done on this bill and to Grant as well.I want to pay tribute to Mayor Celia Wade-Brown. These are exciting times in Wellington at the moment. I think we are up to seven declared mayoral candidates for the local elections later in the year. These are exciting times with the Labour Party splitting asunder with various candidates and it is fair to say with the centre-right splitting as well. So anyway these are interesting times in Wellington. Mayor Celia has been a champion of the Wellington town belt for many years and I know has worked with Grant on this bill.I did not have the pleasure of sitting on the Local Government and Environment Committee—Scott Simpson: For shame.CHRIS BISHOP: Well indeed. As my good colleague Scott Simpson the chair points out: “For shame.” It was a shame but look you cannot be everywhere at once and no doubt there were other matters occupying me at the time.I want to pay tribute to the Wellington City Council to Helene Ritchie—who I see is here in the gallery—and also to the people on the Local Government and Environment Committee who worked really well.I was reading some of the history of the Wellington town belt in the preamble to the bill and I was slightly interested to discover that the Basin Reserve—you know that famous ground down at the end of Cambridge Terrace and Adelaide Road in Wellington. It is the scene of some of New Zealand’s greatest sporting triumphs and some of our lowlights over the years as well. I was interested to discover that way back in the day some years after the New Zealand Company turned up on the shores of Pētone in 1839 the Basin Reserve along with the town belt and the Canal Reserve—the Basin Reserve was part of the town belt by dint of the execution of the Town Belt Deed. The three parcels of land were known as the town belt the Canal Reserve and the Basin Reserve. Of course over the passage of time the Basin Reserve has been removed from the town belt which is probably for the best and is governed in other ways.But it is just a fascinating aspect of history really. It is interesting to note that great sporting vista that is the Basin—it is not really ever known as the Basin Reserve by Wellingtonians; it is just known as the Basin and it is somewhere where I have spent many a summer’s day on the embankment over the years—used to be part of the Wellington town belt.But just to return to where I started this somewhat rambling speech—James Shaw: Where was that?CHRIS BISHOP: Indeed. Just to return to where I started about how the Wellington town belt is a treasure—Alastair Scott: Ron Mark.CHRIS BISHOP: Well I started with Ron Mark but look I do not think that any speech that starts with Ron Mark and ends with Ron Mark is going to go down in Hansard as a champion speech. So I probably will not end my speech by talking about Ron Mark but I want to end my speech by talking about the subject of the bill—always a novel concept in Parliament on a members’ day—which is the Wellington town belt.I want to talk about what a treasure it is and talk about how actually most people probably never turn their mind to the legal status of the town belt. They never think about the way in which it is governed. They probably never think about the legal niceties. They never think about some of the complications that come with reserves and things like that. They just know that it is there and they want it to be there because every day and every weekend and particularly on the weekends not only Wellingtonians but also people from the Hutt Valley where I hail from and am based now; people from farther up the Hutt Valley; and people from Wairarapa where Alastair Scott hails from and Ōhāriu where Mr Hudson my colleague sitting here hails from enjoy the Wellington town belt in all of its munificent glory. It is great that we have unanimity in the House tonight on the passage of this very important piece of legislation.