Mallard Trevor: Hamilton City Council (Parana Park) Land Vesting Bill — Second Reading 
Mallard Trevor: Hamilton City Council (Parana Park) Land Vesting Bill — Second Reading 
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Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) 
: 
 I initially was going to make a relatively brief speech on the Hamilton City Council (Parana Park) Land Vesting Bill in support of it but there have been a number of comments made that have frankly given me a few concerns about the bill. 
Probably of all the members in the House I would be amongst the two or three who know Parana Park the best. 
Hon Member 
: Have you been there? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: I have certainly been there many times on occasion with children and often on Anzac Day. 
In fact it was the place where we marched in Hamilton for Anzac Day. It was always interesting. We started on the west and marched to the east. We always broke time going over the bridge in order not to shake it too much. There was some anxiety about whether it would fall down if we did not and then we went back into time again when the team was over the bridge. 
I remember to this day the messages given by the Reverend Clarke who was I think the parson for the RSA. He did not hang back. He was not someone who was forever promoting peace. He did not talk a lot about peacekeeping; his line was “blessed are the peacemakers”—“blessed are the peacemakers”. It made quite an impression on me. 
I remember in particular as some members might getting some urgent messages as I was leaving an Anzac Day service at Parana Park. We used to know it as the Anzac memorial in those days rather than as Parana Park because that was the day that the then Prime Minister had made some comments on the East Coast of the United States about New Zealand’s relationship. At the time they seemed quite important but one or two of his colleagues especially Dr Bassett were not particularly pleased about them. 
But one of the questions I have of the member in charge of the bill concerning his reply goes to something that occurred to me only recently. I hear he is going to effectively fix in stone— 
Chris Auchinvole 
: The names of the councillors. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: No not the names of the councillors but the name Parana itself. I ask the member the origin of the name. I know there is the Paraná River in Argentina. I think it is the biggest river in Argentina and I wonder whether— 
Chris Auchinvole 
: It’s not related to the fish you know. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: No it is Paraná with an “a” not an “i”. The member might be a biting fish but the Paraná River as I understand is the largest river in Argentina. I am digging way back into my geography. 
I wonder whether George Parr had some relationship with Argentina whether his family had visited on the way and that was the reason that it was named Parana Park. 
I say thank you to my colleague Sue Moroney for highlighting to me the fact that we are putting Parana into legislation and effectively putting it into stone. I do have some anxiety about that. What happens if for example the New Zealand Geographic Board after proper application by the tangata whenua from Kirikiriroa decide to give it again the name that it was also known as which is Putikitiki? The area around the creek and the area slightly north is known as Putikitiki. Why are we saying here that it should be known as Parana and not Putikitiki? Is that appropriate for legislation to do? No Putikitiki is the name of the area immediately around the Anzac memorial. It has been known that way for quite a long time. It was certainly used by the elders when we met there on occasions. I just wonder why if we are legislating for the first time this name into the records of Parliament and saying effectively that it cannot be changed we are not giving an alternative use— 
Chris Auchinvole 
: Because Hamilton City Council presented the bill and it was the name of the bill that they selected. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: It is fine to say that Hamilton City Council presented the bill in this form but we are Parliament. We make the decisions as to what legislation we pass and to the name of it. The member might think he is still a city councillor or a what was it? A district councillor? 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: A community board member. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: A county councillor; that is right. He thinks he is still a county councillor but now he is a parliamentarian. 
It may be that the people of the Hamilton City Council are OK but they do not dictate to us what we pass. They have a right to make a suggestion. But to say to that member that we are a mere rubber stamp for any county council that comes along—well I just do not understand why the National Government is prepared to give up the sovereignty of this Parliament to every county council that wants to wander along. I asked Georgina te Heuheu to have a think about it and ask whether as Associate Minister of Maori Affairs she was consulted on the shifting of the name in legislation away from— 
Chris Auchinvole 
: Does the member want an answer to his question? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Yes. 
Chris Auchinvole 
: The answer is that this followed the normal legislative pattern. We called for public submissions. There were no submissions on the name. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: What the member says is that he will make legislation better only if someone suggests it to him and he will not think for himself—he will not think for himself. A chair of a select committee tells us he is an unthinking rubber stamp for legislation. No wonder the people of the West Coast are saying: “Keep him in Wellington. Get him high on the list. We don’t want him coming back here.” 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Give him a sports car. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: He has a sports car in Wellington but I think it is fair to say that for the 6 months before the sports car was parked downstairs the Queen Street tractor was parked downstairs. That member very very rarely focuses on the West Coast and does not listen to people— 
Phil Twyford 
: That’s because he’s never there. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: We can tell from the location of his vehicle where he is. 
I will go back and say that I know this park relatively well. I will visit it. I have looked at Parana Park. I examined it from a bar across the river relatively recently and I thought: “Well that is Parana Park.” I remember there was evidence every now and then on Anzac Day that it was often used for late-night activities which were not what one would describe as ideal activities for children. Unfortunately many of the participants left evidence. The point we got to in the end was that the council used to do a sweep around the park before Anzac Day to make sure that the evidence of the activities of the night before was not left on the ground in the way that it had been on a number of occasions. 
We are prepared to support this legislation at this stage but I think it is important that my successor in Hamilton West whose name I have lost—what is his name? 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: McIntyre. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: It is important that Mr McIntyre inform Mr Bennett whose name I do remember that support is not guaranteed for this legislation at its later stages because we are concerned that as part of this bill we are putting into concrete a name that the tangata whenua have not indicated they support. We want to know what the Kingitanga think of this because there is a danger that we are about to promote an evil in this legislation.