Court SimonSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Mr Chair. Well it was an unusual pleasure to sit through a bill in consideration at the Environment Committee which resulted in unanimous recommendation that the bill proceed.But some really interesting issues were raised during consideration. What struck me as being remarkable—and the member sponsoring the bill Tangi Utikere has already raised it—there are three separate pieces of legislation that need to be modified in order for a district council of I think a tier 2 metropolitan area. So not one of the big councils but one that has a very important role to play in provincial New Zealand. Is it the capital of Rangitīkei? Rangitīkei District is that right?CHAIRPERSON (Ian McKelvie): Ha!SIMON COURT: Well why on earth should it take—CHAIRPERSON (Ian McKelvie):No.SIMON COURT: —such—am I lost? Has Google Maps failed me?Hon Scott Simpson: Should have taken an opportunity to visit the site.SIMON COURT: No I say—I'll get to that.Why on earth should it take an Act of Parliament to allow Palmerston North Council to make decisions about how it uses surplus land? Land that was set aside in 1876 for use as a public park recreation ground and botanic gardens.I mean in 1876 they wouldn't have known what a telephone was in New Zealand let alone facing the issues that we face now. With the need to build infrastructure we recognise the need that we want to densify and intensify cities and have mixed residential and commercial districts. None of these things would have been understood in terms of the pressure on land required to deliver infrastructure and social and economic benefits back in 1876. So look in my experience working at Auckland Council there were many many different types of reserve land that in mix all together contiguous continuous pieces of land with this underlying reserve status that made it very very difficult to change the use of that land—often doing nothing but growing thistles and weeds and not even suitable for active recreation—unless the status of the actual Reserve Act that it depended on permitted active recreation. Some of it could only be looked at.So that's not helpful in the 21st century. Local government needs to have flexibility as to how to repurpose the land that it needs to do other stuff with. It shouldn't have to come to Parliament and take up hundreds and hundreds of hours of officials' time of members of Parliament's time to present a case as to why they should be allowed to use their land to do something different than it was used for in 1876.So while I'm pleased that the report has come back to the House with a unanimous recommendation that the bill proceed I was shocked and disturbed by what I learnt through the process.It must be time for a new look at the role of local government to give it the incentives that local government needs to actually succeed on behalf of their community. Incentives like sharing 50 percent of the GST on every new build that they sign off on actually so they can cash flow infrastructure. A real reform of the Resource Management Act so that they can make decisions about how they use their land without having every NGO and pressure group that wants to save a special grass or a snail or a frog turning up to padlock themselves to the gates and turn up in the Environment Court and say No you shouldn't be allowed to do it. We once had a game of hacky sack here and this reserve's special to us."In fact local government have one of the biggest challenges. How do we repurpose land so we can make our cities great again? How? How? This bill is one way but what an awful palaver. So to the member Tangi Utikere congratulations on progressing the bill. All the best Palmerston North. Make the most of it."