Bennett Paula: Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Bill — In Committee 
Bennett Paula: Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Bill — In Committee 
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PAULA BENNETT (National) 
: 
 I rise to speak to Part 2. The first part of Part 2 talks about boundaries and I will address those for a little while. At the moment the boundaries do not take in just the ranges; I think that is really important for people to acknowledge. So the title of the bill which we will discuss in a lot more detail later totally misrepresents what the bill is about. When members talk about the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Bill they actually mean the bill concerning the Waitakere Ranges and foothills. Those foothills are perhaps what is most at debate today and they certainly are from my perspective. 
We are talking about some of the villages within the Waitakere Ranges. I have to make a bit of a confession here in that I feel more sympathy for people living there than I do for those living in the foothills in other areas because I see that the people in those villages are suffering from a bit of intensification and are trying to keep their landscape the same. I do not believe that this bill is the way to address those issues but I can certainly acknowledge that people living in places like the beautiful Karekare Piha and Bethells beaches are restricted because of the landscape. Those places really are little coastal villages tucked into a certain area; only so many houses can be fitted in and only a certain type of housing perhaps suits the area. We can better acknowledge that situation but the bill quite simply will not help those people. What would help them is a council that acknowledges the constraints of that area a Resource Management Act that works alongside those constraints and local area plans that can address the issues. 
But we are talking about huge areas of the foothills—which go into Titirangi Glen Eden Henderson Swanson Waitakere village and up to Muriwai—when we are thinking about how this bill works land-wise. If some of those areas were simply not included in the boundaries then I think we would have seen a lot more support for this bill in the Committee. I think we would have been hearing more from the National Party about how we might have been able to find a compromise if the boundaries had not been so broad and if they had not taken in what in so many respects are actually residential areas that we notice when we drive around them. 
How do the heritage areas the bill talks about differ? Clause 8(2)(a)(i) in Part 2 talks about heritage features including “large continuous areas of primary and regenerating lowland …”. Why is that land regenerating? It is regenerating because the people there love the land and care for it and they have put in the effort to bring it back to its absolute natural beauty. Let us not pretend that that area over time was not bogged down and destroyed. When there was milling and everything that went on over a hundred years ago the ranges in fact were quite a sad place to look at in many parts. People moved in. People are not the enemy; people love the land look after the land and have actually nurtured and regenerated it to the state it is now. It can only get better. 
To “have intrinsic value:” in clause 8(2)(a)(ii) is part of the heritage characteristics that are defined in this bill as are to “provide a diversity of habitats for indigenous flora and fauna:” in sub-paragraph (iii) and “to collect store and produce high quality water:” in sub-paragraph (iv). The list goes on. The other challenge I put out and something I would be interested to hear from the sponsor of the bill is how that situation is different from for example that of my colleague and local MP Chris Tremain—who does a fantastic job—when he talks about the Napier hills and the hills that surround his very area. How is there a difference really when we look at that building-up and the changes wanted there? 
Mark Blumsky 
: A great local MP. 
PAULA BENNETT 
: He is a fantastic local MP. The member is right; he is an outstanding local MP. There is no doubt of that. 
I would like to hear from the promoter of bill if she might just take a little time to talk. Some of us who sat through the select committee process understand perhaps how those boundaries were decided on but I think a lot of people out there would like to hear that. One thing I commend the select committee for as I think it did a great job with this—and I commend the council and officials as well—is that it changed what was in the original drafting of the bill. Speaking from memory I think the original draft stated that the boundaries could be changed by the council but now the bill states that the legislation has to come back for boundaries to be changed only by an Act of Parliament. That is a good thing.