Tirikatene Rino: Wellington Town Belt Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTirikatene Rino: Wellington Town Belt Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 06 April 2016. Volume:712;Page:10286. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): Kia ora Mr Chair and thank you for the opportunity to speak in the Committee stage of the Wellington Town Belt Bill. I would also like to just add my congratulations to the member in the chair Grant Robertson for his role in shepherding this bill though the House and also the wonderful people who have been so passionate about this kaupapa within the Wellington City Council and across this great city of Wellington.This is a wonderful bill. As I have said previously I do wholeheartedly support the bill. For everyone who visits the city of Wellington a striking feature is the town belt. There is history in those bush-covered hills. I am so pleased that Mr Robertson spoke about obviously the immediate history in terms of the trust deed and the length of time and the technical issues that have given rise to a long overdue modernisation of the administration and the rules governing the town belt. But I also acknowledge the member for going back to the 1830s and the 1860s when the town belt was part of the tribal estate of the Taranaki tribes that inhabited this great city and indeed are mana whenua today. This is a great piece of legislation.I also want to just mention the preamble. The preamble recites the reasons that have led to the legislative provisions in this enactment. Perhaps something to consider is that it mentions in clause 3 of the bill “Purpose” that: “The purpose of this Act is to—(c) recognise the history of the original Town Belt and its significance to mana whenua and the inhabitants of Wellington.” Indeed the preamble sets out very nicely the chronology of some of the main events that have given rise to the history of the town belt. But given that clause 3 mentions that the bill wants to recognise the history perhaps the bill could have gone further. Instead of having a preamble the preamble could have been stated in the legislation itself. Obviously the preamble just sets the scene but it is not actually part of the enactment. Given that there is recognition here it is not a novel thing.We do a lot of Treaty settlements in the House which are all enacted through legislation. A lot of the historical background is put into a separate part in the legislation. It is enacted by Parliament itself. That historical account is not a new thing and it could have been put into the body of the legislation. It is just a point that I wish to raise. It in no way detracts from the effectiveness of this legislation but given that a key purpose of this bill is to recognise the history perhaps that history could have been put into the actual body of the legislation itself rather than just in an explanatory preamble. That is a fairly minor point but one that I wanted to raise in this Committee stage.I do want to return to the point of the history which is recited in the preamble. Obviously there are some wonderful characters who have played a part in the history of our great city here in Wellington. One such person was Edward Gibbon Wakefield the promoter of the New Zealand Company but as we call it in Māori Te Kamupene o Niu Tīreni me te whānau w’akapiri [The New Zealand Company and the family connection]—the Wakefield whānau. But no matter from which side of history you want to look at things Edward Gibbon Wakefield has been described as a New World 19th century visionary with remarkable foresight and wisdom. I guess in a sense he did have that wisdom and foresight to put in place the foundations for the Wellington town belt. Of course folks on the other side of the pā fence may have some different ideas.But I am pleased that here we are in 2016 having had the passage of the Treaty settlements for the Wellington region. All historical Treaty settlements have been completed through the Port Nicholson settlement and also Ngāti Toa Rangatira. To an extent the foundation has been laid now to really move forward. I guess this legislation is part of that modernisation to bring the structures up to date to clarify any uncertainties there were about some very archaic pieces of legislation and old documents. Anyone who tries to read an old document will barely be able to understand what it is saying sometimes. So this bill is giving the council a very clear mandate and very clear rules under which they are to govern the town belt.I do want to also touch on and also commend the insertion in clause 4 where it states: “(1) In performing its role as trustee of the Wellington Town Belt the Council must—(b) have particular regard to the following principles: (i) the Wellington Town Belt should be managed in partnership with mana whenua:”. So it could not be more explicit than that. That is a grand gesture from the council. I will be interested to see what that means in practice and how that partnership is given effect to. But I also do support the other provisions in that same clause where it goes on to say that there should be community participation in the management of the Wellington town belt—that that should be encouraged and supported.I guess all Wellingtonians will definitely support that as well. Those are just some brief remarks that I would like to make in this first call. I certainly will be traversing some other areas in some later calls. For now I support this bill. Kia ora.