Dyson Ruth: Riccarton Racecourse Development Enabling Bill Riccarton Racecourse Bill — Second ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDyson Ruth: Riccarton Racecourse Development Enabling Bill Riccarton Racecourse Bill — Second Readings[Sitting date: 01 June 2016. Volume:714;Page:11598. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills): It is a particular pleasure for me to speak at this peak listening time. Talofa lava. Malo le soifua. Can I acknowledge the fact that today is the very day of the 53rd anniversary of Samoan independence. Samoa was the first Pacific country to gain that status and I acknowledge our brothers and sisters across in Samoa. It has been wonderful to hear the Samoan language that has been used.Given the bills that we are debating this evening can I particularly acknowledge the Christchurch City Council which is one of the key players in this legislation not just for its contribution to and support of the bills but also for the fact that it has a marvellous answering service in Samoan this week describing the fact that it is Samoan Language Week in Samoan and in English which also acknowledges the Samoan citizens of our city. I just want to add that given that the Christchurch City Council has a direct relationship with these bills.As my colleague Megan Woods noted these bills started as a local bill and a Government bill and it has now ended up that we are debating them together as a Government measure. I think it is a bit of a tribute to the Hon Nick Smith that he has managed to pick them up and progress them in this way and he has done so I think with a lot of understanding and support of the issues. He has perhaps not fixed all the concerns but I think the process of these bills has been very constructive. I also want to acknowledge as well as the Christchurch City Council the board of Riccarton Racecourse and also of course Kai Tahu who will end up being the direct property managers of this development which will go ahead once this legislation has progressed.As the chair of the Local Government and Environment Committee noted these bills are changing something that is 138 years old. So 138 years ago the Christchurch Racecourse Reserve Act was introduced and passed by this Parliament which protected the area that we are talking about tonight—120 hectares of land—to ensure Cantabrians had the benefit of a racecourse. I do not know whether we would be that visionary in this current Parliament but 120 hectares is a huge amount of land to use as a racecourse. Obviously over recent times the board that operates Riccarton Racecourse has gone to the council and then subsequently to central government and said: “We want to make better use of this huge piece of land and make sure that of course we preserve a very satisfactory racecourse operation but also look at some property development.”For Canterbury it probably could not have come at a better time. We know not only that thousands of homes were destroyed as a result of the series of earthquakes that we had from 4 September 2010 but also that a lot of the land on which many of those houses were built was no longer deemed suitable for rebuilding. So not only had we lost the houses but also we could not use the land they had been on. We are short of homes and places to put them on.This legislation is proposing that 40 hectares of that original reserve 120 hectares is put aside for residential development. That is allowing for the possibility of 600 houses being built. Thirty percent of those houses are going be classified as affordable and “affordable” is using the maximum cost of the KiwiSaver HomeStart grant which is I think about $450000—somebody might correct me if that is not correct—in Christchurch. It is about that level. So 30 percent of those 600 new houses will be affordable and I think that is a very good thing.As I mentioned the properties will come under the management of Kai Tahu and I presume that is just a straightforward commercial arrangement between central government or the city council and them. I am not privy to the details of that but I am sure other members who were on the select committee will be able to give us those details.I want to acknowledge the way the select committee operated and particularly the fact that it travelled to Christchurch. The bill did not get a huge number of submissions. You know in some ways the committee could have said “Look we’ve got very few submissions. We could hear them in Wellington.” but it did not. It showed respect to the local people and I think the decision of that committee in saying “We will all go to the effort of travelling to Christchurch.” should be acknowledged. There is—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): I am sorry to interrupt the honourable member. The time has come for me to leave the Chair for the dinner break.Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.Hon RUTH DYSON: Talofa lava. Malo le soifua. As I acknowledged earlier in my contribution I want to re-acknowledge the fact that this is the very day of the 53rd anniversary of independence for Samoa. It is appropriate that we make the most of the fact that it is also Samoan Language Week and use the greetings of that great sister nation of ours.I think that when the bell rang for the dinner break I was acknowledging the good work of the Local Government and Environment Committee led by Scott Simpson particularly in making the decision to hear submissions in Christchurch. It is a bit of a call for a select committee. Of course if it is a local bill that could be the inclination but with very few submissions the committee may have been inclined to say: “No we’re going to just hear them in Wellington and make people come to us or do it over the phone.” But the Local Government and Environment Committee members to their credit made the decision to travel to Christchurch. I think that was a very respectful thing to do. It also allowed people who have concerns about the legislation who may not have made a submission but still had concerns about some aspects of the bills to at least know that the select committee was in town and was listening to people who had made submissions.So this is a big deal. This is turning a 138-year-old reserve into a mix of reserve for the purpose of the Riccarton Racecourse and the remainder of 40 hectares of the 120 hectares into a residential development which I understand is going to be commercially managed by Kai Tahu. That will allow for about 600 homes. That is a very important need that will be met in Christchurch. When the series of earthquakes from September 2010 to quite recently destroyed so many homes there was a double disadvantage for Canterbury. Not only were literally homes lost but also the land on which many thousands of those homes had been built was no longer suitable for building on. We did not just lose the properties immediately; we also lost the potential to rebuild on much of the land particularly in Poto Williams’ electorate of Christchurch East and indeed in Waimakariri as well.This measure enables some of that gap to be filled but it is by no means enough. I am hoping that the 30 percent of those 600 homes that have been committed to being built at an affordable rate which is being determined by the KiwiSaver HomeStart grant level which is just under $450000—I hope it ends up that they are actually affordable. We have lost in New Zealand the ability for many people to save up for a deposit and buy their own home and I think that is a tragedy. So having 30 percent of these properties 30 percent of 600—do the maths quite quickly and you will work out how much that is—will I hope enable some people to get into their homes; to own them.But if you think of $450000 for a person on a low wage that is still a huge deposit to have to save. I do not think that the Government has done nearly enough in the broader space of housing in New Zealand to address what we all know is a crisis. We have people who not only have nowhere at all to call their home but also actually have no prospect ever of being able to save up enough to buy their own home. I think homeownership is quite a fundamental part of the Kiwi culture what we frequently refer to as the Kiwi Dream—that people are able to work hard save hard and end up buying their own home. It is not just an asset that people have although that is important in order to have financial security into the future. It also means that people have security of tenure they have a place to call their own and they become generally a much stronger contributor in the community because they know that that is their community and they are not at the whim of a landlord.I heard today during question time the Minister for Building and Housing talking about how many resource consents had been issued. I want to make it really clear that although resource consents are an important fundamental part of building a house in the end we do not want building consents; we want houses to be built and we want those houses to turn into homes for good New Zealand families. So here is my little drawing contribution to the evening. This is a building consent. This is what a building consent looks like. It is just a bit of paper. You cannot actually live in a building consent. In order to progress the situation where people can move into a warm dry home—hopefully one that they can call their own—you actually need to build houses. I think these bills which will be progressed tonight will progress that opportunity for some Cantabrians and I think that is a very valuable contribution.Debate interrupted.