SpeechSELF-CONTAINED MOTOR VEHICLES LEGISLATION BILLFirst ReadingHon STUART NASH (Minister of Tourism): I present a legislative statement on the Self-contained Motor Vehicles Legislation Bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ian McKelvie): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon STUART NASH: I move That the Self-contained Motor Vehicles Legislation Bill be now read a first time. The bill is an omnibus bill that amends the Freedom Camping Act—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ian McKelvie): Just go back a step. You've got a sentence to add.Hon STUART NASH: I nominate the Economic Development Science and—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ian McKelvie): Thank you. Not often I know more than you do.Hon STUART NASH: —Innovation Committee to consider the bill for six months.Hon Todd McClay: He's a bit new! He's quite new; he hasn't done this much before!Hon STUART NASH: Ha ha! We'll get there in the end. Anyway it'll be a good bill for that committee to consider.Freedom camping is deemed to occur when someone is staying in a vehicle or tent within 200 metres of a road or parking area the coast or a Great Walks track. Such camping is a small but highly visible part of tourism in New Zealand. Freedom campers travel widely spending money in local communities. Some also contribute by participating in our seasonal workforce and volunteering. In 2019—pre-COVID—international visitors who freedom camped at some point during their trip spent an estimated $645 million here. That year an estimated 245000 people freedom camped 63 percent of whom were international visitors. However not all freedom campers respect our natural environment nor the communities that host them. Of particular concern are freedom campers who stay in cars or vans with sleeping platforms that are not self-contained. Abuse of freedom camping by domestic and international travellers not only damages our 100% Pure" brand; it erodes public support for tourism and undermines its social licence to operate.In 2011 the Government enacted the Freedom Camping Act 2011 to address some of the issues with freedom camping. Despite this and Government investment of $27 million in freedom camping programmes since 2018 problems still persist. This bill will address these problems by improving the management of vehicle-based freedom camping. It creates a robust regulatory system that central and local government can rely on to prevent the type of abuse that has placed an unfair burden on small communities and risks damaging our reputation as a high-quality visitor destination. Last term our Government established a responsible camping working group including local government and private business to advise the Government on how these concerns can best be addressed. This bill incorporates a number of the group's recommendations for legislative change and I want to publicly thank them for their work their insights and their experience. So I released a discussion document in April last year. My officials held an extensive consultation process to outline the issues present the options for change and to hear feedback. Over 5000 submissions were received and this feedback has also been fully considered in the development of the bill.I'm mindful of the strong emotions that freedom camping can give rise to both from those who do not want change as well as those who want greater regulation to reduce the impact on the natural environment. Feedback from communities and councils made it clear that behaviour of some freedom campers remains a huge problem. Issues include uncertified vehicles parking outside designated areas—including on private driveways and front lawns—littering and disposal of human waste. It's clear that change is needed.Hon Member: Outrageous.Hon STUART NASH: Exactly. This bill provides the management of vehicle-based freedom camping in several ways. Only freedom campers in a self-contained vehicle with a fixed toilet will be able to stay on land managed by a local authority. This will ensure that they will have facilities in their vehicle enabling them to be self-supported for several days.Freedom campers without the appropriate fixed toilet facilities will not be able to stay in areas outside of those specifically designated for freedom camping by local authorities. Of course they can still stay in one of the hundreds of camp grounds located all around New Zealand. We are also providing local authorities with power to make bylaws that designate specific locations as being suitable for non - self-contained vehicles. This will provide flexibility for local authorities to determine how freedom camping is managed in their communities.Hon Mark Mitchell: Powerful move.Hon STUART NASH: Thank you. This bill requires that all new certifications must involve the vehicle having a fixed toilet. A fixed toilet is a cassette toilet or permanently plumbed toilet with a black water tank. It does this by initially amending the current New Zealand standard. Proposed regulations to come into effect six months after Royal asset will then require that a vehicle can only be certified as self-contained if it has a fixed toilet.The bill establishes a regulatory system for the certification of vehicles as self-contained and I do note that the Mayor of Rotorua is fully supportive of this new bill as is the Mayor of Queenstown. Such certification is critical to manage freedom camping. Local authorities and the Department of Conservation rely on the certification process as a means of determining whether a vehicle is self-contained. The current certification system cannot be relied upon because the requirements are set out in a voluntary New Zealand standard. And while there is a set of criteria for who can carry out certifications there is no oversight of the certification process.The bill establishes the Plumbers Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board as the new regulator of the certification process. The board is well placed to do this because self-containment focuses on plumbing elements such as toilets waste-water discharge and freshwater storage. The board will appoint self-containment certification authorities and monitor their performance. It will be able to discipline non-performing certification authorities as well.The board will also set up a national register of self-contained vehicles and enforcement officers will be able to access the register to assist them to enforce freedom camping requirements more effectively. The public will also have limited access to check whether a specific vehicle is self-contained. Officials work closely with the Plumbers Gasfitters and Drainlayers Board to ensure that they have the competencies capability and capacity to undertake the responsibilities in a timely manner. How many of us have seen a vehicle with the current blue self-contained sticker on and thought to ourselves "Really?" Well the days of the dodgy vehicle are now numbered. The bill also introduces a number of wide-ranging offences to reflect different behaviours that cause harm. The bill provides enforcement authorities with the option of emailing infringement notices to owners of vehicles involved in the commission of the offence. And I must note that was a favourite of the Mayor of Queenstown; he loved that.This will speed up the infringement process and in particular will assist rental companies to recover infringement fees from international hirers in a timely manner. Freedom camping is occurring more and more on land administered by other—sorry by other than local authorities and the Department of Conservation. Excuse me. As such the bill extends the Freedom Camping Act to apply to land administered by Waka Kotahi and Land Information New Zealand. This will allow those agencies to have access to the offences and penalties regime under the Act thereby providing additional management tools for freedom camping on their land.The bill provides for a two-year transition period for existing vehicles to fully comply even though the camping restrictions will apply upon the date of Royal assent. This will ensure that there is an orderly transition to a regulated certification system. Existing local body bylaws will continue to apply over this period. It's important that the new regime is implemented smoothly to allow time for the new system to be established and for the public to transition to it. At the same time it's essential that these positive changes are implemented soon.The ultimate aim of this new regime is to reduce the adverse impact of vehicle-based freedom camping while still enabling freedom campers to enjoy being out and about in our beautiful natural environment. I look forward to and encourage public submissions during the select committee process to ensure this bill achieves its objectives. I commend this bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ian McKelvie): The question is the motion be agreed to. I call the Opposition spokesperson for campervans the Hon Todd McClay."