Boyack RachelRACHEL BOYACK (Labour—Nelson): Thank you Mr Speaker. Thank you colleagues. Look it's a pleasure to take a call on the Palmerston North Reserves Empowering Amendment Bill. Last time I spoke on this bill I put my hand up and admitted that I am from the wonderful place of Palmerston North. There's a few of us I've discovered in this House. Actually Madam Speaker—and I know I'm not supposed to bring her into the debate but I understand she was born in the mighty city of Palmerston North as was I understand my colleague Anna Lorck. This may not be well known to people but very good people have been born in Palmerston North like my colleague Anna Lorck and the Deputy Prime Minister.But I just acknowledge my colleague Tangi Utikere who I went to school with in Palmerston North for his fine work bringing this bill to the House. There's a little phrase we use about Palmerston North. It's a bit like family—maybe a bit like the ACT Party. You can only diss Palmerston North if you're from Palmerston North so I'm allowed to stand up here and give it a bit of a ribbing.Now one of the things my colleague Glen Bennett may say if he gets the opportunity to take a call later is that people often get Palmerston North and New Plymouth confused and that was the bane of my existence. All my life growing up people were asking me if I came from New Plymouth. But I guess what I would say now as much as I do love Palmerston North is I do love to be the MP for sunny Nelson because we have a beach.Glen Bennett: Not as sunny as New Plymouth.RACHEL BOYACK: No look we are eventually going to take that the sunniest city back from you Mr Bennett I can assure you.My colleague Ian McKelvie made some comments around the fantastic parts of Palmerston North and the Square and he missed a few out. So I just wanted to note that there is the fantastic All Saints Church where my mother is the organist and that is currently closed to the public unfortunately due to it being earthquake prone. There is also the second-ugliest city council building the first most ugliest city council building belonging in my electorate of Nelson and we're very proud of that title. There was once a fantastic two-storey McDonald's with a wonderful playground inside it and I can see my colleague Mr Utikere having a bit of a giggle because you'll remember the playground and the McDonald's in Palmerston North. But others have forgotten to mention that I think the best pub was High Flyers in the city. Unfortunately it has suffered from a fire and is boarded up but I would argue with my colleague Angie Warren-Clark about The Fitz and say actually in my view it was High Flyers.So look I'll get to the bill as much as I'd love to spend 10 minutes talking about the fantastic place that is Palmerston North. The bill allows the Palmerston North City Council to sell reserve land for housing development. So it specifically does that. Look a few weeks ago I was in Palmerston North and I drove past this particular area. I made a point of slowing down and driving around just to specifically look at the area and I'll talk about the particular piece of land in a moment because I know it quite well. This particular issue was brought to the House a few years ago. After I gave the speech in the first reading I actually was heading back to Palmerston North and mentioned to my stepfather who was a previous deputy mayor and the deputy mayor at the time that Palmerston North City Council intended to bring this bill to the House previously—so I said to him Look this bill is going back through the House." He was very happy. He let out a sigh of deep frustration and I understand that there were some real challenges there around the consultation. But this piece of land has had a part of it that was vacant since 2005. So for over 15 years it's been sitting there and a huge lost opportunity in my view in terms of the ability for this land to be developed for housing.The particular piece of land in question is the corner of Fitzherbert Avenue and Park Road. I just wanted to note I guess having grown up in Palmerston North I went to Palmerston North Girls' High School which is literally right next to this piece of land. In fact I was reminiscing with Mr Utikere earlier today about the time there was a sportsground next to it with a sports club and in my third form year we all ended up in that hall for a few hours after someone had made a bomb threat to the school. Some of my friends unfortunately had been doing PE that day and in very cold weather so it wasn't a great day. But look it's an area that I know very well and I did just want to respond to some of the comments from the Green Party member Eugenie Sage because look I do acknowledge we need to take some care around reserve land.I disagree with Simon Court. I think actually we do need to ensure we've got proper processes around reserve land. Where I am in Nelson I think it would cause us some challenge because we don't have as many large parks and we're quite constrained around land. Palmerston North is quite different. This piece of land is literally minuscule compared to enormous recreation areas right next to it. I'm talking less than 1 percent of the size. We're not taking away any amenity value for the city. I have never used that vacant land at all. Fitzherbert Park next to it? Enormous. The Esplanade next to it? Also enormous. Just down the road is the Lido swimming pool. We have Manawatū River. Nearby the botanical gardens. There is enormous amenity value in this area and so I don't think there should be any concern whatsoever from the community about losing a piece of land. In a point of principle I do agree we need to take real care but in this particular instance knowing the area intimately as I do I think it makes complete sense.In the Palmerston North City Council submission which I enjoyed reading they talked a little bit about potential that this could be potentially provided through social housing. That's one of the potential options—in my view probably the best option but it is one of the options. They made a note here around some social housing that has been provided for in Papaioea Place which is just around the corner from my family home. Last year members of the Labour caucus visited these houses which had been opened by the Prime Minister in Papaioea Place. They were fantastic. Look I think that there would be a real benefit in being able to develop that housing of that style in this area. The amenity value in my view must be very high. It's close to public transport close to local schools—very good schools like Palmerston North Girls' High School. As I've already mentioned it's close to a very large number of recreation areas.I just wanted to make a little note. I think for the record I'd like to get this into my speech. One of my colleagues mentioned trees and there's an interesting story around trees in this area. People who know Palmerston North well may remember that in 1997 in my seventh-form year at school the trees were occupied by an activist who later became the Mayor of Palmerston North Mark Bell-Booth. For a number of weeks when they were looking to remove the plane trees down Fitzherbert Avenue a number of activists were living in the trees all down Fitzherbert Avenue because they objected to having the trees removed for four-laning of the avenue. I used to cycle to school past a whole lot of Massey University students. All I could think about at the time never knowing I'd become an activist at the time is that they were students living in these trees and they're probably very smelly. All I could think about was "Where would they have a shower?" But look there are trees growing in the area and look it is a very lush green area of the city.In terms of one of the other comments that Ms Sage made that I just wanted to note as well was just around the access route down Huia Street. That was actually the smallest access point into the school actually. There are main entrance gates along Fitzherbert Avenue and that's where people enter the school. I only used to enter that area—I was one of a small group of students that did enter down Huia Street because I was a music student and the music department was at the back of Huia Street. So it was only really the naughty music students that would bike down Huia Street and enter that way. The vast bulk of the students would be entering through Fitzherbert Avenue and over by the science block area near the Blue Moon Dairy. So it's useful to be able to look at these issues having an intimate knowledge of the area. I think in principle though at the end of the day this is a local bill.So this is a bill that has been brought by the Palmerston North City Council. It's not necessarily for us as parliamentarians unless there's a deep concern of some kind to actually go against the wishes of the council. But I will put on record that I think people who are raising concerns—I don't think those concerns in this case are valid. Having grown up in the area knowing the need that we have for housing this land has been vacant for over 15 years. It could be used to good effect. It's a great place for social housing right next to some of the best parks and recreation areas in the country and so I commend Palmerston North City Council for bringing this bill to the House alongside Tangi Utikere the select committee and officials. On that note I commend this bill to the House."