Goudie Sandra: Wellington Regional Council (Water Board Functions) Bill — In Committee 
Goudie Sandra: Wellington Regional Council (Water Board Functions) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:623;Page:18922] 
SANDRA GOUDIE (National—Coromandel) 
: 
 I would like to follow on from my colleague the Hon Roger Sowry and to reiterate the difference between what is allowed here for the Wellington Regional Council and what is allowed on Department of Conservation land. There are some areas of significant conservation value in the land we are talking about here with regard to the Wellington Regional Council and those significant areas could be at risk depending on the type of activity entered into on that land. I guess one of the saving graces is the fact that there will be some consultation over it. In fact there will probably be two consultation processes. One process will occur under the Local Government Act whereby the community will get an opportunity to say what it thinks should happen with regard to the land. The other opportunity for consultation will be under the resource consent process if the council then after the first process decides to enter into a business arrangement with someone who wants to establish some form of energy generation. 
It is to be hoped the council will be smart about how it does that and will gain more than it loses from that—that it will act with fiscal responsibility in handling ratepayers’ money and getting the ratepayers a return. But the question comes I guess about the sort of business the council would enter into and whether it would be wind-powered or hydro generation. I noticed that in some of the previous speeches bird loss was mentioned. Bird loss is a significant aspect of wind power as the birds get chopped up in wind-powered generators. Of course that would not happen whenthe wind does not blow—not that that will be an issue for Wellington! 
I am sure though that the council will heave a sigh of relief that this process is now coming to a close. The council must have wondered how long it would take because the matter has languished for quite some time. However I would suggest that a few more years will pass before the council gets to the point where it actually does something with the land. After all consultation under the Local Government Act will be neither fast nor cheap and then there is the whole idea of scoping the activity on the land which will also be a pretty costly and lengthy process. Certainly we can add about 10 percent to the costs for those that will arise from the resource consent process—probably more. One of the reasons for that extra cost will be that significant ecological values are associated with the land. They have been recognised by a number of local people who have an interest in it and in what happens to it. 
The land is of course a water catchment area with the water there servicing the needs of many of the communities. So it will be interesting to see whether the council actually utilises that water source for any purpose other than direct consumer consumption as opposed to also having an energy component built into that. I do not think that Green Party members who are proponents of wind-power generation would necessarily support any hydro generation. They would use their influence probably to stop any of the latter. However hydro generation would certainly address some of the landscape issues that would arise out of the promotion of wind farms. 
The status of the land will also no doubt be raised in order to clarify the existing obligations with regard to it and to specify whether it comes under the Reserves Act as reserves or has been vested by the Crown in the council. In the latter case that holds certain obligations as well and vestments usually have conditions applied to them. For example in my own district of Thames-Coromandel land that has been vested for airfield purposes can be used only for that purpose. So there are cases where the Crown does specify conditions around vested land. I am unsure of the status of some of the land in this area because quite a range of land is involved but I understand that the Reserves Act may come into it. I note that Genesis Power a State-owned enterprise has made a submission that has an emphasis on wind farms which indicates an obvious interest in the land for that purpose. But I would be interested in the future to see whether there is not an interest in what hydro generation may be able to achieve.