Kaye Nikki: Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Kaye Nikki: Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 05 December 2012. Volume:686;Page:7164. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central) 
: 
 I am very pleased to speak on the Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill specifically looking at clause 5. I want to raise just a couple of points first about the bill. I want to acknowledge the chair of the Local Government and Environment Committee Nicky Wagner but importantly I also want to acknowledge Jacqui Dean because I think as I have said before in this House she has done a lot of work on this bill. It has been an important local issue. We know there were a number of issues that related to the Palmerston Showgrounds and Lot 1 DP 345820 but one of the issues that is relevant to Supplementary Order Paper 150 which Eugenie Sage has put up is about the section of land referred to as Lookout Point. 
I want to go now to what the findings of the select committee were with regard to this land and I want to say that I think this issue has been settled. Not only has there been another piece of legislation before the House that has looked at this issue and not only did we hear a number of submissions but also we had several Government agencies looking at this including Land Information New Zealand the Department of Conservation and the Commissioner of Crown Lands. We have also had submissions from the council on this issue. 
I want to touch specifically on the commentary regarding Lookout Point and raise this issue. Obviously there was an issue about what the status of that land was and what we found with regard to this matter was that “In 1937 by Order in Council the Lookout Point land was set apart as reserves for an endowment in aid of the funds of the Oamaru Borough Council and erroneously made subject to … Title was issued in 1942 to the land now comprising Computer Freehold Register …”—I am not going to mention the name. I think we did settle this issue and from my perspective the select committee spent a lot of time going through the records via Land Information to resolve it. 
I acknowledge that Eugenie Sage has this Supplementary Order Paper but I think it has been made very clear that the confusion of the status did arise out of semantics that the land was reserved as endowment in 1885 and that it was not intended that the land itself be classified as a reserve. It was the case that we received extensive advice on this and this is based not only on the evidence of submitters but also on the advice from officials. So although I understand that there has been a long history to this issue I really believe that not only has the local member done a huge amount herself locally but also the select committee on another piece of legislation has looked at this issue thoroughly. We have found that we believe that the confusion arose out of semantics. 
I understand that the Supplementary Order Paper is here today because Eugenie Sage—and I am interested to hear what she says on the matter but it is quite difficult to see how that Supplementary Order Paper can be before this House given that we have had evidence from so many different agencies given that they have gone back through the records and given that we have had another parliamentary process around it. I do believe that this issue is an important issue locally for the people of Oamaru and I do believe that through this bill Parliament has the opportunity to clarify the status of this land. Through substantive evidence we have come to the conclusion as I said before that the confusion arose out of semantics. From that advice we have concluded that Lookout Point is not a reserve and we have confirmed it as being vested in an endowment in the council in aid of borough funds. 
I realise that it is a long road to have got here. I respect the submissions that have come to the select committee. I respect the fact that one member of the select committee has taken a different view and I am interested to hear that but I think that for the people of Oamaru and for the local member Jacqui Dean who spent a lot of time working on this issue this issue has been resolved and that it is important that members of Parliament recognise the huge amount of evidence and the huge amount of work that has been done by a number of Government agencies to clarify the status of that land. I am confident that we can finally settle this issue by the bill addressing the clerical error made in 1937 and by clarifying the status of the land as an endowment. 
I am pleased to say that I do support this clarification for the people of Oamaru for the fact that there has been so much resource gone into this—[ 
Interruption 
] Members opposite laugh—members opposite laugh—but actually it was a very collaborative process and many people have put energy into clarifying this. When I say that it is important for the people of Oamaru I ask members to go back through the press clippings as I have to see how often this issue has been raised and to see that it has been going on for a long period of time. It is time we resolved this issue once and for all. That is what we are doing through this bill through an evidence-based process. I am pleased to support this bill.