Lees-Galloway Iain: Palmerston North Showgrounds Act Repeal Bill — Second Reading 
Lees-Galloway Iain: Palmerston North Showgrounds Act Repeal Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:657;Page:6813] 
IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North) 
: 
 I move  
That the Palmerston North Showgrounds Act Repeal Bill be now read a second time 
. It gives me a lot of pleasure to pick up the baton on this legislation from my predecessor the Hon Steve Maharey who did a lot of work in bringing this bill to the House and seeing it through to the select committee. It is a piece of legislation that Mr Maharey described as a modest bill. I prefer to think of it as efficient. There are not too many things that are modest that come out of Palmerston North. A cursory glance at the list of my predecessors would attest to that I should think. 
Of course Palmerston North has very much to be immodest about. There is Massey University which has campuses—everywhere it seems these days—in Mr Power’s electorate and in Palmerston North as well; Centrepoint theatre one of the few working professional theatres in a provincial city; a standard of living that I am quite sure is unsurpassed by any other city in New Zealand; and the glorious sight of the sun rising over the Tararua Ranges as the blades of the wind farm turbines whirl below. One of the showpieces in Palmerston North is of course the showgrounds which are also known as Arena Manawatu. On the weekend just gone I was at Arena Manawatu with about 8500 other people from the Manawatu and Palmerston North watching the Manawatu Turbos who sadly went down to Northland. The Turbos have had their most successful season so far by quite some stretch and they have been doing very well. Sadly the team did not quite make it against Northland last weekend but it is heading over to Hawke’s Bay to take on the Magpies next weekend and I look forward to heading over to Napier to watch that match. 
From the first reading of this bill I note that Chris Tremain compared the mood of the House on this bill to the mood of Manawatu and Hawke’s Bay rugby. It was interesting that so many National Party members who were in Opposition at the time chose to speak on this bill. I do not know what it was about Palmerston North that day that those members were so keen to recount their affinity with it. Perhaps today given the amount of time we have on our hands many of the Government members might decide to get up and say something about this bill as it might look slightly odd if the House rises as early as this today given that we will be back late tomorrow night. 
 The bill essentially does three things. Firstly it provides for the transfer of the management and control of the land that comprises the Palmerston North Showgrounds from the Palmerston North Showgrounds Board of Control to the Palmerston North City Council. Secondly it allows for the dissolution of the Palmerston North Showgrounds Board of Control. Thirdly it repeals the Palmerston North Showgrounds Act 1974. The Act enabled the Manawatu and West Coast Agricultural and Pastoral Association to dispose of the showgrounds to the Palmerston North City Council as a recreation reserve and constituted the Palmerston North Showgrounds Board of Control for the management and control of the land as a recreation reserve. The 1974 Act resulted from a deed of agreement between the parties under which the city council would develop and improve the showgrounds and they would be available to the A and P society to be used as showgrounds on a number of days each year. The A and P society no longer requires the use of the showgrounds seeing as the A and P show has headed over to Feilding. The board of control now wishes to dissolve and transfer its rights assets and liabilities to the city council. 
The bill went to the Local Government and Environment Committee which returned it with no amendments. I thank the members and chair of the committee for their work. One issue that was raised—and I note that Te Ururoa Flavell raised the issue in the first reading of the bill—was the status of the land in relation to Ngati Kauwhata’s Treaty claims in the Palmerston North area. It is great to see the chair of the committee in the Chamber this afternoon. I am very pleased to see that the select committee has come to the conclusion that the transfer of the land will have no bearing whatsoever on the claim. Essentially the land as it is at the moment would be inaccessible to such a claim. That will continue to be the case. Hopefully that will satisfy Ngati Kauwhata in their concerns and allow us to push ahead with this as I said very efficient small bill to tidy up some loose ends. 
I know that a number of staff at the Palmerston North City Council will be very pleased to see the bill progressing. They will have to think of a new first thing to say to me when they see me in Palmerston North rather than asking how far the bill is getting through. It is a very great pleasure to see it moving on. I certainly commend the bill to the House. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker) 
: I call the member for Rangitikei the Hon Simon Power.