Parker David: Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Parker David: Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 20 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:8046. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour) 
: 
 I am not sure I will take all of that time but maybe I will. I rise to follow on from the comments from Phil Twyford whose contribution I agree with. I was the local member of Parliament way back when for when this part of New Zealand was in the Otago electorate and I was approached by the council which wanted to have the proper status of the Forrester Heights land resolved. I lost an election in 2005 and Jacqui Dean was appointed. 
Hon Simon Bridges 
: Elected! 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: Yes I am sorry; she was elected—you are quite right—as I was through the list process and I became the Minister for Land Information. 
Hon Simon Bridges 
: No you were appointed. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: I was appointed as Minister for Land Information—that is quite right—having been elected to Parliament. At the time the question as to the proper status of the Forrester Heights land was contentious. It was in my political interests locally to actually back the people who said that this land was reserve status land rather than endowment land. But my duty as the Minister for Land Information was to inquire as to what the proper status of the land was. The Department of Conservation is the authority to whom Land Information New Zealand goes for advice as to the proper status of land and the Department of Conservation concluded that the land was endowment land not reserve land. 
I had been provided information by local constituents that suggested otherwise so I took that information back to the Department of Conservation and said: “Please check again.” It then came back and said that this was endowment land not reserve land so it was included in the Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill which corrects errors of that kind. That legislation was not advanced on the Order Paper for a number of years by the incoming Government after the 2008 election and Jacqui Dean then sought to bring this forward by way of local bill to have the matter settled in a local bill rather than through the Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill. 
 By that time still further information had turned up the most interesting piece of which was a photocopy of a record that was turned up by Barry Monks which he obtained from the museum in Oamaru. It appeared to show that the land was indeed reserve land rather than endowment land. There was a little bit of suggestion of skulduggery around that because when he went back to get further copies of the document concerned it had been cut out of the archives. So you can imagine why on that basis there was some suspicion on the part of the people who believe most vehemently that this is reserve land rather than endowment land and that there was some sort of dirty trick under way to hide the fact that this land was truly reserve land. 
As a consequence when this matter came to the Local Government and Environment Committee evidence was presented to the select committee from very well-meaning people including Barry Monks and Warren Crawford amongst others in Oamaru who said that they were absolutely convinced that this was reserve land not endowment land. The job of the select committee was not to plan the future of that land if it was endowment land. The job of the select committee was to decide what the land’s proper status was—whether it was reserve land or endowment land. Tempting though it is to actually take the next step down and actually make the planning decision as to what should happen with the land that is actually not the role of this Parliament in that regard. It is actually to find out what the true status of that land is. Accordingly at the select committee again the Labour Party members on that select committee who included Annette King were not motivated by a desire to find this to be endowment land. If anything they were motivated by a desire to prove that this was reserve land. But the advice that they received in the end was that it was endowment land not reserve land. As a consequence they quite properly said that their duty to this Parliament was to report back that upon inquiry they had concluded on the balance of all of the evidence and the advice from officials that it was endowment land. So that is the advice that this Parliament has received. 
Having gone into it so thoroughly in the end someone has to make a decision. On the balance of the evidence the select committee ably chaired by Mr Auchinvole concluded that it was endowment land and that is where it ends. That is what this bill says: it is endowment land. And the question as to whether it should be developed is a different question for the council under its legislation. That in turn has public processes. The long-term council community plan includes the right of public participation to turn up and say: “This land should not be subdivided.” People have done that and their elected representatives have said no they disagree and that they think it should be developed. 
I personally disagree with that. I actually do not think this land should be developed. I would prefer Forrester Heights land to be undeveloped but my opinion on that is irrelevant. These decisions are delegated to the local council and if we start reversing that position and think all these decisions should be taken in Parliament then we might as well not have local government. For those reasons with sadness I regret this. I had Warren Crawford even just 2 weeks ago when I saw him when I was down in Oamaru talking about the terrible things that are happening with Summit Wool Spinners down there. He was again saying: “Look disagree—disagree.” That is his right to disagree and Barry Monks is still not convinced either but the select committee was. And that is the basis upon which we as a Parliament have to make a decision. The evidence is that this is endowment land not reserve land and that is why the Labour Party is supporting this bill.