McKelvie Ian: Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMcKelvie Ian: Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 19 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3384. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]IAN McKELVIE (National—Rangitīkei): It is somewhat ironic I guess getting to speak on a bill that went through the Primary Production Committee some time ago. There were some members on that select committee whom I do not know and there are some whom I have never heard of. There is one in the House today who is dead lucky to be here still and he is the last remaining one—the member for the West Coast. So it is quite an unusual situation to find oneself in. I remember of course 3 years ago coming here for the first time getting to speak on a lot of bills I knew nothing about so to come here 4 years later and get to speak on another one I know nothing about is quite an irony.But none the less I now know a lot about the bill and I am going to make a few comments on it because although the previous speaker from Napier made the point that this bill is not meant to be controversial and I am sure that by the time it gets to Parliament it is not controversial most of the issues that are dealt with by bills like this including this one have gone through at times some quite controversial local consultation. In other words they go through local councils. Almost invariably they are to do with local councils—their ability to use to swap to transfer land or to even sell land—and often these are quite controversial issues in small local communities. By the time they get to the House no doubt they are no longer controversial.As a person who formerly dealt with—or lived in—the local government precinct for quite some time I had a lot to do with these sorts of things. They concern all sorts of things—things such as houses that are across boundaries of reserves and have been there for generations. In fact I have got one in my electorate right now of a very similar nature where there is a house across a piece of land that was swapped under a Treaty of Waitangi settlement and the house is occupying a piece of that land. So councils need to move to try to rationalise these issues and they need to come before Parliament and the Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill deals with these issues on an infrequent basis.These issues accumulate over time. It is not unusual for cowsheds to be across road reserve boundaries. It is not unusual—in fact it is very common for road reserves or roads to be on reserve land where at the time they were put there of course there was no cognisance taken of where the boundary was but none the less they became part of a reserve. That is a frequent thing that councils come across. In the 2004 floods in the Manawatū-Rangitīkei for example there were numerous roads that needed major repairs made to them often going across private property going across reserve land and in all sorts of places and these necessitated land swaps and all sorts of issues like that. They would come before the council and often because the roads were on reserve land they needed to come back to the Government for a decision.So there is a lot of consultation going on around this sort of stuff in councils. Often as I said in small local communities there is quite a bit of interest in the small piece of reserve land that gets dealt with. This particular bill of course is dealing with some larger issues than that and some of them are quite old. As the Minister said there will be some significant changes made to this bill as we move along through Supplementary Order Papers. That is necessary as well as things change pretty quickly really in this type of process and decisions are made and we move on.I want to talk also about a reserve in the Manawatū district for example that was transferred to the regional council’s governance. The transfer needed to come through Parliament or become an Act of Parliament in order for it to take place because it transferred between one local authority and another. You would not imagine for a minute that that would be necessary but that is one of the complications that happen in the course of our law around land over hundreds of years in fact. I notice in this bill that there is an item around the Winton racecourse. Racecourses are often governed under the Racing Act. Many of them are in reserve or put in reserve and held in perpetuity for community use. Whether they are racecourses or not in the long term of course is a matter of conjecture but none the less when they go to have their use changed they often have to become the topic of an Act of Parliament to get the land use changed.Agricultural and Pastoral Society showgrounds throughout New Zealand are in a similar situation. The 1908 Agricultural and Pastoral Societies Act controls a large number of Agricultural and Pastoral showgrounds right throughout New Zealand and often these also have to become part of an Act or a local bill or a private bill is needed to change the land use of those pieces of land. The Palmerston North Showgrounds in Palmerston North is a classic example of that. It required an Act of Parliament in order for the city council to be able to take it out of the Manawatū and West Coast Agricultural and Pastoral Society’s ownership. Of course the showgrounds have moved over to Feilding now.As the Minister referred to there are two substantive changes referred to in the select committee report on this bill. Interestingly I think it will be the intention to withdraw both of those or cancel both of those as a result of consultation that has taken place since this bill came to Parliament in I think it was 2008. It is not surprising I guess that there are some changes needed to be made as a result of that. I am quite sure that we can see a number of further changes made to it during the course of the Committee stage as a result of the same debate because as I said earlier these types of issues are constantly before local government and they constantly need to be reviewed. So although this is a very slow process—I think the previous bill came to the House in 2003; scarcely in memory—we now have got to 2015 and we are just about to pass the next bill. Fortunately most organisations that are dealing with these kinds of things are not frustrated by the time factor because they have been here for ever and they are going to be here for ever in the future. It is often just a pedantic issue of who has control of the land and who is able to make decisions on it.Interestingly as a result of the sale of reserve land the Government pockets half of the money anyway. So it is not of great interest to local communities to sell reserve land because they give half the value of that land to the Government. The other half the councils get their hands on. So who knows whether the local community is going to get a great deal of benefit out of this anyway? It is really a rationalisation process. In the case of councils they often have quite large tracts of land—not in one place of course; many many small pieces of land—that are in these types of situations. They are expensive to administer and they are a little bit of a nuisance but they are very hard to deal with as well so it is really in councils’ interest that we get bills like this before Parliament every now and again and make sure we get them I guess passed in a form that enables the community to move on to the next step really.I am very pleased to see that at least the Labour Party is supporting this bill. I am sure New Zealand First will support this bill. I cannot guarantee that my colleague down there in the Greens will support it though. He is not here today Steffan—oh I am sorry. Apologies Mr Assistant Speaker.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Your apology is noted on the record.IAN McKELVIE: He is here in spirit. I am not sure whether he will support it or not. But it is an interesting topic and it is one as I said that is very complicated in the background but relatively simple when it gets to Parliament to be passed. I am also very pleased to see that a few members of the Manawatū district have come to listen to this debate as enlightening and as exciting as it will be.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): And I will just remind the member that referring to people in the gallery is a breach.IAN McKELVIE: Apologies Mr Assistant Speaker.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): That is now on the record as well.Hon Damien O’Connor: They don’t want to be associated with you.IAN McKELVIE: No. The member for West Coast - Tasman is probably quite right. It gives me a great deal of pleasure to support this bill as it moves to the next stage in Parliament. I am sure that the Committee stage of the debate and the Committee stage of this bill will be highly enlightening and I look forward to listening to that debate with interest and even participating in it. I notice that the member for West Coast - Tasman just cannot wait to get up so thank you.