Hudson Brett: Wellington Town Belt Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHudson Brett: Wellington Town Belt Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 16 September 2015. Volume:708;Page:6717. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]BRETT HUDSON (National): It is a privilege to rise on this the Wellington Town Belt Bill a bill that the National Party will be supporting through to the select committee hearings. I would just like to acknowledge the efforts of Grant Robertson across the years that it has taken to bring this bill to the House. The member mentioned that he made note of what he would like to see done with the town belt in his maiden speech. Should this bill make it through the select committee and through to enactment I am sure that my colleague Paul Foster-Bell will be more than happy to accept Grant Robertson’s speech in the third reading of this bill as his valedictory. I would also like to note the hard work of the council and councillors particularly Councillor Helene Ritchie who is here to see the first reading of a bill that she sponsored within the council and also the work of the councillors themselves.As has been canvassed the town belt is something that not only is immediately identifiable as people fly into this great city the greatest city in our country but also really helps to define some of the stuff that is so wonderful about the liveability of this city. Not only is the town belt used for recreation such as walks and for its natural beauty but it is actually used as a recreational facility in other ways. This bill will in fact protect those sorts of uses into the future. On an uncustomary cold winter’s day in Wellington I often join my daughter Micaela at the Wellington netball courts in the town belt on Mount Victoria where she plays that game as many many other young women and women in Wellington do. The town belt is also used for rugby. It has been used for cycling. It is used for running. It is used for many many purposes. The top of Mount Victoria is a tourist attraction for the city. There probably are not too many tourists who spend any length of time in Wellington who do not go up there to have a good look at the city.Hon Member: Park up in the back seat.BRETT HUDSON: There are also those uses as well.Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.BRETT HUDSON: I was talking about the town belt around Mount Victoria. Effectively it rings the inner harbour around to Te Ahumairangi which as Mr Robertson pointed out is on the border of the Ōhariu electorate. There has a bit of parochialism on this debate tonight about Wellington Central Rongotai and the town belt but I would just like to remind members that this is a Wellington City - promoted bill. In Wellington City the council boundaries extend both north and west. They take in the entire population of the electorate of Ōhariu and the city is all the better for it.Simon O’Connor: Tell us about the list member for Ōhariu.BRETT HUDSON: I could talk for a while about him.It is very very good to stand here in support of a bill going to select committee that is going to protect the town belt for generations to come. It is with some regret though which other speakers have noted and I will reiterate that the bill is being introduced in not quite the perfect form we may have wanted. It does currently contain carve-out provisions from the Public Works Act that some would say are completely unnecessary but are certainly under contention. I think what does concern me somewhat is that through talking to people who have raised concerns and talking to people within the council I have been advised that the parties actually got together and nutted out these issues around these carve-outs in particular and also around the areas of permitting any inhabitant of the Wellington region or the Wellington City Council area to lodge objections and they actually worked through the issues. They sought and found solutions. They actually found the drafting that would address the issue.So it is quite regrettable having done all that work and reached a final point that the bill has been introduced into the House with the original provisions—in particular I am talking around the likes of clause 23—still in place. There was the opportunity. The bill could have arrived amended from what it currently is and we could in fact be debating in this first reading the provisions that we know that the people who have raised concerns such as the New Zealand Transport Agency Land Information New Zealand and the council have already thrashed out and already agreed on. We will now instead be having to discuss these during the select committee deliberations. I certainly would encourage the members on the select committee to pay very very close attention to those areas. They are very serious concerns. They are things that need to be addressed but I am very hopeful that at the end of that process we will see a bill that will go through a successful second and third reading to be enacted. I support this reading of the Wellington Town Belt Bill.