Kuriger Barbara: Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKuriger Barbara: Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 19 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3396. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]BARBARA KURIGER (National—Taranaki - King Country): It is a pleasure to be taking a call on this billthis afternoon the Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill. The progression of this bill will be welcomed by the community groups wanting recognition of their right to use the land specified within this bill and it will give community groups certainty. This bill actually passed through a previous Primary Production Committee of which I am now a member. Like others referred to in the House this afternoon I did not meet or know many of the people on that committee and many of them are not here as parliamentary colleagues now. One of those members who was on the committee was my predecessor Shane Ardern who was the chair and I note that he has spoken on this bill before.For me this bill really deals with getting outcomes for communities and I want to reinforce what Minister Woodhouse talked about before—about the importance of what we are trying to do here for the local communities. It does not give me any pleasure to sit here and listen to members of Parliament on the opposite side of the House talking about this bill having come back to the House because we are lacking in ideas. I am sure the members of those communities that are waiting on the outcomes of this bill are not sitting there thinking that there is a lack of ideas in anything that we are trying to do here.This bill is designed to deal with non-controversial matters. It is largely administrative and technical and it is actually the administrative and technical things that frustrate people in the community when they are trying to achieve something in their community—when they just want to get up and running when they just want to get started and when they just want clarity about how they are able to use land in certain situations. Certainly our community groups do not need any more red tape than necessary any more legal costs or anything of such a nature put in their way when dealing with the administrative and technical matters that we are covering off in this piece of legislation.Others who have spoken today have referred to the Rules Reduction Taskforce and I know from the meetings that I have attended that nothing frustrates people in the communities more than having things standing in their way when they can see a need in their community to have something that is better and more exciting. It is frustrating enough for individuals and it does become extremely frustrating for people who are working in the community. So it is important to deal with these issues so that communities know where they stand.Communities can be parochial. I know that because I come from Taranaki and people often tell us that Taranaki people are parochial. That is because they are proud and they actually see practical solutions. I would suggest Taranaki is no different from the communities in Dunedin and in Winton that are being referred to today which are really proud of where they live and of where they are placed and which want these issues sorted out so that they can get on with their projects.I really would like to take issue with the question of relevancy in the New Zealand First member’s presentation when he asked how relevant this legislation is. This is really relevant for the people who live in those communities and who need this legislation to happen. The member also referred to the fact that life has gone on. Life does not go on for the communities that are involved. We might be busy every day taking care of the things that we need to do looking at other bills and looking at other pieces of legislation but for the people in those communities who are working hard to try to get these things done life does not go on.When I look at the places and the needs of these communities for getting this piece of legislation passed we are looking at things like art galleries. We are looking at things like reserve land. We are looking at things like bowling clubs and racecourses—obviously the Taieri Airport is part of this. We are looking at things like health boards that are looking to better utilise land for health and disability services. A lot of people in those communities are actually volunteers and they are actually working in the interests of the whole community. From my experience in my electorate when I go around it is the volunteers of these communities who actually keep those communities up and running and we should not make things any more difficult for them than we need to. It is all about keeping the communities running. They do it for the love of it. Those people in that bowling club are actually doing that particular activity because they know it is going to make something better and special for their community. So I think it is an absolute no-brainer that we move forward with this bill.The controversial sections have been removed as we have heard about this afternoon. This seems to be a piece of non-controversial legislation. I have not been privy to any of the submissions in terms of being present but it seems as if we have come out with a piece of legislation here that is very very sensible moving forward. I think Government has an important role in dealing with authorisations transfers and validations of matters relating to Crown land reserves and other land held for private and public purposes. This Government takes the role very seriously and it is now moving this bill forward following a lengthy select committee process. It has been a lengthy process but it does not make it any less important for those people who are working to get this done.When we look at things like the Winton Racecourse in Southland—clauses 56 to 58—this will provide wider community and independent input into management of the racecourse. Under these clauses the Minister of Conservation will be able to appoint at any one time up to five trustees for the racecourse and will be able to limit each appointment to a 3-year period. Currently three trustees are appointed for life and responsibility for their replacement lies with the Minister of Conservation. To me it is not productive for a community to have people appointed to a board for life and to have somebody else outside that community having to take that responsibility when those people either come to the end of their life or when they come to the point where they are just unable to do the job any more. So it is just common-sense non-controversial legislation that we are trying to take care of here.Reserves and other lands disposal legislation is enacted from time to time as matters arise in order to effect non-controversial changes and when a land issue cannot be dealt with in any other legislation. For that reason alone it is very very important that we keep moving with this piece of legislation. It deals only with authorisations transfers and validations of matters relating to Crown land reserves or other land that is held for public and private purpose and I just think that the people in those communities would be very very grateful if we kept this bill moving forward. It is my pleasure to speak this afternoon and I commend this bill to the House. Thank you.