Mark Ron: Wellington Town Belt Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMark Ron: Wellington Town Belt Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 16 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:9838. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RON MARK (Deputy Leader—NZ First): Well looking at the clock I do not think we have much more time in this session. I know that most of the aspects of this bill have been well traversed by people. I do actually want to make a couple of comments. I do know that there was I think one objection—Grant Robertson: A couple of them.RON MARK: —a couple of objections—to the passage of this bill. I guess without naming people I will try to speak a little bit to some of those concerns. I have to compliment the Parliamentary Library too for the work it has done in the background on these wonderful debate packs and the Bills Digests and everything. It gives anyone who really wants to understand what has happened with this bill—the passage of this bill and how it made it here—the background behind the Wellington City Council’s decision to have MP Grant Robertson bring this bill to the House. I just recommend to the people who wish to know a little bit more that they enter that space and have a quiet read.I do find and I think I have said it earlier that there is a similarity between this bill and the way in which Wellingtonians feel about their green belt and that which I experienced when I first went down to Christchurch back in the 1970s and when I was there in the 1990s at a time when actually I stood for Labour as a member of Parliament against Ruth Richardson. I stood against Ruth Richardson in 1993. One of the issues—Todd Muller: The madness of youth.RON MARK: Oh we had a ball down there Mr Muller. We ran Ruth Richardson hot to the wire. She almost lost her seat did she not? She did lose her appointment but I digress. And then she resigned spat the dummy and we had a by-election.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Back to the bill.RON MARK: Back to the bill. At that time there was a very strong voice in Canterbury within Christchurch in particular for the preservation of the green belt that existed around Christchurch. It is interesting when I read some of the commentary—and particularly the words of Helene Ritchie as quoted in this document. She described the green belt of Wellington as being “the lungs of our city. It fosters growth health public recreation and the natural heritage in the coolest little capital in the world.”Those words are very very similar to the thoughts and the views expressed by Cantabrians when they fought unsuccessfully as it turned out to retain the green belt in Christchurch. We saw a lot of things happening down in Christchurch as a result of that breakdown of their green belt that the people who submitted on this bill said they did not want to see here in Wellington. Whether or not they were in tune with what had happened down in Christchurch I have no knowledge of but what is clear is that their thinking their thoughts their aspirations and their hopes were very much the same.There are people who have objected to this bill and have made their objections very clear. I guess from the New Zealand First perspective one amendment to clause 23 that we are very pleased about and it has been mentioned here this evening on numerous occasions by various speakers is that the Local Government and Environment Committee recommended changes to the bill to clarify that the Public Works Act 1981 applies to this town belt. The recommended new clause would mean that the council could not sell the town belt land for public works but would not change powers under the Public Works Act. This was agreed by the Wellington City Council.I actually deliberately read that out for the benefit of Government members who might think that we are stupid. They might think that we on the Opposition benches are dumb. I am not saying that because the Government members on the Local Government and Environment Committee did not agree. They did. But I am actually referring to recent changes that this Government has rammed through the House and recent things that it has done. When you look at this bill and you look at the concerns raised by people who still email me—I have got an email sitting right beside me from a person saying: “This bill does not protect the town belt. This bill does not prevent the Crown coming in and taking the town belt or pieces of it under the Public Works Act.” What it does do is it stops the city council. What it does do is send a clear indication from Parliament that that should not be allowed to happen. I do not need to discuss some things that this Government has done recently because we will talk about them more in another forum at another time when we expose that to the public of New Zealand. But the changes to the legislation have cemented in and have we believe taken care of some of those concerns held by those few people who did object to this bill going through.We take satisfaction from the fact that the bill does give greater protection to the integrity of the Wellington town belt. It does give a clear and legal definition of the extent of the town belt—something that never existed before. It does modernise the legislation which dates back to 1871—a lot of things have happened since then. Paul Foster-Bell was born.Brett Hudson: In 1871?RON MARK: So was that gentleman over there. The deed had become contentious in the fact that it was difficult to interpret and therefore able to be misinterpreted and therefore able to be misapplied. This bill tidies up the legal definition. This bill brings modern legislation into play. It makes it possible to administer the town belt protect it enhance it and grow it within the context of modern law. It gives a clear expression of the entitlement of the inhabitants to freedom of entry and access to the town belt—unequivocal.There are significant restrictions and controls on new buildings but the bill recognises that there are roads and infrastructural assets running through what was the green belt and therefore these provisions should not apply to those—otherwise how would you ever maintain those roads? How would you ever be able to dig up those parts that actually have infrastructure buried within them? It takes care of those issues that might arise from modern technology and the need to be able to move power lines and such across. The bill gives greater powers to the inhabitants to have the standing to be able to object to any compulsory acquisition of land by the Crown were that ever to be again proposed. We have already heard from speakers how that was proposed by the Government which wanted to slap a motorway through it and expand its roads of national significance.To conclude New Zealand First is very happy to support this bill. We congratulate Grant Robertson on bringing this bill to the House. We thank the select committee for its diligence and thank Scott Simpson and the members of his team for working with everybody. I think the Local Government and Environment Committee should once again take a pat on the back for being able to work in a very collegial manner towards achieving something very worthwhile and something that the inhabitants and the governors of Wellington City will be very pleased to see when the bill is finally passed at its third reading. Thank you very much.