Brownlee Gerry: Greater Christchurch Regeneration Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBrownlee Gerry: Greater Christchurch Regeneration Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 17 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:9878. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery): It is not usual for the Minister proposing a bill to speak in the second reading but this is a bill that is somewhat unique and I think it continues the historically strong support that this Parliament has given Christchurch through the difficult years post the earthquake sequence—Mr SPEAKER: Order! Can I just ask the member—he needs to move that the bill be read a second time.Hon GERRY BROWNLEE: Oh sorry. Well there you go. It just shows that anybody who has been here for any length of time can demonstrate a bit of inexperience occasionally. I move That the Greater Christchurch Regeneration Bill be now read a second time.As I was saying this is I think a historic bill for the House and the events of the last couple of weeks where parties have come together to discuss the final shape of the bill—albeit post the select committee stage—have been particularly pleasing. I would like to acknowledge the chair of the Local Government and Environment Committee for the work that he and his members did on this bill. It was in hearing the submissions that some of the complexities that needed to be dealt with in the bill were brought to light.The genesis of the bill though started quite some time ago when it was decided that there should be an orderly transition for the Government to exit some of its more prominent roles in the recovery of Christchurch. So in December of 2014 under the chair of Dame Jenny Shipley there was an advisory board set up. It was asked to consider a number of parameters that should be given a fair old going over before any transition plan could be put together and then it was asked to produce a report that would indicate a direction moving forward.That advisory board had on it the Mayor of Christchurch the Mayor of Waimakariri District the Mayor of Selwyn District and the current chair of Environment Canterbury as well as people from the business sector and a number of people from the NGO sector as well. The people who were on that board did I think a splendid job of thinking about the state of the city at present particularly in a governance sense and looking at what might be necessary moving forward. So what we have seen in the last 10 days when MPs have repeatedly met discussed and agreed is a continuation of a consultation process that has gone on for a very long period of time. The arrangements that are now going to be presented in the Committee stage as a Supplementary Order Paper to this particular bill when the House resumes after the adjournment I think are going to put into statute a series of arrangements that will work well for the future of the city.It is particularly pleasing—I will say it again—that we have been able to reach a broad consensus on how that should shape up and I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the hard work and actually the determined work I should say of all the MPs who were party to that. These were Denis O’Rourke from New Zealand First Eugenie Sage from the Green Party Te Ururoa Flavell from the Māori Party David Seymour from the ACT Party Megan Woods from the Labour Party—I think that might cover it. But my point is that when we were in those discussions the general perception of Parliament as being an adversarial place was for a time set aside while there were proper discussions about what the consequences of any law might be. I have to say that the bill is not for example in a shape that I would think meets in every way the requirements that I would see necessary but then I think every other person in the room would have come up with the same conclusion and that I think can give us all comfort that we are probably in about the right space.The most salient points that have come out of those discussions relate to the provisions that will go into the Supplementary Order Paper that effectively strengthen public input into any of the regeneration plans that will be developed in Christchurch City. It will strengthen the leadership of the new organisation Regenerate Christchurch and it will put a degree of constraint—a greater degree of constraint—on the exercise of ministerial powers to alter those plans under clause 42 of the bill.Those regeneration plans you could almost say are a copy of the recovery plan process that has been in place over the last few years. But essentially the bill recognises that although Christchurch has had its emergency and then has gone through a period of recovery and continues to do so we are now at a point where the consequences of the earthquakes have made such significant changes to the city and the greater Christchurch area that sharper processes are going to be necessary to ensure that we do develop new areas redevelop existing areas and renew existing areas in a way that make them most amenable to people’s ongoing living opportunities. So although there will be some who look at this and say “You’re replacing one bureaucracy that is centrally controlled by Government with a whole lot of smaller bureaucracies that are controlled by local organisations with lesser direct authority.” I think that they have missed the point that there are some very separate considerations that need to be put in place.So Regenerate Christchurch becomes the prime body for taking an overview of the city and its surrounds and making determinations about where some of the efforts of local authorities individual developers and others who have an interest in an area can be concentrated and then coming up with plans that will enable that to occur on a much more rapid basis than might occur through the Local Government Act or for that matter some aspects of the Resource Management Act.Then you have an organisation that the council is setting up called Development Christchurch Ltd. That is designed to be a front-face first point for people who are coming to the city who want to invest. One of the things that I hear over and over and have done for the last few years is that people come into town and say “Right we want to do something.” and then there is nowhere to go no one to talk to and nothing gets done. I think that is an overstatement of how things are but the council certainly does have a desire to see things move. I think the first thing that DevelopmentChristchurch has been involved in is the big bike park on the Port Hills which the rest of the country will soon learn is an absolutely splendid facility and I am sure there will be many who come to Christchurch because of it.There is also going to be an organisation referred to as Ōtākaro Ltd. Everyone will know that the Government has invested heavily in Christchurch. It does own a lot of land known as the red zone and does own a lot of land in the central business district where the different precincts are being established. It will hold the interest that the Government has in ensuring that the anchor projects that remain—at this point—unstarted are started and that those that are under way continue to their completion at as speedy a pace as possible.We have cross-pollinated all of those boards with the chairs of each so that there is a good understanding and good working arrangement between those groups. I think the structure recognises local autonomy and recognises the difference between a single body that does everything and the specifics that need to be dealt with and I am confident that they will be able to work together in a very very positive way.This is as I said before a historic bill. It is part of the efforts that this Parliament is making in support of Canterbury and it continues the unanimous support and generous support that the House has given since the days post-2011. The discussion that we will have in the Committee stage will make very clear I hope the unique nature of the structure that we have all agreed will be best for Christchurch.I want to once again thank the members of Parliament and the spokespeople who have been involved in those discussions. I would like to thank the officials for their forbearance with us all. Politicians are very good at coming up with great ideas and then being a little reluctant to accept that some of them might not be as good as they possibly could be. But we were well served by officials from both the Christchurch City Council and from Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and I thank them for their work. I look forward to the Committee stage when I am sure they will be on hand to answer any questions that those perhaps not quite so close to the process may have.I do commend this bill to the House. It is a good bill and well worth the House’s unanimous support.