Williams PotoPOTO WILLIAMS (Labour—Christchurch East): I want to thank my colleagues for their contributions on this legislation which we support. To start off this contribution I want to talk a little bit about what has led us to having these two bills before the Committee. I guess I want to talk about the meeting Dr Megan Woods and I had fairly early on with members of the board of the Riccarton racing club around their desire to ensure that that facility—the racing club the grounds and the buildings some of which are old and historic—actually could remain a vibrant and useful facility for Christchurch. In taking the step that they have in order to allow part of the racecourse to be developed—to look at the Reserves Act and allow a portion of their land to be developed for housing—they are ensuring the facility does continue to go on and be used by the people of Christchurch. It is a beautiful facility. The grounds are lovely. The Hon Ruth Dyson often gets to speak at Japan Day which is one of my favourite days at the course because the gardens look wonderful the blossoms are in full bloom there—it is just a delightful place to be. And of course on Sunday they have the market which encourages people from all over the city to head out—south in my case—to participate in it. I think it is interesting legislation in that in clause 6 of the Riccarton Racecourse Development Enabling Bill the Government has chosen to actually put in a definition of affordability for housing. I think some of my Auckland colleagues would be quite envious that we in Christchurch actually have a determination of what affordable housing is in a piece of legislation designed for Christchurch. I would like to see affordability in Auckland being $450000. Then we would not be in the situation we are in currently where people are forced out of the city they cannot afford to live in the city and they certainly cannot afford to buy a home in the city. It has become a paradise—a haven—for investors to actually thrive. Houses potentially earn more than workers do. I think it is an appalling situation. This piece of legislation actually tells us what the cost of affordable housing should be in Christchurch so that is a very interesting part of that bill. The aspect that both my colleagues have touched on previously is the notion of exemplar"—that this development was to be an exemplar development. Many of us were very excited about that. An exemplar development as referred to in clause 9 of the Riccarton Racecourse Development Enabling Bill has to have some key elements as part of it. The homes have to be affordable—clause 6 clearly defines what affordable is. The development has to be close to amenities and the area that is being developed is close to good shopping good road links and schools in the area certainly. The development has to meet certain criteria around good urban design and there has to be suitable infrastructure and transport planning in place. I know that when the development was first mooted the very good local MP attended and hosted public meetings because there was a real concern from members of the community that having 600 new dwellings within the area would cause all sorts of pressures on infrastructure particularly on roading and transport infrastructure. It is a very very busy part of Christchurch. It links the southern part of the city with the northern part of the city and links through to the airport so there is quite a lot of transport that goes through there—quite a lot of trucks. The local people were concerned that the volume of traffic that would be pushed out on to those roads without good planning would cause them further delays within their commute to work and school and the like. There were some very real concerns about that. There were also some concerns about what kind of pressure that will place on the horizontal infrastructure as well. To hear that it was an exemplar project at the beginning really caused us to think that we did not have to have concerns about this because they would be taken care of throughout the development of this. But then when we heard the project was not an exemplar project we asked some of the developers about that. They said it actually meets most of the criteria. Well clearly it does not meet enough of the criteria to be an exemplar project and that is a real shame. I am concerned that although this is going to be a great development it does not meet the standards of "exemplar". It is a loss for the people of that community. It is interesting too that at the beginning there were some Christchurch city councillors who had some concerns about what was going to happen with this development. One of their biggest concerns of course was the rationale for rezoning when there were potentially other areas that could be rezoned for development. I think that in the course of the passage of the legislation and the submissions that were made those fears—those concerns—were actually allayed and they are now fully supportive of this development. One of the big advantages of this development is the relationship it has with Ngāi Tahu. Ngāi Tahu not only have the first right of refusal but are also very much involved in a partnership to ensure there is a significant input from them throughout this development and it is a good development because of it. Ngāi Tahu are known throughout the city for having provided lots of different types of housing options and this one will be no different. The fact we are looking at adding 600 homes to the community is great. We certainly need more housing because that of course is going to allow us to balance out affordability across the city. I know that the Government has been crowing recently about housing affordability in Christchurch and saying it is largely due to its measures around ensuring that the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority got the right kind of policies in place. Well actually I do not think that is the case. I think that when you go through a major redevelopment where people are rebuilding homes when there is all the insurance money that has come into the city—we did not necessarily have the issues around land costs that there are in places like Auckland because actually the only place where we had any restrictions around our land was in the central business district where we now find that development costs are escalating because of the cost of land and because that land had been restricted for so long. I will make further contributions on this legislation. I am pleased to see we have put a benchmark—a line in the sand—around affordability. I am pleased to see the involvement and partnership that Ngāi Tahu play in this and I am very pleased to see that Riccarton Racecourse and the racing board will get to preserve their fantastic grounds and facilities for the people of Christchurch."