SpeechDr EMILY HENDERSON (Labour—Whangārei): Kia ora Madam Speaker—te Māngai o te Whare. I rise to speak on the Hawke's Bay Agricultural and Pastoral Society Empowering Bill this evening but before I do—noting that this is a very significant day for New Zealand—I do want to say al salam alaikum. I know that all of us during today have taken a pause and remembered the horror of what happened in Christchurch four years ago. I know that all of us are thinking today of the victims of that massacre and of their families and of the communities and are striving to continue to do what we can to bring together communities and prevent that sort of division and hatred. In a very real and very simple way an A & P society in a country town like mine plays a pretty important part in bringing our society together so it is not irrelevant to be talking about a society like the A & P society which we all have in our various provincial towns and we all know in our various provincial towns if you're lucky enough to be a provincial MP—as I am—the significance of it. But before I go any further there is also one other group to talk about and that's the owners of this particular agricultural society because the A & P society of Hawke's Bay at this moment is struggling under the appalling impact of Cyclone Gabrielle. I understand from its two devoted local MPs Anna Lorck and Stuart Nash from the region as well as from the Hon Kiritapu Allan that in fact the Hawke's Bay showgrounds that we're talking about tonight have remained untouched. So this land has not been damaged by the cyclone; in fact far from it. This land has acted as the community hub that an A & P society should be although one would hope that it would not have to step in in an emergency as it has had to here. I understand from Ms Lorck that the showgrounds have become an emergency gathering place a place for the community to seek safety and succour and shelter and that is a testament to what an agricultural society—an A & P society—should be. So I am delighted to know that that land is in fact safe and it has been having that impact. When I was preparing to speak on this bill I had a look at the history. I understand it goes back to the 1850s when the society was formed and it's one of the oldest in New Zealand. I believe it was in 1858 that the first show was held. It wasn't held on these grounds; it was held on the old racecourse grounds which at the time were owned by the A & P society. This society is not unused to big upheavals in its property management. It bought the current grounds—51 acres as I understand it—when the racecourse grounds just became too small for what it was doing and there was controversy. There was controversy in making the move out of the immediate surroundings. It was felt that it was too distant but in fact taking the big jump has proven to be the best thing for the society because it is still going strong. So we come to what is happening now. Now we have a society and a community who are shattered and dealing with incredible hardship and the appalling uncertainty of having your entire life ripped out from under you. It is therefore fitting that we enable part of that group for the A & P society to go on to do its job better and better and we enable it to do what it wants to do which is to sell this bit of land so that it can go on providing that hub and that meeting place for the community and that base for the development of the community spirit that it has been for over a hundred years. So for those watching—as I'm sure there are many at this time on a Wednesday evening glued to parliamentary television and worrying about what the Hawke's Bay Agricultural and Pastoral Society Empowering Bill means—what they want to do is sell the land that they have. They want to sell it to the council. The council have agreed to hold it in perpetuity. The council have agreed that the A & P society will be able to hold all its events as it normally does on that land as it has done ever since 1912 I believe when it first purchased this particular block in 1858 when it purchased the racecourse block. It will still be able to go on holding its events every year—and I think there are four of them over 12 days a year—but it will be freed up by being able to sell the land for cash to the council and that money can be invested in the many things that an A & P society does around town and for the community. I have some knowledge of what an A & P society does in the community. Our previous speaker Nicola Grigg spoke proudly I believe—as I was coming back in I heard her speaking proudly of her own time on the equestrian course. I myself am an indifferent horsewoman but my sisters Georgie and Jessie are superb and did in fact participate in many a Whangārei A & P event on their horses. But rather than the show which has always been a highlight for Whangārei—let's start with that. In Whangārei every summer early December—my goodness it's the summer show. It was the highlight of your childhood. When you live in a place like Whangārei you don't get the Ferris wheel very often and you don't get candyfloss very often and this was our one yearly opportunity. I visited and loved it again with my kids. We had the hiatus of COVID which was very difficult for our local society and our local producers. It has been hard and tough and I have sat with Evan and Chris and the team in Whangārei and mourned the loss of one more A & P society opportunity because it is such an important social event if you are in a provincial and a rural community. But it's more than that. An A & P society like ours in Whangārei reaches out and supports the development of the primary production sector in so many ways. For example in Whangārei they actually hold an apprenticeship programme effectively—I'm looking across at my colleague Mark Cameron who is nodding with great love and affection. They have started a training programme for young farmers which I think started with six and has been building regularly where they have enabled young people living in Tai Tokerau who often don't want to leave their local homes and travel off to the big smoke of Whangārei—they have enabled them to move into farming families and do their apprenticeships on the ground on the farm. They support them and they mentor them through their various standards and the academic work and in this way the Whangārei A & P Society is growing our base of farmers and rural producers. Therefore it is important for the development of farming standards that we allow the healthy and friendly although often intergenerationally passionate rivalry that is the A & P society's many competitions. Whether it be over preserves or livestock it is important that we enable the community to come together at our shows and enjoy each other's company and have the rush of candyfloss and the thrill of the Ferris wheel. But it is important that we enable them also to continue the work they do outside the showgrounds to support our primary production sector to get better and better and to continue to be the basis of New Zealand life that it really is. So I commend the Hawke's Bay Agricultural and Pastoral Society for having the vision once again to take a bold leap into the unknown and to sell off its asset to safe hands that will preserve it for all the good that it's been doing in the community as a community recreation space to enable it to continue to fulfil its place and its purpose within our provincial societies supporting those in the agricultural and pastoral sector. I commend this bill to the House.