Tirikatene Rino: Riccarton Bush Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Tirikatene Rino: Riccarton Bush Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 13 June 2012. Volume:680;Page:2970. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Speaker. Kia ora tatou e te Whare. I am pleased to speak in support of the Riccarton Bush Amendment Bill. Along with my other colleagues I support its first reading and its referral to the Local Government and Environment Committee.  
This bill in terms of modernising the governance arrangements with the Riccarton Bush trustees really concerns the beautiful piece of historic bush that makes up the property in question. We have heard a lot this evening about the wonderful history that Canterbury and Christchurch people and the Scottish community have with the bush area. It also goes further back as my colleague Megan Woods touched on. It goes right back to Ngai Tuahuriri when the bush in its Ngai Tahu name was called Putaringamotu. My own tupuna would have frolicked around in the bush catching the kereru pigeon on their seasonal travels as they went around the motu of Te Waipounamu. I can just see them now occupying the bush area as it would have been quite an extensive forest in those days. So yes there is a lot of history and a lot of connection that all the communities have with that area. I do acknowledge the Hon Gerry Brownlee for supporting this bill the other “member for Riccarton Bush” within the great vast area of Te Tai Tonga. We also support it in recognition also of that historical connection.  
I was just thinking about the issue that Eugenie Sage the Green member raised earlier regarding the feral pigeons. I am pretty sure that some members of Ngai Tuahuriri after their mutton bird season expeditions could do something about that if they were given the opportunity.  
This is a bill that I am pleased to support. I was just having a flick through and I have one suggestion which I hope is considered by the select committee. It was raised by Ms Sage and it would be perhaps to consolidate or recast the bill into a single Act. It is 98 years old now the initial 1940 legislation that set up the trust. Then we have had a succession of amendment bills: I think there was a significant one in 1947 and then a series of ones that came further on. Thank goodness we have got electronic updates on legislation these days because back in the day when they had to glue in the pieces of amendments in terms of the statute book to deal with trying to piece this piece of legislation together would be quite a task. So that would be just one suggestion that perhaps will be taken up through submissions to the select committee.  
I know that the trustees want to retain that historic connection I guess through the legislation but the purpose of the bill is to modernise and to bring the processes of the board up to date and perhaps that could be a worthwhile suggestion—to modernise the whole Act completely and recast it into a single consolidated Act in 2012.  
There is a great history there. I also like to think in recognition of that history that these are taonga these kahikatea trees. I do not know too much about botany but I do know that the kahikatea is the tallest native tree and it is significant in Maoridom because we have a pepeha saying “Me uru kahikatea”. The kahikatea is the tallest tree. You always see kahikatea trees in clumps. You will never see a single tree and it is because of the roots of the kahikatea. They bind together and that is what “Me uru kahikatea” means: to bind together and stay strong. So perhaps recognition of Putaringamotu in the make-up of Riccarton Bush would be appropriate as well. But I support this bill through to the select committee. Kia ora tatou.