Huo Raymond: Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Huo Raymond: Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 14 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6621. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
RAYMOND HUO (Labour) 
: 
 It is a great pleasure to take a call following that member who has just resumed his seat. I found Mr Paul Goldsmith’s speech on history very informing and entertaining. It is very regrettable that that member has not taught us about the history of the Epsom electorate. 
But back to this Waitaki District Council Reserves and Other Land Empowering Bill. I would like to acknowledge Nicky Wagner—the good chairperson of the Local Government and Environment Committee—and also to acknowledge the member for Waitaki Ms Jacqui Dean. She is doing a good job in bringing this bill to this House on behalf of her constituents because they have waited for too long. Obviously this bill is not her Government’s priority. The purpose of this bill is to— 
Jacqui Dean 
: It’s a local bill. 
RAYMOND HUO 
: Well calm down. This is a very serious speech about a serious bill. The purpose of this bill is to revoke the reservation status of two pieces of land within the Waitaki District and they are Palmerston Showgrounds and Lot 1 DP 345820—it sounds like this bill has taken me back to my commercial property lawyer days. This bill also seeks to clarify the status of a third piece of land which is Lookout Point. 
Labour supported this bill going to the select committee. As my colleagues the Hon Annette King the Hon David Parker and Phil Twyford have said in their previous speeches Labour supported this bill but we did raise a concern about the land at Lookout Point. The first two pieces of land were uncontroversial and the issue here was whether the third piece namely the Lookout Point land was endowment land—and so able to be sold—or reserve land in which case it could not be sold. After extensive research it was found and the committee was satisfied that the status of the land at Lookout Point was endowment land. At the select committee we carefully considered the claims that the land had been set apart as a reserve in or about 1862. Based on extensive research and legal advice we are satisfied that Lookout Point was never set apart as a public reserve under the Public Reserves Act Amendment Act 1862. I agreed with the opinion expressed at the Local Government and Environment Committee that the word “reserve” in this particular context rather interestingly means to set apart Crown land as endowments and that it does not enable a public reserve to be endowed. 
Having said that we note that the chairman of the local group Waitaki Ratepayers and Concerned Citizens Warren Crawford confirmed in January that his group continued to oppose the subdivision. It believed that the land should be retained as a reserve and planted in native trees and suggested that children be involved in that on Arbor Days. The group’s biggest criticism was the lack of consultation and particularly that a local member’s bill had not gone to a select committee with the opportunity for public submissions. As a result this bill did go to the select committee. That brings us to the four well-beings in the purpose section of the Local Government Act 2002. This National-ACT Government is about to ditch that section and replace it with a much narrower and restrictive purpose section. Also this bill although relatively uncontroversial is a good example as to how important it is for us to remember that the four well-beings that are the purpose of local government—namely the economic social cultural and environmental well-beings—are what the “local” is all about.