Foster-Bell Paul: Wellington Town Belt Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFoster-Bell Paul: Wellington Town Belt Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 16 September 2015. Volume:708;Page:6713. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PAUL FOSTER-BELL (National): Tēnā koe e te Mana Whakawā Tuarua. Tēnā koutou katoa e ngā mema o te Whare Pāremata o Aotearoa. It is a pleasure to take a call in this first reading debate on the Wellington Town Belt Bill and I would like to congratulate my colleague and opponent Grant Robertson on presenting this bill to the House. It is important that after so many years the trusts and deeds that form the original foundation of this taonga this asset which is important to our city are modernised and brought up to date.This bill revokes the Wellington (City) Town Belt Reserves Act 1908 and the Wellington City Exhibition Grounds Act 1959 and puts into place a more coherent and consistent basis for the foundation of the town belt which so many Wellington residents enjoy. I would like to acknowledge the work of the others who have contributed to bringing this piece of legislation to the House: the Wellington city councillors in particular Councillor Helene Ritchie; Councillor Andy Foster whom I noticed was taking an interest in this as well; and also the officials who have contributed to drafting what is a good basis for this bill which will be obviously closely scrutinised by the Local Government and Environment Committee so ably chaired by my respected colleague the honourable member for the Coromandel Scott Simpson. He is a very hard-working MP and a very conciliatory chair of that committee who works well across the House to make sure that the other parties are well consulted and that there is collaboration so that we get the very best possible result.But I do need to respond to a couple of things that have been said so far in this first reading debate. I would like to comment on the remarks made by the member for Rongotai the Hon Annette King that the Public Works Act would be available to the Government should certain essential pieces of infrastructure such as the duplication of the Mount Victoria Tunnel the drilling through of a second tunnel need to be undertaken for the greater good of all Wellingtonians and in fact for the greater economic benefit of the country.There were some comments made prior to the introduction of this bill by the chamber of commerce which raised serious concerns that clause 23 of this bill in particular and also clause 6(b) could affect such vital projects as the Mount Victoria duplication and also the deployment of the rapid transit bus routes around Wellington not just because of the consultation that would be required but the fact that the original drafting of the Act section 18 of the Public Works Act did not apply in its entirety.I understand that there has been some discussion and that the city council has agreed that there could be some changes and amendments usefully made in the select committee process of the consideration of this bill. Leaving the bill as it is would put a handbrake on potentially vital work particularly around the transport improvements that we do require to be able to go ahead as a city.Too often over the past few years we have seen essential projects either stopped or significantly impeded. We have seen the implementation of a more efficient route through the Basin Reserve impeded over the last couple of years and that is something that we desperately need given that that road link is at over 100 percent of its current capacity. We do not want to compound that further by introducing in this piece of legislation further handbrakes to that necessary development.Similarly I understand that there are arguments being made at the other extreme of the spectrum from David Lee for instance—and I do not mean Councillor Lee; this is another David Lee—who has concerns that this bill goes too far in allowing the continuation of certain commercial activities on town belt land.So clearly there are a variety of views. As a select committee we will be listening to those. I welcome the fact that the bill increases the ease of adding land and makes it harder to remove land from the town belt but let us see how we go in the committee. Thank you.