Parker David: Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParker David: Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 01 July 2015. Volume:706;Page:5001. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour):Because more than half a decade has passed since this bill was introduced to the House I think it is proper for this Committee to question whether some of the matters in Part 2 are still current. For members who were not here in earlier parts of this debate this bill was originally introduced on 15 August 2008. I was a younger man.Hon Annette King: You had more hair.Hon DAVID PARKER: That is right—I had more hair. I was also the Minister for Land Information and I was aware that this bill did things that were not particularly controversial. One or two were controversial to some. But the bill put right the various matters concerning the proper classification of lands in various parts of New Zealand which were important to those councils particularly that were affected. I had an expectation that that bill would be referred back and dealt with pretty promptly by this House. Well since then I think we have had three or four Ministers for Land Information. It was reported back to the House by the Primary Production Committee in 2009—it was not an undue delay—but then we have had approximately 6 years of delay while it has sat on the Order Paper.One of the questions that I want to hear answered by the Minister in the chair Louise Upston is what cost that has caused to the people who are affected by the provisions in Part 2 and who have not had the clarification through this legislation that should have been through about 5 years ago. I have got one example that I would like some comment on from the Minister and that relates to what is called locally the Forrester Heights land in Ōāmaru. That land was controversial in that the status of the land—it is actually called Lookout Point land in this provision but it is colloquially called the Forrester Heights land in Ōāmaru and they will understand this debate if I refer to it as Forrester Heights land—was originally given to the council as endowment land which meant that it was for monetary purposes for the council. If the council wanted to sell it and turn it into money and buy another piece of land or do something else with the money then that was always up to it.Through an accident in history at some time the title was recorded in a confused way which suggested that it was reserve land rather than endowment land. In the meantime the council had sold the land in the subdivision upon the land at the time of a price boom in Ōāmaru which has long since passed sadly because the contracts for the sale of that land were at good prices for the council. There were some millions of dollars tied up in the sales all of which fell over. Well just about all did; maybe one or two contracts carried on but my understanding—and Richard Prosser might know this because it probably goes back to his time down there when he stood down there—is that all of the contracts fell over because the council could not offer perfect title because this bill had not been passed.So a consequence of this bill sitting on the Order Paper for so long was that the Waitaki District Council which covers Ōāmaru lost millions of dollars in potential sales of these properties. In the end the local member Jacqui Dean brought forward a local bill on behalf of the council to do what this bill was meant to do. But of course that was still too late to save the council the loss of millions of dollars and it also put the council to the cost of bringing forward a local bill. It had to pay a $50000 fee I think it was to bring a local bill. Something like that—it is a substantial fee anyway. Someone can correct me if I have got that amount wrong. The council was put to that cost. Parliament was put to the cost of actually doing this as a separate process. Submitters who were opposed to it had to submit twice. Having already submitted once on this bill they then submitted on the local bill.In the end it was shown to the satisfaction of the select committee and to me despite protestations from those on the other side that it was properly endowment land rather than reserve land. But I am interested in the Minister telling the House how much money was lost by the Waitaki District Council and its ratepayers because of this delay.