Beaumont Carol: Hamilton City Council (Parana Park) Land Vesting Bill — First Reading 
Beaumont Carol: Hamilton City Council (Parana Park) Land Vesting Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:664;Page:11764] 
CAROL BEAUMONT (Labour) 
: 
 It is a great pleasure to rise and join colleagues in speaking in support of the Hamilton City Council (Parana Park) Land Vesting Bill. Members might be wondering why I as an Auckland-based MP am speaking on this bill. I am very happy to answer that question. Why am I? Interestingly enough Parana Park is somewhere that I have very fond memories of myself—and not for the sorts of reasons that Mr Mallard was referring to earlier I have to say. I am actually a Waikato girl. I grew up in a place called Ohaupo which some members may know. I went to school there and went to secondary school at Melville High School in Hamilton and indeed on to university at the University of Waikato. Of course that is where I got to spend time at Parana Park because in fact I lived very close to the park. It is a beautiful park on the banks of the Waikato and Hamilton is of course blessed to have the river running through the city. It is an important feature of that city. The fact that it is not on the coast is quite unusual for a large city but it is made up for of course by the beauty of the river. 
In speaking to this bill I realised that this is the first time I have spoken on a local bill. As a relatively new member of Parliament I asked myself as one does what local bills were about. I thought I had better make sure I knew what I was talking about so I went to a very important source David McGee’s  
Parliamentary Practice in New Zealand 
 to check what local bills are about. I understand that local bills came about after the abolition of provincial government in 1876 that they are bills promoted by a local authority—in this case the Hamilton City Council—and they must be confined in their effects to a particular locality. In this case that is Parana Park. It was quite interesting to read that and of course the local authority promotes the bill but has a member of Parliament to present it. In this case it was David Bennett the National member of Parliament for Hamilton East with whom I have worked quite closely on the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee. 
It was very interesting to hear some of the history that people have spoken about and I absolutely concur with the point Rahui Katene made: that it is important to recognise all of the history when we are talking about a particular locality. One of the sad things probably for every member in this House is that our own schooling—maybe this has changed; I hope so—focused very much on post-colonial history. We learnt a great deal about events that happened in our recent history and less so about the events before that time. Sometimes these very local histories can be hugely important to people in their understanding of the places where they live and the interaction between for example the original residents of the area the tangata whenua and more recent arrivals. It has been very interesting to hear some of that history in the course of this debate. 
I turn to my own dealings with Parana Park. I lived near there when I was a student at Waikato University and Parana Park is a very beautiful place. Quite often in fact I would spend time there enjoying the nice environment there. As Ms Moroney said we used to have various demonstrations or events there to cover particular political issues. I have spent time at the park in that capacity. While I am talking about my colleague Sue Moroney I note that she has recently been selected as our candidate for Hamilton West and I would like to congratulate her on that selection. She is a very powerful advocate for Hamilton. She has lived in the area for a very long time is closely connected to the city and does a great deal of good work in Hamilton. 
I come back to the purpose of the bill. This bill vests the Parana Park land in the Hamilton City Council as a recreation reserve under the Reserves Act 1977. This therefore requires the repeal of the existing legislation covering Parana Park the Hamilton City (Parana Park) Empowering Act 1958. As others have said Labour supports this bill. It is uncontroversial. It is important that Parliament reflects the interests of our local authorities in this way and deals with issues like this. Finally I just want to take the point that Sue Kedgley made. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: The member does not have a “finally”. Her time has expired. 
CAROL BEAUMONT 
: That is a shame. Thank you.