Cunliffe David: Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Bill — Procedure First Reading 
Cunliffe David: Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Bill — Procedure First Reading 
[Volume:629;Page:1400] 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Minister of Immigration) 
: 
 E nga iwi o te Waitakere e nga iwi o te motu ki a Ngati Whatua ki Tamaki-makau-rau ki a Te Kawerau-a-Maki kia ora tena koutou tena koutou tena tatou katoa. 
[ 
To the people of Waitakere and of the nation to Ngati Whatua in Auckland to Te Kawerau-a-Maki greetings to you collectively and to us all 
]. 
I wish to mihi to those who have gone before to those rangatira whose genealogy lies in the bill presented to this House today to the previous Speaker of this House the Rt Hon Jonathan Hunt to Justice Tony Randerson and to Gary Taylor who some 30 years ago gave birth to this idea. I wish to mihi to those who have brought this bill to fruition today: people like the Harveys sitting in the gallery today; to Lynne Pillay my friend and colleague; to people like John Edgar Greg Presland Denise Yates Kath Dewar Tim O’Shea the kaumatua and kuia the guardians of the Waitakere Ranges who reflect the views of the vast bulk of the people of Waitakere and the people of Auckland. If members do not believe me they can believe Colmar Brunton which in one cross-sectoral scientific survey told us that 81 percent of Auckland residents want the ranges protected permanently and 77 percent of Waitakere City residents and 58 percent of landowners in the Waitakere Ranges want this bill. 
What is the problem this bill will fix? The answer is very simple. It has been said in this House and it has been stated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment: “Death by a thousand cuts” or in technical terms “incremental effects”. Yes the Resource Management Act works for most problems and there are mechanisms complementary with this bill that can be made to work well. But wherever the boundary is drawn between the city and the bushline there will always be a financial incentive to move the line one block further to cut down one tree more to build one more house to build one more subdivision—and the point is that once done those things cannot ever be undone. 
Tariana Turia 
: We know. 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: Yes Maori Party members know. They know that the kuia and matua of Waitakere City of Ngati Whatua and of Te Kawerau-a-Maki give their wholehearted support to this bill and we call upon the Maori Party to give its wholehearted support to this bill in keeping with the wishes of the rohe and of the tangata whenua. 
This is a moderate bill that employs the processes of the Resource Management Act and it is very simple. It requires any future change to a district plan to be undertaken in harmony with the objectives and purposes of this legislation. Nobody will lose any rights to have a consent considered. Nobody will lose a single extant property right. Not a single subdivision currently approved will be voided. But we will overcome the problem of incremental effects because in the future when the 101st application is being considered by the commissioners or by the council they will know that it must be in keeping with the wishes of the peoples of Auckland and of New Zealand who have set a long-term vision. It provides the kaupapa it provides the context and it provides the permanence clarity and certainty that are necessary because the effects are inter-generational. 
We have a choice: we could steal the land from our grandchildren and give it to today’s property developers by bulldozing the bush or we could leave our children—[ 
Interruption 
] The so-called aspirant for Waitakere laughs. Does she not know the money that bankrolled the Structure Plan Advocates Network campaign? She represents the people of Waitakere neither in title nor in fact. If I were her and I had any intention of standing in that part of New Zealand ever again I would change my mind real quick because she will never be elected in Waitakere if she opposes this bill against the will of four out of five residents of that electorate. 
Over the last 3 years Lynne Pillay and I have sat in I do not know how many working-groups with the councils and the members of the community to process this bill through. I have campaigned for this bill in the last two election campaigns. If there is nothing else that is clear about west Auckland politics it is that the people there care about their environment and this bill will help us to put that care into action.