McAnulty KieranKIERAN McANULTY (Labour—Wairarapa): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's a pleasure to speak on this local bill the Palmerston North Reserves Empowering Amendment Bill. I commend the member who has sponsored this bill the local MP for Palmerston North Tangi Utikere a good mate of mine and a really hard-working MP. Look I mean we're all guilty of saying that about our colleagues from time to time but in this instance it happens to be true. He is a very hard-working member of Parliament for Palmerston North. I say to the good people of Palmerston North they are actually very fortunate to have Tangi as their MP.I really like local bills. Not everybody understands I don't believe the difference between a local bill and a member's bill and why local bills get precedence on a members' day against those bills where members have come up and put it in the ballot and had the luck to get it drawn out of the ballot and then have it debated on a member's bill. So normally you would imagine considering the situation that we have here that the council would be able to make this decision for themselves. But because the land in question happens to have been named in the Palmerston North Reserves Act 1922 the council requires an amendment to that or a bill to come through Parliament and be passed in order for them to make the decisions that they wish on this land.As other members have mentioned that of course this isn't some roundabout way to try and subvert the process. This just allows the process to happen because at the moment the Palmerston North City Council can't do what they wish. They can't follow the process that they normally would. This bill and the work of Tangi Utikere—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Order! With apologies to the member could members on my left if they wish to have a conversation could they be seated? Thank you.KIERAN McANULTY: I don't blame the members. I'm just as excited about this bill as they are and we're all very excited to see it passed. Absolutely. I mean the point being here is that what the council have indicated that they hope to use this land for is housing. At the moment I couldn't think of a better use for a piece of land. This isn't a controversial proposition. This isn't some reserve that's full of native bush or anything like that. This is a piece of land that currently isn't being used and it hasn't been used since the local bowling club I understand closed down. The use of this land has been heavily restricted because of the situation that they find themselves in.It is a shame I think that some members have tried to use the debate on this bill to try and make some points about other things such as the ACT member Simon Court raising three waters. I will point out to the member that the Palmerston North City Council actually supports three waters so thank you for giving us the opportunity to raise that point in the House. The point here is that there are many members who have highlighted their love of Palmerston North. As a proud Mastertonian I'm not all that fussed on Palmerston North. The people that live there are lovely but we have a friendly rivalry. But what we do not want to stop is the opportunity to develop housing. There's been talk of up to 80 dwellings that could go on this site—all different types including apartments and medium density. Of course that's exactly what all of us here in Parliament should be striving for—the opportunity to see development the opportunity to encourage houses being built wherever we have that opportunity.Indeed just this week we had the opportunity as members of Parliament to support a piece of legislation that would allow just that. I note that actually it was the ACT Party was the only party that voted against it. Despite proclaiming to be the party against regulations and against red tape and against Government interfering in things it would appear that unless it comes to the situation where the voters of Epsom don't like it then they change their values.So what we have here is another opportunity for members of Parliament to actually get behind a straightforward basic simple piece of legislation.Hon Member: Well imagine if Resource Management Act reforms were like that.KIERAN McANULTY: All that this would do is—I might have struck a nerve. They haven't said much all day and now they're trying to shout it down. But the point remains I hope that the ACT Party does vote for this bill because what this bill will do is actually allow the council to start a process and I suspect from what we've heard tonight and from what the local MP Tangi Utikere has said that the council will get community support to allow these houses to be built but they can't even seek that support unless this bill gets the support of Parliament. Again I commend the member for bringing it working with his council bringing a local bill forward and I also commend this bill to the House.