Ryall Tony: Resource Management Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee 
Ryall Tony: Resource Management Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee 
[Volume:608;Page:5561] 
Hon TONY RYALL (NZ National—Bay of Plenty) 
: 
 Yesterday the Government announced a multimillion dollar injection into the Historic Places Trust tagged for the expansion of wahi tapu in New Zealand. At the very moment that the Prime Minister was appearing on television earlier this year telling the people of Welcome Bay near Tauranga not to be concerned that 180 hectares of land was covered by a single wahi tapu that the council could decide the use of the land she was sitting in a Cabinet committee room approving this bill that will expand wahi tapu beyond the wildest dreams of the Hon Margaret Wilson. 
The bill states that wahi tapu will now have to be treated as matters of national importance. What does that mean? What we know from the Resource Management Act is that if something is a matter of national importance then the council shall have total regard for that matter and no discretion. What that means is that if a group of local Maori decide they are going to declare wahi tapu on someone’s private land then they now have the power of the Marian Hobbs amendment to the Resource Management Act to override completely both the will of the landowner and the view of the district plan. This Government announced an extra $4.5 million to $8 million to expand wahi tapu throughout New Zealand and give it the full— 
Hon Marian Hobbs 
: Rubbish! 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: The press statement states it. It expands the use of wahi tapu across the whole of the country and denies landowners their rights to have a say on what happens on their land. What annoys me is that the Prime Minister was giving assurances to the people of Tauranga that the wahi tapu did not matter and she was sitting in a Cabinet room agreeing to amendments to the Resource Management Act that give wahi tapu the highest status possible in the Resource Management Act and remove completely any discretion the council has. It is deceitful to be on television saying one thing when one knows that one is in a Cabinet room doing the complete opposite. It is a real message to New Zealanders. The extra money given to the woolly liberals in Wellington on the Historic Places Trust will cost a whole lot of landowners in New Zealand. That wahi tapu of 180 hectares is nonsense. This bill will deny the rights that those landowners and the Western Bay of Plenty District Council have to manage that land for future generations of those who have a legitimate interest in that land. 
Who is this Parliament to say to those four affected landowners that they cannot cut down their trees they cannot put in a roadway they cannot build a garage unless they consult the locals down the road who do not have an interest in their land. That is what this Government is doing. That is what the liberals opposite want to do in this country. 
I have to say that the real disaster of this bill will be visited upon this Government in 18 months’ time. That extra money they are giving the Historic Places Trust to expand wahi tapu further throughout New Zealand in an unfettered undemocratic and unrealistic way will have a negative impact on a whole lot of New Zealanders. That is another reason this National Party in Opposition says that this Government must go. Those amendments will go when the Government changes at the next election. 
We will not stand for this. Werepresent mainstream New Zealanders who have had enough of the sickly white paternalism that one sees from people like Marian Hobbs and Margaret Wilson. One can imagine them sitting in their spa pools with their glasses of Chardonnay deciding what is good for people around New Zealand and it is not right that we should be giving $4 million to $8 million extra. The Minister can laugh. Obviously she has not met the four landowners in Welcome Bay who do not have a say in how their land is run. She is laughing about that. What about Mr John Kilpatrick who bought the land 20 years ago planted trees for his superannuation and now the local maraewill decide whether he can cut them down.