Boyack RachelRACHEL BOYACK (Labour—Nelson): I have a confession to make and that is that I am from Palmerston North and I am proud to be a Palmy girl. In fact I went to Palmerston North Girls' High School which is the fantastic school that has been spoken about and used to walk and cycle through Huia Street to the back of the school which was the music department. So it is a real pleasure to take a call on this bill.As members have noted local bills are a bit rare. They are a bit unusual. And so I want to commend my colleague Tangi Utikere who went to intermediate school with me at the mighty Ross Intermediate back in the early 1990s. Even then my colleague was called on to deliver all the thank-you speeches. So he was always bound for leadership. I just want to congratulate him on bringing this bill to the House on behalf of Palmerston North City Council. In fact the previous version of this bill was introduced when my step father was the deputy mayor of Palmerston North a role that Tangi Utikere also used to hold while my colleague Ian McKelvie was the mayor of the neighbouring Manawatū District Council.So look I must admit when this bill came through I said Please can I speak about this bill?" because it's a great bill to talk about the place where I went to school. This is an ideal place for housing to go. It is right next to the fantastic Fitzherbert Park near the Lido swimming pool the Manawatū rose gardens the Blue Moon Dairy at the BP station which gives out fantastic ice creams—Barbara Edmonds: What's your favourite flavour?RACHEL BOYACK: Oh goody goody gum drops. They were great at the Blue Moon Dairy. And look it is an ideal place for housing and having had a look through the proposal from the city council that is out for consultation one of the things I note is that it could potentially build up to 80 apartments and that will make an enormous difference—an enormous difference—to the housing needs in Palmerston North.Palmerston North and Nelson where I am proud to be the MP they have a lot of things in common. They have a lot of things that aren't in common: it's sunny in Nelson; it's quite rainy and windy in Palmerston North—the rule is that if you're from Palmerston North you're allowed to dis it but no one else is. But look it is a provincial centre that like many of our provincial centres around New Zealand has challenges around housing. The council has an opportunity as well to join the legislation that's currently going through the House as a tier 2 council just like Nelson. Earlier this year along with colleagues we visited some of the Palmerston North City Council flats that have just been redeveloped and it was really good to see what the council had been able to do to take that land and actually develop it further and get more units on that bit of land. And it was wonderful to talk to the residents about the impact that had made on their lives.This is an ideal piece of flat land. Palmerston North is flat. It's actually very easy to find these pockets of flat land and build. In Nelson unfortunately we have a different set of circumstances in that in the Nelson City area it's actually very very challenging to find flat land. And Nelson City Council has recently gone through a similar process where the council has consulted with the community to potentially sell some inner city land to Kāinga Ora where we may be able to build up to 200 units of both public housing and houses for first-home buyers. Thankfully because that land wasn't in reserve land Nelson City Council didn't have to bring an Act of Parliament like this one to the Parliament in order to amend the Reserves Act. So we have been lucky in that regard. But I do want to commend Palmerston North City Council for taking this initiative for putting an opportunity for housing in one of the best parts of Palmerston North right next to one of its very best schools next to local schools close to public transport close to the inner city close to—well they don't have a beach; they do have a fantastic river in the Manawatū River. I think that this build will present an enormous opportunity for Palmerston North. I congratulate the city council congratulate my colleague and I commend this bill to the House."