SpeechTĀMATI COFFEY (Labour): That was a lightning-fast contribution just then; I wasn't prepared for it. But you know what? We've had enough of a warm-up this morning about the Palmerston North bill that I feel as though lots of ground has been covered and I feel as though we fully understand the reasons why this bill has come to the House. I just wanted to point out that actually many places around the country—many of our own cities and towns that we come from—have got our own version of the Huia Street Reserve. We've all got that place that's been sitting on the corner on the intersection that actually hasn't been developed and the council have talked about turning into housing and that some members of the community have said No no leave it as it is.". But this is really important because it builds on the work that's happened in Palmerston North in regards to housing development.I want to just touch on a visit that we paid to the Palmerston North electorate where actually we got to Papaioea Place. It's right that I say "Papaioea" because today is the start of Māori Language Month and for those people who don't know Te Papaioea is actually the Māori name for Palmerston North and it's the name that they gave to the development there and it was a council initiative but again passionate about wanting to create housing opportunities. They cleared a section of land which used to have a small number of council houses on there. They cleared that and they made way for the most colourful housing development that you've ever seen—small little box houses which are warm safe dry accommodation for the people who live inside those places. Two bedrooms at the most in many of them—but actually building a real community in there and it is a much better and more efficient use of the land than previously they had there.The Huia Street Reserve is going to be one of those places too where in due time the council has signalled that after it gets handed back to them they'll go through a consultation process and the intention is to be able to use it for housing. So I encourage them in their journey to be able to create more housing for our communities to be able to continue down that line.On that same trip as well we went to Te Ahu a Tūranga which is the joint project that's happening to be able to you know create a better option for the Manawatū Gorge. It's been fraught over many years the accessibility in that place and with the recent weather events that we've had in Nelson and the Far North actually we know that we need better transport solutions as well. In a nutshell I'd like to say that Palmerston North is cracking along really nicely and supported obviously by a really passionate council who are passionate about housing as well so we share their aspirations on that front.At the committee of the whole House stage there were a few issues raised and one of those issues was why is Parliament even spending its time on this. And while it might seem quite an obvious question to outsiders actually what we know inside the political system that we operate in is that this was a piece of legislation and when it becomes legislation it needs to be corrected fixed amended by the House. This isn't something that can just happen you know by the stroke of a pen in a ministerial office; it actually needs the consent of the House to be able to progress. So we haven't been able to achieve it by the stroke of a pen from the Minister for Land Information which was suggested in the committee of the whole House stage and that's why we're spending our time on it albeit hopefully not that much time; I understand I'm the last speaker on this one the third reading.I want to acknowledge all the existing leases around the Huia Street Reserve as well. You've got the high school that's there and also the tennis club and the tennis club have their own existing lease. There was some concern about how any kind of development on that site would impact adversely on the tennis club. We heard from them and we were able to give them reassurance through the process that actually their lease wouldn't be affected and we'd be able to preserve their access despite what was going on with the changes to the Huia Street Reserve.It is part of an important process that we go through this because as many people said earlier actually the doing away with the reserve came from submissions—people were concerned that we were losing green spaces. And it's really important when we have these conversations to note that we were really concerned with that because we do need green spaces. If we're going to have medium-density developments around the country in our different towns and cities we absolutely need access to that. It's something that London cottoned on to way back when. They knew that if they were going to have their two-storeyed houses their brick wall-to-wall houses they would absolutely need green spaces in that so they created commons for local communities to be able to access those green spaces so they could go they could have a break they could enjoy the freedom and the breathability of a bit of open air. So we were concerned about. We had conversations about where the nearest green spaces were and there's quite a lot around in the nearby area in the nearby community for families to be able to go and use for families that may eventually end up living on the Huia Street development—not too far if they want to go for a walk to a green space to throw a ball with the kids to take the dogs for a walk that kind of stuff that we want good developments to be able to do.So we were satisfied with that. We were also satisfied with the mana whenua situation as well. We wanted to make sure that we were doing a good job in running this by the local iwi: Rangitāne have their settlement and were made aware of this bill that was coming before us but on top of that there was some concern that maybe there were other iwi that may have had interests in this bill as well. So we had to do a fair bit of due diligence with the likes of Te Arawhiti who came in and gave us some advice on that process. It wasn't easy but we had to trudge back through the history books and the maps to be able to find documentation about what the Huia Street Reserve looked like back in the day and whether or not there was going to be some kind of adverse impact for iwi in the area. We landed on a position—and this was endorsed by the local member—that Rangitāne were indeed the right party to be consulting with. They had been made aware of this bill and what this bill looked to do and we were satisfied through the process that it was the right thing to do to be able to move on. Having consulted with mana whenua having consulted with the local community about green spaces having consulted with the local tennis club about the impact that that was going to have for them we as a committee were really satisfied that this was a really positive thing to do.The insight that the member Tangi Utikere brings to this conversation as the local member for Palmerston North was incredibly important. There's nothing like a good bit of local knowledge and I want to thank the member for bringing that local knowledge to the committee to be able to help us make those kinds of decisions.This is the kind of bill that's going to ensure that he holds the seat of Palmerston North for a very long time for the Labour Party because what he's doing is he's signalling that he understands the local issues he understands the need for housing in the city and we need to make sure that actually he as the local member who's in touch with his community is able to get their support and he will absolutely get their support through this piece of legislation.I just want to finish off by saying that we did have some video footage—we weren't because of our COVID rules able to make the trip to Palmerston North to be able to see the reserve. So for that I feel a little bit less of a person but you know what? We were shown very delicately edited videos drone footage of the reserve. We looked at maps. We trawled over different opinions and conversations with officials about what the reserve section looked like and we were satisfied that actually it was the right thing to do despite not being there to see it with our own eyes.So this is a great piece of legislation. I thank the Labour member for Palmerston North. I look forward to him holding the seat for a very very very long time and I commend this bill to the House.Motion agreed to.Bill read a third time."