Logie Jan: Wellington Town Belt Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLogie Jan: Wellington Town Belt Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 16 September 2015. Volume:708;Page:6719. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JAN LOGIE (Green): I rise to take a short call on the Wellington Town Belt Bill which is a local bill that has been introduced by Wellington MP Grant Robertson. I commend him for what I understand has been a very long journey working with the council and interested Wellingtonians to get this bill to the House. I would also as Grant Robertsondid like to start by specifically acknowledging mana whenua of Wellington and the fact that this bill provides recognition of their historical loss and grievance and sets up co-governance and to specifically acknowledge Te Ātiawa Ngāti Ruanui Taranaki Ngāti Tama and Ngāti Toa Rangatira who all had land taken from them for the town belt in the original settlement of Wellington. I think it is progress certainly that this bill recognises that history and sets up co-governance of the space of the town belt which is precious to mana whenua and more recent Wellingtonians alike.Green spaces in our cities are precious and there are strong feelings about preserving these spaces because of how much they contribute to our enjoyment of this space and in our daily lives. There are also and have always been strong development pressures to erode that same green space. This bill I understand was initially largely initiated as an attempt by Wellingtonians to ensure the protection of this pretty amazing town belt even though it is only around a third of the size of what it was initially intended to be and to stop the ongoing incursions that were threatening it. I understand that this bill will enable for the first time the town belt to actually grow in the future and that absolutely is a win.The Green Party though will be looking very carefully through the select committee process at the provisions in the bill that relate to the Public Works Act. We do register our concern that in the process of this bill the involvement of the New Zealand Transport Agency was to pressure the council to change the bill away from what the council’s original intent was. I understand that there were certainly a significant number of people who wanted to see the town belt exempt from pressures of the Public Works Act as Hagley Park in Christchurch is protected from incursions and from parts of the park being taken through the Public Works Act but the New Zealand Transport Agency applied very heavy pressure on the council to change this bill. Through the public consultation the agency put pressure on the council to change its wording around the land taken under the Public Works Act.The council did not agree because part of the intent of this bill and the reason for it to come to this House was about the amount of land that had been taken under the Public Works Act. So part of the initial intent was to protect it from that very piece of legislation. My understanding is that the New Zealand Transport Agency managed to persuade the Government that the compromise that the council had reached was not supportable and that the Government said that it would even refuse for the bill to go through its first reading unless the council agreed to some changes that had been put forward by the New Zealand Transport Agency. Thus we have this bill in front of us which I believe due to that pressure by the New Zealand Transport Agency and this Government working alongside it on that has actually compromised the local democratic process.The point of local bills is to represent the desires of a local community. If the Government has concerns the appropriate place for that to be debated would be in the select committee not beforehand and not by threatening the ability to progress a bill to the select committee before it came to this House. That is a subversion and an arrogant domination of central government over local government and local communities’ intent. That is disgraceful to be honest. I absolutely give credit to Grant Robertson for getting this bill here but the Government should be called out on its undemocratic behaviour.