King Annette: Riccarton Bush Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
King Annette: Riccarton Bush Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 17 October 2012. Volume:684;Page:5925. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Labour—Rongotai) 
: 
 Labour supports the Riccarton Bush Amendment Bill. I want to begin by acknowledging the local member Gerry Brownlee for bringing this bill to the House. I also acknowledge the Riccarton Bush Trustees for the work they did alongside the Christchurch City Council’s legal services team which did much of the work in preparing this bill. I would also like to say that I have fond memories of Riccarton House. This is my only association with it as I am not a Cantabrian but many a good party was held at Riccarton House in my days as a student and I met many fine people at those parties I have to say. 
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
: Narrow it down a little. 
Hon ANNETTE KING 
: Gerry you were not one of them but I have many fond memories of the house itself. But seriously I do know how important Riccarton Bush and the Riccarton buildings and land are to the people of Canterbury. 
I was interested when I listened to the first reading speeches—and we heard some of it today from Gerry Brownlee—and heard the history of this land and the buildings. Dr Megan Woods when she was speaking—what she said was the historian in her—set out how the bush itself had been a very important part of the natural history of the place and that there were protected remnants of bush that you once used to see over the entire Canterbury Plains. There are species and plants that you see growing there that if you look at them you are able to see what the Canterbury Plains looked like. She also set out along with Rino Tirikatene how important Deans Bush the buildings and so on were to Ngai Tahu. It had been a very important site for them. In fact many of the carvings for the waka and their important carvings had come from that bush. It had also been a very important gathering place for pigeons and food sources. So it was I think a really good exercise in people getting to know more about this historic site. 
But what this bill set out to do was to modernise and update the governance arrangements of Riccarton Bush of the trustees themselves who manage Riccarton House and the bush and define what the trustees’ functions were more precisely and also to provide for the continuation of the trust’s work and to improve the finances and the administration arrangements. There were only two submissions to be heard on this bill. I was not there because the Christchurch members were very keen to sit on the Local Government and Environment Committee that day. The submissions were heard in Christchurch. My understanding is that the Deans family themselves turned up in force for the hearing of those submissions on that day. 
The select committee did make some amendments and one of the amendments that was made was to change the date when the first financial plan must be prepared from 1 July 2013 to 1 July 2015. This was to line it up with changes that had been made because of the Christchurch earthquake. The Canterbury Earthquake (Local Government Act 2002) Order 2011 has the long-term plan for the Christchurch City Council being prepared in 2015. So what the committee has done with this date for the implementation is to align the bill with that Order in Council. With those few words we support this bill and wish for its speedy passage through this House.