Hobbs Marian: Wellington Regional Council (Water Board Functions) Bill — First Reading 
Hobbs Marian: Wellington Regional Council (Water Board Functions) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:618;Page:13879] 
Hon MARIAN HOBBS (Labour—Wellington Central) 
: 
 I want to thank the House for its support to take this bill through to the Local Government and Environment Committee and also for its intention to scrutinise it. I remind some members of the House that this is a local bill. I seem to have sponsored a fair few of them this year and during my term as member for Wellington Central. 
When local government—in this case Greater Wellington which is the regional council in the area—comes to a member it comes to him or her with an idea. The member takes that idea and talks it through with the council but he or she does not tell the council what it wants. It is a local bill; it is not a Government bill. It is not for me to say to the council: “Oh excuse me but I’ve got a better idea. I’m going to tell you what you ought to have in your bill.” The member sponsors the bill through the House but sponsors it through for discussion. If a member takes a bill into the House he or she will be open to the rigour of the House with members asking questions—and that might be a situation that is more rigorous than some others. 
I want to take up something that Dail Jones raised and to tell him that there are real concerns around noise and issues of enjoyment and around the enjoyment of ridgelines. I also want to make it very clear here in Parliament that of course this legislation is subject to the Resource Management Act and I urge members of the select committee to please explore that issue right through but not to confuse it with the Makara issue. That is a Wellington City Council issue not a Wellington Regional Council issue where we are dealing with Puketiro and Belmont in the honourable member’s electorate. 
Mr Shirley raised the question of why we are using House time. The problem is that the Wellington Regional Council could not proceed with any work on this bill because it contradicted the Wellington Regional Water Board Act. That Act states that that land—which the member obviously knows well—is only for water collection and forestry so it specifically prevents this. So I am sorry that we have to use the time of the House to do it. 
I acknowledge that there is a huge debate on wind generation. I am very much aware of it in my own electorate with Makara and Quartz Hill. But the Ministry for the Environment—and I am not speaking here as local member but as Minister for the Environment—is actually working quite hard with local councils to establish up-to-date guidelines that take in all the work coming out of Denmark and other European countries—work to do with birds noise and other such issues. I point out that the windmill up in Brooklyn that is loved by some people in Wellington Central is very small compared with the windmills that may well be coming in. It is a wee baby of a windmill compared with those that may end up here. 
I of course would want to see more renewable energy—certainly in the form of wind energy. I think that Wellington will be careful in having that but we must also be careful not to lose all our ridgelines. The thought of looking from my house across the harbour and watching windmills on those purple hills all whirring at once does not do much for me. So let us use just a few of those hills not the whole lot. With that adieu I thank the House and I hope the committee will put in a lot of effort to sort our bill through. 
Bill read a first time and referred to theLocal Government and Environment Committee.