Jones Dail: Wellington Regional Council (Water Board Functions) Bill — First Reading 
Jones Dail: Wellington Regional Council (Water Board Functions) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:618;Page:13874] 
DAIL JONES (NZ First) 
: 
 New Zealand First supports the Wellington Regional Council (Water Board Functions) Bill. We are only too keen to assist the people of Wellington to improve their way of life. After looking at this bill I have a couple of queries for the member Marian Hobbs when she comes to speak in reply as I see she can. Under the principal Act the council is “empowered to establish forests and carry out forestry operations. For these purposes certain lands are vested in or under its control as water collection areas or as forestry areas … The object of this bill is to authorise the Council [to] establish and operate electrical installations and works in circumstances similar to those permissible under the Reserves Act 1977 whether itself or by a council-controlled organisation or a council-controlled trading organisation or under any contract agreement or arrangement.” That is a pretty broad way of getting an authority. 
From listening to the speeches so far I gather that this legislation will allow the council to establish windmills and wind farms. They can be pretty noisy and they are not environmentally sound just by themselves. Because they are obtrusive and noisy there are many examples of any number of objections to them where they are being installed or consent is being sought to have them installed. I note with interest that clause 6 of this bill states: “This Act does not limit or affect the Resource Management Act 1991.” I presume therefore that nothing can be done by the Wellington Regional Council unless it lodges a resource consent application which the people of the area will have the opportunity to object to and be heard on and that a decision will be made by an independent body as to whether this type of use can be undertaken and continued. I would not want and I know New Zealand First would not want to impose a windmill next door to where somebody may be living enjoying his or her way of life recreating or walking a dog. 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: But the same body will get the Resource Management Act applications. 
DAIL JONES 
: I would be most concerned if the same body hears the resource consent applications because that would obviously be a conflict of interest. I assume that the council would set up a commissioner to do that but it would still be a commissioner of the council and it would not surprise me at all if the application went on to an appeal straight away. So to those people who may believe that this would be an overnight type of thing—that as soon as the legislation is passed effect can be given to it—and to those people of Wellington who may walk their dog or go for a stroll in what appears to be a reserve-type area I assure them that the noise from a windmill that may upset their dog or just upset their enjoyment of a park cannot suddenly be imposed on them. 
I look forward to those people or anyone else from the Wellington area or other areas making submissions to the select committee where my colleague Jim Peters sits as a rule and takes note of everything that is said. New Zealand First wants to make sure that all the people of Wellington support this proposal and that they do not feel that this legislation is one way of having something imposed on them that might not otherwise have been done in the ordinary course of events. New Zealand First also advises people that in any event the Resource Management Act still applies. We in this party do not want to see the Resource Management Act removed willy-nilly because it does—and this is a classic example—help to protect people’s individual rights and their enjoyment of New Zealand as a whole.