Roy Heather: Wellington City Council (Te Aro Reclamation)  Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Roy Heather: Wellington City Council (Te Aro Reclamation)  Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:617;Page:13085] 
HEATHER ROY (ACT) 
: 
 As a Wellington-based MP it gives me great pleasure to rise on behalf of the ACT party and speak to the second reading of the Wellington City Council (Te Aro Reclamation) Amendment Bill. This bill should be well supported by the entire House because it allows the Wellington City Council to progress and go about its business unheeded. Previously the council could not sell or lease the land without a notified public auction and not less than 2 months’ notice of such an auction was required. The bill now removes this constraint and that is exactly as it should be. 
There has been quite some discussion about clause 4 which repeals and replaces sections 8 and 9 of the principal Act with the power for the council to freely deal with the land in question. ACT because it thinks that the council should be able to go about its business unheeded would support this. As we have just heard the Local Government Act of 2002 will apply. Therefore the consultation that Ms Kedgley spoke about will go ahead. I am not sure that we are entirely happy. ACT’s position on local government legislation has been well documented and I would certainly hate to see the constraints previously imposed on the Wellington City Council removed and replaced by a completely different set of constraints. However it is the right thing for this bill to be proceeding. 
I think I should point out just for anybody who might be in any doubt that the Wellington City Council does have a very good record of consulting with its local community and fulfilling its obligations in this regard even since Ms Kedgley has no longer been on the Wellington City Council. I think that Wellingtonians in particular need not fear that consultation will not happen. It certainly will. 
It is good to see that Labour and the Greens are in favour of this bill. I think that at times Wellingtonians might well question the commitment that both of those parties have to progress locally. I refer very briefly to the progress of the bypass which was talked about 30 years ago. In fact the recent announcement that the bypass will happen had its beginning 30 years ago and it should have been built at that stage. But the money was diverted by the then Minister of Works and Deputy Prime Minister the Hon Hugh Watt. That money was diverted to “Spaghetti Junction” in Auckland where his voting base was. So it is good to see that the Labour Party is supporting at long last progress in this Parliament for Wellington. 
I might say that Mr Darren Hughes over on the other side is being very vocal about this but where has his commitment been to improving transport in the Wellington region since he has been in Parliament? I would say that it has been sadly lacking. In fact six of the seven Wellington region MPs are Labour MPs and they have been noticeably lacking in their support of progress in the Wellington region. It has been the list MPs living and being based in the Wellington region who have stood up for progress. 
Hon Member 
: The Mount Victoria tunnel! 
HEATHER ROY 
: That is right. My colleague has spoken up in favour of the Mount Victoria tunnel in Wellington and I have been very vocal in my support of the bypass. Unfortunately though the seventh seat is the Hon Peter Dunne’s Ohariu-Belmont seat and he campaigned quite hard for various things before the last election but now that he is supporting— 
Gordon Copeland 
: He is still supporting the bypass. 
HEATHER ROY 
: Is he? Well his support has not been very loud I hate to say. His colleague in United Future has been much better at representing the Wellington region than he himself has. But anyway back to the matter in hand. ACT New Zealand does support this bill. We do perhaps highlight the uncertainty that might come about over this piece of land due to the foreshore and seabed legislation when it is a piece of reclaimed land that we are talking about as was highlighted by my colleague from National John Carter. But it is a move forward. We hope that the Local Government Act 2002 will not hinder the progress that this bill will make for the Wellington City Council and for the benefit of Wellingtonians. 
Ms Kedgley’s concerns about this area of green land owned by the Wellington City Council might well be an election issue in the local body elections in October this year. But that will be a case of democracy at work and of course it will be a very good issue for those contenders—those who we have yet to see put their names forward—to campaign on. In conclusion ACT does proudly support this Wellington City Council (Te Aro Reclamation) Amendment Bill.