Sage Eugenie: Canterbury Property Boundaries and Related Matters Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSage Eugenie: Canterbury Property Boundaries and Related Matters Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 02 June 2016. Volume:714;Page:11676. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]EUGENIE SAGE (Green): I am pleased to take a short call on the Canterbury Property Boundaries and Related Matters Bill. The first time I came into contact with any surveying was in Hokitika in the then Department of Lands and Survey office there. There was a dusty storeroom and it had the notebooks of Charlie Douglas or “Mr Explorer Douglas” who in the late 1860s 1870s and 1880s was roaming and mapping South Westland. He was employed by the survey department I think through the 1880s and early 1890s. His notebooks of those surveys included some absolutely beautiful watercolours; he was not only mapping but describing the areas as well. That was my first exposure to surveying.The matters in this bill are slightly more technical. I learnt the difference between accretion where legal boundaries in relation to land and water move gradually and avulsion which is a much more sudden movement. But this is a very practical bill because as others have said the significant number of properties in Canterbury that were affected by the earthquakes some 135000 properties moved. Most of those were within the tolerance but there were about 11000 that moved by more than 20 centimetres and there was some confusion.There were guidelines that Land Information New Zealand put out and some of those surveyors who were working on the ground were making a practical interpretation and ensuring that boundaries actually did move with the land as most people would expect. But the guidance did not clarify the situation so it is appropriate that we have had a bill through Parliament that makes it clear that—rather than being fixed as they are in the law; rather than being where the survey mark is where the pegs are—if boundaries have moved more than that tolerance of 20 centimetres then the boundaries go with the land movement. I think the bill as others have noted is also providing more certainty to people in Canterbury because it is ensuring that the boundaries from those surveys that were done in that interim period where they were approved by the Surveyor-General will stay where they were surveyed—and I think there were some 3500 of those—so people can continue to rely on the surveys that were done there.There were 11 submissions and three of the organisations that made submissions were professional organisations representing surveyors. The major one of those the New Zealand Institute of Surveyors which involves some 1300 professionals was supportive of the bill. There were concerns raised around a disputes resolution process and yes the select committee has not amended the bill to implement that. It has instead said that people have to have recourse to the provisions in the Property Law Act and that may involve going to court. There is also provision for compensation of course in the Land Transfer Act. A bill to reform that Act is currently before the Government Administration Committee ably chaired by Ruth Dyson. There have been quite a few submissions on the provisions around compensation which may benefit from clarification in that separate select committee process.This bill is a sensible one. The Green Party is supporting it and we hope that it progresses promptly through Parliament. Thank you.