Strange JamieJAMIE STRANGE (Labour): Madam Assistant Speaker thank you for the opportunity to take a call on the Tasman District Council (Waimea Water Augmentation Scheme) Bill. I'd also like to pass on my thanks to Brett Hudson who is the chair of the Governance and Administration Committee on which I sit. As a recent member of the committee unfortunately I couldn't travel to Nelson with the committee.Hon Dr Nick Smith: We missed you.JAMIE STRANGE: But it's important—yeah. I'm certainly there enough as well as the Hon Dr Nick Smith knows whose house is overlooked by my parent's house but we won't give away geographic locations. Back to the bill. So the key point here is that I believe we can have a clean environment and a strong economy. So this Government is certainly focused on improving the infrastructure that we have and it can be a challenge at times for councils around infrastructure. Water infrastructure is particularly important because water is the lifeblood of any region. The Nelson region—as people in this House who live there know only too well—can be prone to drought. In 2001 there was an extreme drought in that area and having a dam like this will help to mitigate the risk of droughts like that. So some of the key points here that I'd just like to highlight and then I'd like to touch on a couple of the submissions—so the Waimea scheme is for the benefit of urban and commercial water supply. We've heard a bit about the urban. In terms of commercial a key point highlighted there is around horticulture. A couple of submissions came through around this area of horticulture which is absolutely vital for our economy—both the local economy in the Tasman area in which I was born and the New Zealand economy.So let's have a look at Boysenberries New Zealand. Boysenberries New Zealand submitted on this bill and I think they made some really good points here. They said they support the Bill in its entirety as this enables the Waimea Dam to be constructed and operated. The dam will provide surety of essential water to the community for its ongoing urban commercial and industrial needs." Now Boysenberries New Zealand rely upon water to run their services. They were formed in 1989 as a grower-owned co-operative and they sell approximately 60 percent of New Zealand's boysenberry crop and they've said quite specifically that this dam is absolutely vital for them to continue to run the excellent business that they run.Another submission along the same lines was from Nelson Pine Industries Ltd. They mentioned that they are currently dependent on the Tasman District Council water supply to run their plant and that having this dam will give them the surety of operation. Another one is around Fresh Fruit Company of Nelson who pretty much said the same thing: that the importance of having a secure water supply to these businesses cannot be overestimated. So I'm very pleased that this Government's partnering with the Tasman District Council in order to provide leadership and to provide that surety of water supply for both urban and commercial users.The committee has recommended a couple of changes to the bill. One of them is around improved public access and I think this is important because when a piece of infrastructure is owned by the public like this dam will be it's important that the public have access to it. The committee received a number of submissions seeking improved public access provisions so the committee recommended changes of wording to the easement provisions in the bill over the areas of conservation and to reverse the presumption in favour of public access except in the interests of public safety. The committee also amended the date and there were a couple of technical changes there as well.We heard a lot of submissions and I think it was fantastic that the committee travelled to Nelson and it's wonderful to see that committees are doing more and more of that getting around the country. I think this committee also went to Gore recently which I had the pleasure of being involved in.Hon Ruth Dyson: Say it properly!JAMIE STRANGE: No I thought I did! There were 137 written submissions and 26 submitted orally. There were a few who were opposed to this but by and large people understand the importance of having security of water supply because if we have another drought there are going to be huge issues in that area and the surety is obviously important for both residential and commercial users. So in terms of progress we absolutely support this bill to the House."