Moroney Sue: Hamilton City Council (Parana Park) Land Vesting Bill — Third Reading 
Moroney Sue: Hamilton City Council (Parana Park) Land Vesting Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:672;Page:18352] 
SUE MORONEY (Labour) 
: 
 It is my pleasure to rise and speak to the third reading—it seems like an awfully long time to get to the third reading—of the Hamilton City Council (Parana Park) Land Vesting Bill. First of all I take the opportunity to congratulate the Hamilton City Council on its drafting of this legislation and the member who sponsored the bill David Bennett on his shepherding of this bill through the House. It probably did not go through as quickly as he imagined but none the less here we are. We have arrived at the third reading and I congratulate that member on getting I think his first piece of legislation through Parliament. Am I correct in that? 
David Bennett 
: First private bill. 
SUE MORONEY 
: OK it is his first piece of legislation to go through the House I think so my congratulations go to David Bennett on that. I just note that the Hamilton City Council will be very pleased at the passing of this bill. It has been uncontroversial but it vests the land in the council as a recreation reserve and it is an important piece of land for our city. I acknowledge that and will talk about it a little bit later on in my contribution. 
Probably this would be the only legislation that the Hamilton City Council has seen come through the House in the term of this Government that it could actually say anything positive about because the Hamilton City Council is really struggling at the moment and is looking at having to impose an 8 percent rates increase on ratepayers basically because the economy has fallen so flat in Hamilton. It has fallen flat because that Government has had no plan to get economic growth happening in the regions up and down the country and that has landed in Hamilton as it has in many other places in this country. The Hamilton City Council is facing some very very difficult decisions at this point in time because one of the things that has become a really big financial issue for the Hamilton City Council is that it has had a huge drop-off in the development contributions coming forward that helped to fund that council’s operations. What is the reason for that? The reason is that economic growth has bottomed out so badly in Hamilton that there is just no building going on. There is no new— 
Paul Quinn 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I draw your attention to the relevance of the last minute or two of this speaker’s speech. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: I have been listening. 
SUE MORONEY 
: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. I am so pleased you are listening because this is a very important issue for the Hamilton City Council which has brought forward this bill to get flexibility around this piece of land. This is positive legislation for the city council and thank goodness as it is about the only bill that has come through this Parliament in the course of this Government’s term that has actually done something even slightly positive for Hamilton because the economy has fallen flat. There is no development and new building going on in Hamilton. Therefore— 
David Bennett 
: Don’t talk down your city. Talk it up. 
SUE MORONEY 
: Mr Bennett should talk to Hamilton City Council and he will find that the budget the council has for development levies it expected from new developments has completely fallen on its face. The reason for that is because— 
David Bennett 
: That’s not true—that’s not true at all. 
SUE MORONEY 
: It is true. If one reads the council papers one will see that the development levies have been reduced by about 200 percent on what they were budgeted to be for this financial year. The council was budgeting as if it had a Labour Government in place where economic growth would be fast and furious in Hamilton and there would be major building going on. There was major building going on in Hamilton under a Labour Government but of course we knew how to plan for economic growth and this Government does not. Therefore we have got Hamilton City Council in exactly that situation where the ratepayers are going to have to foot an 8 percent increase in their rates because that Government has no plan for improving the economic performance in cities just like Hamilton. 
Paul Quinn 
: What’s this got to do with the bill? 
SUE MORONEY 
: What it has to do with the bill is that here we are with the Hamilton City Council trying to get something positive happening in its city and it is succeeding. Unfortunately though the bill will not do anything to lift economic performance. The bill will not do a thing to lift economic performance so I guess the council felt it could trust the honourable member David Bennett to bring through this legislation. 
I will spend the remaining time of my speech paying homage to George Parr who gifted this land to the Hamilton City Council. I think it was very honourable because it shows a really strong contrast between George Parr and his intentions and the intentions of this Government. He took privately owned land which was in fact confiscated land—it was confiscated from Tainui it came into his hands and he owned that land privately—and he gifted that land to the public. He gifted that private land to the public of New Zealand and made it available for everyone. That is in contrast to that Government and its plans to sell State assets out of public ownership and into private hands. How disappointed George Parr would be in today’s version of the National Party to know that his benevolence and the leadership he was trying to give to our city—and successfully gave to our city—is completely dismissed by this Government. It wants to do something quite different; it wants to do the opposite. George Parr as a private individual gifted to our city land that is enjoyed by everyone—small children older people right through the age groups. I know that many families have had many happy memories made in Parana Park. It was particularly poignant this year to go to the Anzac Day ceremonies in Memorial Park just adjacent to Parana Park given that we have had so much robust debate in this House about that parcel of land. I was very pleased to join members opposite at the Anzac Day ceremonies both at the Dawn Parade and the civic ceremony—it felt like the middle of the day after getting up for the Dawn Parade but it was in fact the middle of the morning—and to join thousands of other Hamiltonians in that as well. That is the legacy of George Parr: to allow a piece of land to be developed to be used for the good of everyone in Hamilton as he did. But sadly the Government opposite is doing the opposite when it comes to the public ownership of State assets. 
The other thing about George Parr I would really like to make sure is mentioned in this third reading debate is that he was a rail enthusiast. What a visionary man of his time! Even back then George Parr wanted to get a train service up and running between Kawhia and Hamilton. I think that shows great vision. 
David Bennett 
: Are you advocating for that? 
SUE MORONEY 
: I can tell the member opposite who has just asked me what I am advocating for that I welcome the opportunity to explain that I am advocating for and supporting a passenger train service between Hamilton and Auckland—between the largest city in New Zealand and the fourth-largest city in New Zealand. There is 121 kilometres of straight railway line track between Hamilton and Auckland. We own the tracks we own the trains and that Government is too miserable to establish a passenger train service between Auckland and Hamilton. That is what I would call a no-brainer and it is what I would venture to think George Parr would call a no-brainer as well. Even back in the 1920s George Parr got it. He understood that train transport and public transport was the way of the future not just continuing only to build more and more roads but actually giving people a choice of transport options and options that work for the future. 
In closing I congratulate the Hamilton City Council once again. I pledge my party’s support and my personal support also for the passing of the Hamilton City Council (Parana Park) Land Vesting Bill.