Belich CamillaCAMILLA BELICH (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's a pleasure to stand and take a call on this private bill. I think perhaps—I haven't double-checked this—it's possibly the first private bill that I have had the pleasure of speaking on in this House. Chris Bishop: Oh the first of many. CAMILLA BELICH: Perhaps. Anyway I found this matter particularly interesting as someone who doesn't live in Hawke's Bay and I wanted to pay tribute to Meka Whaitiri the member who has brought this bill to the House and also to Anna Lorck who introduced the bill today. We also have other members in our caucus with connections to Hawke's Bay: Stuart Nash who's the member for Napier which is also in Hawke's Bay; and Shanan Halbert is also a son of Hawke's Bay now living in Northcote. This is a very interesting piece of legislation and I thought I would go through exactly how I have understood that it works for the benefit of anyone watching at home. As I understand it this bill will allow the Hawke's Bay A & P Society to sell the Tomoana Showgrounds. Now the Tomoana Showgrounds—I have actually been to the Tomoana Showgrounds many times mainly to attend the very very good farmers markets that they have at the Tomoana Showgrounds. I do believe I heard a previous speaker state that they were one of the largest farmers markets in New Zealand. They're certainly very very good for bringing town and country together which as my colleague Naisi Chen has said is one of the objectives of the Hawke's Bay A & P Society which is the subject of this bill. The other things that they have at the Tomoana Showgrounds are the Fiesta of Lights and interestingly the Land Rover Horse of the Year competition. Now it's my understanding that these excellent community activities will continue once this land is sold to the Hastings District Council and I think that the sale is due to go through on 31 March next year. It's kind of a win-win situation really. The council gets to allow the Hawke's Bay A & P Society to continue with its good work and the events that it holds including the very popular show that they do the first of which I understand was in 1863 some years after the society was first established in 1858. That is 164 years ago so it's certainly a responsible society which I think this House can trust with the ability to sell their own land and invest the money that they'll gain from the sale of that land into responsible endeavours. Now this bill does allow as I said the sale of land. It is subject to some conditions. The conditions are outlined in Part 2 of the bill in clause 5(2) and you can see those listed out there. Obviously it has to be advantageous to the society two-thirds of the members have to agree to the sale and they have to have a general meeting with sufficient notice as well. But that is not all: once the sale has gone through the money then has to be—as with most other societies—used for the purposes and objectives of that society and you might ask and wonder what the purposes and objectives of the Hawke's Bay Agricultural and Pastoral Society are. I did google this prior to coming to the House and I can inform the House that the Hawke's Bay A & P Society is paving the way for initiatives and forward thinking in the rural sector. They have several objectives: to advance the primary sector promote growth celebrate excellence provide educational opportunities highlight careers across the primary sector and honour the heritage and continue the legacy of the foundation members. So I think that this bill as I've said seems to be a win-win situation. The wonderful showgrounds that we have there in Hastings can continue to be used. The money can go to these excellent causes which I have just read out of a very well-thought-of society that has very very positive and community-minded objectives. So I commend this bill to the House.