Roy Heather: Foreshore and Seabed Bill — In Committee Procedure 
Roy Heather: Foreshore and Seabed Bill — In Committee Procedure 
[Volume:621;Page:17136] 
HEATHER ROY (ACT) 
: 
 I rise to speak to Part 6 of the Foreshore and Seabed Bill and I would like to reiterate what my colleague Ken Shirley said. This part really is about regulation and of course the devil is in the detail. It warrants very close reading. There is any number of things that I could talk about but I want to draw the Committee’s attention in the first instance to clause 114 “Regulations” which in particular talks about the role in the regulations surrounding wardens. Clause 114 states: “The Governor-General may by Order in Council make regulations for any of the following purposes:”. So there will be no discussion about that and no parliamentary debate. The clause provides for the appointment of wardens it prescribes additional functions of wardens and it prescribes any duties or powers to be exercised by wardens. Clause 114(bd) prescribes “the means (including without limitation identity cards or badges or both) …”. So here there is in legislation regulations that prescribe identity cards and badges for the wardens who will patrol the beaches up and down up and down— 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: They’ve got them now. 
HEATHER ROY 
: But I tell the member that they will be very different will they not? Those will be wardens the legislation implies of the Minister and Department of Conservation not of local bodies.  
If we look back to Part 2 we see that it gives us the detail for that. I say to people like Mr Peters who are sitting here and saying that I am wrong that it does not concern just the Minister of Conservation. There will be conversations all over the place. There will be consultation because this Government believes so fervently in listening to people—and then completely ignoring what they think and say. But this is actually a case of “the Minister and the Department of Confiscation”.  
When I put my children in the car this summer and take them to the beach just like the other hundreds of thousands of families in New Zealand who are used to hopping in the car and taking their children to the beach—[ 
Interruption 
] Ms Dyson is laughing away over there but I tell her that my children actually like going to the beach. In fact in the recent 150-year celebrations earlier this year when every MP was given a camera to take photos of constituents and so on I took my children to the beach at Lyall Bay. They had a wonderful afternoon and I am pleased I took a photo of them. It was hanging in the portrait gallery before the poor old gallery had to leave the temporary debating chamber. Mr Cullen might well hold his head in his hands but my children like going to the beach. Hundreds of thousands of families this year will arrive at the beach to find that they can no longer go on to and be on the beach because there will be wardens patrolling up and down with their identity cards and badges and saying that they are sorry but they are going to limit people’s access or worse still prohibit access. They will say: “If you don’t leave we’re going to fine you $5000.” Well New Zealanders do not appreciate that.  
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Where does it say that? 
HEATHER ROY 
: Has that member not read it? Mr Peters has not even read the bill! He does not know about that $5000 fine. Yet he is happy to subject New Zealanders to those fines and to having their access to beaches limited. He is supporting this bill without even knowing the detail. I suggest to that member that he go away to the lobby sit down and carefully read this bill because it is not too late to withdraw his support. We are not finished. We have the third reading to come and Mr Peters can change his mind so that the provisions New Zealanders currently enjoy the hundreds of thousands—[ 
Interruption 
] That is right. He is thinking of withdrawing. He is signalling to Dr Cullen now that he has changed his mind because he had not read the detail and did not realise what this bill would actually mean for New Zealand families. Well I say to Mr Peters: “Shame on you for making such a very ill-informed decision.” Mr Jones is now having to rush over to Mr Peters to advise him about what to say next and to him also I say: “Shame on you.” Hundreds of thousands of New Zealand families will be affected by this legislation and they will not appreciate it.