Carter John: Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Bill — In Committee 
Carter John: Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:645;Page:14870] 
JOHN CARTER (National—Northland) 
: 
 I have to say that if ever there was a muddled contribution it had to be that. I am sitting here listening and the member in the chair Lynne Pillay says that this bill does not override anything but it sits over the top. Well hang on a minute. If the bill does not do anything and it does not affect anything but it sits over the top what is it sitting over the top of? In the next breath she says: “No no—hang on a minute. It is not over the top; it is underneath.” I got confused at that stage and I was not sure whether I should be standing up on my feet or on my head to see which is up and which is under. I did not understand it. Then I thought I must be on the rugby paddock trying to catch an up-and-under so I could be over and under it—that is what it would have been. 
What an absolute mess. The problem with the member who is sponsoring this bill is that she does not understand what the bill means. That is the first problem. The second problem with this bill has been concerning me all the way through its passage through the House. Right from the very start I asked why we need this bill what it will do and why we cannot do what this bill will do within the confines or the powers of the Resource Management Act and the other legislation. We were told that we could. So the next question asks why we need the bill. If we can do it within the Resource Management Act as it is now and within the district scheme the fact is that we then have to ask ourselves why we need these parts and schedules that we are debating here. The officials said the bill does not do anything. They said: “It has to be here because we need it.” So I asked myself why we need this bill—especially Part 3—if it will not be doing anything. 
 Finally—and this is what really upset me and it is one of the reasons I am more determined than ever not to see this bill pass—we got a concession out of the local authority officials that they wanted the bill as it was presented to us to be wider than the Resource Management Act and to give the local authority more powers. Quite honestly in my view they lied to the select committee—not just misled but deliberately lied. That really upset me. 
Even worse I was at the local government conference and I was talking to the mayor Bob Harvey. I explained to him what had happened. I said: “Bob I had asked and asked”— 
Nathan Guy 
: What did Bob say? 
JOHN CARTER 
: —hang on a minute and I will tell the member—“whether this had any wider ramifications. We were told that no it did not. Then finally your officials said that yes it did.” Bob said he did not believe that they would have done that. I saw a couple of officials nearby and said that we should go and ask them. Bob went over to them and said: “John Carter tells me that initially you were saying it doesn’t go any wider but now it does. What is the answer?”. The officials said: “Yes your worship. Actually the bill as intended did go wider but that is not what we told the select committee at the beginning.” Bob was horrified. 
Lynne Pillay 
: Rubbish! 
JOHN CARTER 
: Well Bob Harvey is an honourable man. He will tell you that that is exactly what happened. 
The Local Government and Environment Committee had to go back and put clauses in to make sure that the bill did not override various Acts. I know that it is not in Part 3 but I refer members to for example page 32 where we had to put in a clause to make sure that the bill did not have authority over the Resource Management Act and the Local Government Act. We had to bring it back. Then we ask ourselves the question: if we have to restrict the bill’s powers why do we need it? The member in the chair says it is because it allows the local authority to look after the Waitakere Ranges. I ask why in the world the local authority could not do this under the Resource Management Act anyway. Nobody has been able to tell me why it could not do so—not one official not the mayor not the councillors and not the member in the chair. She has not been able to tell us that.