Pillay Lynne: Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Bill — Second Reading 
Pillay Lynne: Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:642;Page:12021] 
LYNNE PILLAY (Labour—Waitakere) 
: 
 I move  
That the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Bill be now read a second time 
. I am delighted to move this local bill on behalf of the promoting councils the Waitakere City Council the Auckland Regional Council and the Rodney District Council. I warmly thank those councils for the privilege they have given me of taking charge of this bill in this House which is something I hold very dear. 
I introduced this bill to the House in 2005. Its purpose was to recognise the national significance of the Waitakere Ranges and foothills and to promote the protection of their heritage features. I thank the Local Government and Environment Committee which carefully examined the bill and recommended that it be passed with amendments. I support that recommendation. The amendments have significantly refined and improved the provisions of the bill. These changes result from the thorough consideration of over 200 submissions heard by the committee which was ably chaired by Steve Chadwick. 
I pay tribute to Steve and to the members of the select committee for their work on the bill and especially to those members who put politics aside and worked through the issues to ensure that the bill provides the best protection possible for the Waitakere Ranges. I also want to acknowledge the advisers and staff from the councils Parliament the Ministry for the Environment Local Government New Zealand the Department of Conservation legal advisers and select committee staff. Their contribution has been invaluable. 
The Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area is a nationally significant area of ecological historical and cultural importance immediately adjoining the expanding international city that metropolitan Auckland has become. The intensity of urbanisation pressures on public and private land here is enormous and unique in New Zealand. The select committee accepted the need for further protection for this beautiful landscape from the adverse effects of urban growth and development. 
The bill seeks to contain urban Auckland so that it becomes more compact efficient and sustainable and seeks to protect the natural and cultural values of the ranges and the foothills. But this is not blind protection at all costs. The bill does not lock up the area and throw away the key. The heritage area will continue to be a lived-in worked-in and played-in place a place with its own special communities and stunning diverse landscapes and a place separate from but highly accessible to urban Auckland and for all who visit this wonderful land. 
As the local member I am proud that the select committee has woven together the needs and interests of the social and economic well-being of the local communities with the wider national significance of the area and the need for protection. The heart of the heritage area is the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park. These high rugged deeply dissected hills were originally acquired and set aside as a park the Auckland Centennial Memorial Park to commemorate the first century of development. The bill restates the management objectives for this now expanded parkland to ensure the protection in perpetuity of the land and the values of the parkland. But outside the parkland the heritage area includes 10000 hectares of private land home to some 22000 people who are living on farmland nestled in the bush and in coastal villages around our wild west coast beaches. 
 The bill is innovative in its protection not just of the natural character but of the distinctive bush-dominated urban areas and the farming and rural character of the foothills to the east and north of the ranges. The bill introduces local area plans that provide for the specific well-being of local communities within the heritage area. Local communities and councils will be able to establish a vision for the communities’ well-being and determine how their area should be managed. In one sense this is common old-fashioned planning but it is also an innovative location-specific means of working to assure long-term goals and a means of dealing with the difficult planning issue of cumulative effects. 
The bill operates within a framework of existing legislation particularly the Resource Management Act and the Local Government Act 2002. The select committee has taken care to ensure that the provisions of the bill do not conflict with the Resource Management Act by giving clarity and certainty and recognising the superior position of that Act. 
Some members of the National Party have mischievously promoted the notion out there in the community that this bill will add costly layers and endless restrictions to the district plan. That is not the case and it never was the intent. However the select committee has ensured there will be no such confusion. A new clause ensures that the bill is interpreted and implemented within the regime of the Resource Management Act. The bill will in fact ease some development and consenting processes reduce costs and add certainty of requirements and acceptable development. It may also reduce litigation by creating a more certain planning framework. 
The National Party has created a sense of fear in some quarters and cynically traded on those fears. In reality those fears are groundless. The bill does not erode private property rights and it does not take private land; rather it enhances the rights of the vast majority of residents who do not want to see ad hoc development—development that was so appropriately described by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment as “death by a thousand cuts”. 
I am a proud resident within the boundaries of the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area which makes the bill so special to me. So many have campaigned for so long—over decades in fact. I acknowledge the enormous contribution of Ngati Whatua Te Kawerau-a-Maki the Rt Hon Jonathan Hunt the Waitakere Ranges Protection Society Forest and Bird and so many community groups and landowners. They love this land they have contributed much to its history and they want to protect it for generations to come. 
I commend the three councils’ strong leadership Waitakere mayor Bob Harvey Auckland Regional Council chair Mike Lee and councillors Paul Walbran and Sandra Coney Rodney District mayor John Law and all the Rodney District Council and Waitakere City Council councillors and community board members who supported this bill and also so many of the staff who did sterling work on this bill. I also want to recognise my very good friends and colleagues David Cunliffe Chris Carter Dover Samuels and Darien Fenton. They like me are enthusiastic advocates for this bill. This has been a long journey and today I celebrate what is for so many the realisation of a dream. It has been an honour to be part of this journey and it gives me great pleasure to commend the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Bill to the House. Thank you.