Cunliffe David: Resource Management Reform Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCunliffe David: Resource Management Reform Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 31 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:12181. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn):It is my pleasure to be here as a representative of west Auckland the electorate of New Lynn which encompasses the wooded areas of Titirangi Woodlands ParkLaingholm and up into the Waitakere Ranges.Jacinda Ardern: It’s an electorate of trees.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: It is as my good colleagues are saying an electorate of trees. My good colleague Phil Twyford there of course in his electorate looks up at those trees and you know wishes that TeAtatū went further up in the hills so he could say this—but hey he is going to be speaking very soon.The Resource Management Reform Bill is a really important bill from a number of points of view. It continues a trend which is now starkly evident to the New Zealand public that this Government cares not a jot for community decision-making and participation. Instead of working with communities it has decided to do things to communities and this bill is one way that that is being foisted upon a fairly unsuspecting public. Of course we know that the agenda is not limited to this bill. It is all about ramming casinos down the throats of people who cannot afford to play in them. It is about ramming mass surveillance down the throats of New Zealanders who do not want to be spied on. The agenda goes on and on. But for now we are limiting ourselves to this Resource Management Act amendment bill.My constituents are by and large incensed by this legislation. They are incensed by it because they have worked hard through the democratic process both locally and nationally to make clear time and time again through the ballot box that they want the Waitakere Ranges to stay green. They do not want the death by a thousand cuts of the incremental effects of subdivision up in the Waitakere Ranges. They do not want blanket chainsaw massacre tree-felling being available without a proper resource consent.The previous speaker Nicky Wagner who has resumed her seat said that this bill was all about lightening the compliance burden and making sure that people could reasonably trim trees without having to get consents. The rules currently are that any person in that area can trim 20 percent of the volume of their tree down to a level of 2 metres above the ground without a consent—without a consent—under the law as it currently stands. What the National Party wants is for those trees to be “trimmed off at ground level” with a bulldozer or a chainsaw.Colin King: A bit rich. The chainsaw massacre happened under Labour.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: It is the chainsaw massacre—thank you Mr King a man known for “shearing” his wisdom around the country. We appreciate that. Let us analyse the Government’s claim that it has somehow fixed the problem and thereby saved Paula Bennett’s chances of re-election. It is a spurious claim. The draft bill as received by the House and the Local Government and Environment Committee says in amended section 76(4C) in clause 12: “to avoid doubt each of the following descriptions of a group of trees does not satisfy the identification requirements … (a) all trees of 1 or more named species in a defined area or zone of the plan … (b) all trees in a class with defined characteristics in a defined area … (for example all exotic trees over 5 metres high … [in a certain area] …): (c) all trees in a named ecosystem”.The law is specific that none of these types of classifications can stand. Why is it ruling out the classification of groups of trees? It is quite simple. Because the Auckland Council went to the Environment Court and got a decision from Judge Jackson which said that group classification was legal under the Resource Management Act. It was that decision that spurred the Draconian amendments brought forward in this bill which required each individual tree if you please to be individually and specifically notified and scheduled under the Act. How can that be a move to reduce compliance costs? Goodness me! There would have been more trees felled to provide for the paperwork of scheduling every tree in the Waitakere Ranges individually. I have never heard of such a nonsense. Westies are incensed. They passed the Waitakere Ranges Heritage Area Bill through this Parliament to make clear to all that they wanted the ranges protected. In light of that what has the Government now done? It has said: “Never mind folks. Weknow we’re overriding local democracy. We know we are becoming a property developer’s dream. We know we’re facilitating the bulldozers. But wait there’s good news. We’re not going to do it on the basis of scheduling each individual tree. We’re now going to allow clumps of trees provided they are done for each individual property.”What is the problem with that? The answer is very simple. The property definition here is under 4 hectares so there are lots and lots and lots of properties. The compliance burden is still enormous and the bill still changes the effect of presumption away from the fact that trees across the Waitakeres would be subject to certain levels of protection unless otherwise exempted to one that says that nobody is protected unless each individual property writes it up. That is the problem with this bill. That is what has got west Aucklanders talking over their teacups and their water coolers at the workplace and across their breakfast tables. Mothers are reassuring their children that it is still safe to walk to school because the National Party has not bulldozed the shade just yet but it is on its way.The amendment introduced in the select committee is simply insufficient. I join with my colleague Maryan Street in acknowledging that the Minister for the Environment has made an attempt. But we are not fooled. We know that this is not a genuine Lazarus—sorry not Lazarus; that is probably true of this National Government—a Damascus moment where it has seen the green light. This is not a Damascus moment. This is a Paula Bennett moment. Paula Bennett has gone to Amy Adams and said: “Look I’ve done some polling. It’s 70:30 against your stupid bill. We need an amendment. We need a fig leaf. Otherwise I’m a goner. I’m sitting on a majority of only 20 votes.” Twenty votes—that is less than Phil Twyford canvasses before morning tea on a Saturday morning. That is why Paula Bennett is a “gone-burger”. Paula Bennett is a “gone-burger”. She will not be in this Parliament as an electorate member after the next election because of this—[Interruption ] Oh why does the member for Central Otago not stick to wilding pines? It is fine to fell wilding pines in Wakatipu. It is not fine to fell kauri trees in Titirangi. Thank you.