Pugh Maureen; Rurawhe AdrianFREEDOM CAMPING (INFRINGEMENT OFFENCES AND OTHER MATTERS) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingMAUREEN PUGH (National): I move That the Freedom Camping (Infringement Offences and Other Matters) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Governance and Administration Committee to consider the bill.Firstly I'm going to acknowledge the work of many councils around this country the Tourism Industry Association the rental companies the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association the Holiday Parks Association the Department of Conservation the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) and all of the other groups that I've worked with over the years on the challenges and solutions to freedom camping rules. Now it is a challenging topic balancing the freedom to enjoy New Zealand and its pristine environment with the need to protect the environment that they've come to visit. I would point out that I don't believe that this bill is going to be working against any of the work that is being done by the Government at the moment; in fact I think it will complement the work that is being done.Now my journey with the Freedom Camping Act began back in my local government days when the pressure was on some of our special sites around Westland that were being fouled by the actions of a few people who were camping without access to toilet facilities and every day I would travel along State Highway 73 and State Highway 6. Also living in a rural area it became abundantly clear that the pressure on some of our pristine sites was going to destroy the very thing that our visitors came to see and enjoy and that is clean green New Zealand. So I sought the support of Community and Public Health and they undertook to provide me with a report. After surveying every layby every pull-off point and every picnic area along the length of the State highways in Westland and at other significant points like at rivers and lakes—and their work involved visiting every site during the off-peak season noting what they saw there and taking photographs—they repeated that exercise during the peak tourist season and the bottom line revealed what most of us expected which was there was a human health issue that needed to be resolved. Now this evidence led me to promoting the need for legislation that would give councils authority to control freedom camping in their districts and cities. So I took a remit to the local government AGM where it was supported. Along with that was the prospect of the 2011 Rugby World Cup being hosted here in New Zealand and the anticipated influx of freedom campers that was being talked about quite a lot in those days. The then National-led Government adopted that concept and the Freedom Camping Act 2011 was passed into law sponsored by ACT's Rodney Hide.Unfortunately though the Act omitted to include Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) land and NZTA land so the State highways weren't captured in that legislation. Now for places like the West Coast where you've got a ribbon of State highway that runs along the length of the region this was a major omission and even more so for Grey District and Buller who share according to the Lonely Planet one of the top 10 highways in the world along the Great Coast Road and there are many other examples across New Zealand such as State Highway 1 up the Kaikōura coastline. So this bill that we are talking to tonight inserts Crown-managed land LINZ land and NZTA land into the Freedom Camping Act and that enables controls over the use of that land for freedom camping.Now another issue with the original Act was the transfer of unpaid infringement fees to the rental vehicle company. This was an issue that was identified early on in the Freedom Camping Forum that I was a part of and that was hosted by Geoff Ensor when he was at the Tourism Industry Association. Now there was initially a really good understanding that the rental vehicle company held the credit card details of anyone that did receive an infringement notice but they often left the country without paying that. So the company could recover it but the legislation had made it quite cumbersome to recover that fee but also then the rental vehicle company had to deal with their customers they had to add on an admin fee for the recovery of that fee and it wasn't particularly good for their reviews. So that system was not particularly fit for purpose. The original bill did give the ability for those companies to write into the rental agreement that they could add on some administration costs for recovery of those fees but for the infringement offence for freedom camping they had to within five days send a copy of the infringement notice off to the permanent address of that hirer. Now if someone is touring around in a campervan the chances are that they are not at their permanent address and not receiving mail. So this bill will address that process by authorising that a new infringement notice can be made out to the rental company and the customer's original offence notice would be then revoked.Now there is one issue that has been consistently raised within communities where freedom camping is more popular and that is an issue around the human waste and that is the key focus of this particular bill. Now there is a human health imperative in addressing freedom camping and I suggest in this bill that non - self-contained vehicles must be parked within 200 metres of a toilet. Now during submissions I'm very open to debating that distance and whether people deem it to be appropriate or even workable but for vehicles that are fully self-contained then this requirement does not apply. This bill also gives powers to enforcement officers to enter and inspect a vehicle to make sure that it is indeed fully self-contained. I'm sure that most of us have heard stories of sleeper-van campers defending their self-containment status by saying that they have a bucket and a lid. This does not meet the standard and it does not meet community expectations.The other issues that arise with freedom campers is the loss of access by locals to their special places and not being able to say launch their boats at the river or parking area get to their fishing spot or even walk the dog or go for picnics because the area is crammed packed full of campervans and sleeper vans. Now if those areas are devoid of any toilet facilities what this bill will mean is that those non - self-contained vehicles will not be able to park there and that will in turn ease the pressure. Now the mess that is left behind is something that irks local communities and the tolerance for constantly cleaning up after campers is all but exhausted. Now I'd like to take note of an issue that was raised with me several times during the development of the original work on the 2011 Freedom Camping Act and that's the impact that it will have on families who want to enjoy our great outdoors with their family or their friends as part of a tenting holiday. These groups are not the target of this bill. We want Kiwis and visitors to be able to still continue to enjoy our back country experience. As we know there is very little negative feedback received relating to this type of camper. They are the ones who traditionally leave only their footprints behind. But with up to 250000 people in 2019 who were spending part of their New Zealand holiday here freedom camping we recognised that most of them do not cause any problems. However when there is a human health issue that has been identified it is I believe that we as a Parliament have a responsibility to respond and ensure that we include some of the most well-used freedom camping grounds and that we protect those pristine areas that people go to to camp. I believe that this bill does that by capturing LINZ land Government-controlled land and NZTA land and it fills the gap that the original piece of legislation left. As a result I commend this bill to the House.DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to.