King Annette: Wellington Town Belt Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKing Annette: Wellington Town Belt Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 04 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:10774. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour): I have great pleasure in speaking in the third reading of the Wellington Town Belt Bill. This is a bill in respect of which modesty has prevented my colleague and friend Grant Robertson from highlighting the work that he did to get this bill into the House and today it is being passed. But I want to acknowledge the work that he has done. It was not an easy piece of legislation and it took a lot of work and a long time to get it to the right stage with the right changes in it. Mr Robertson persevered he worked with people and he showed how you can work with a local authority as a local MP and bring forth a bill. Although you might not agree with absolutely everything that came in you got to a position of a compromise where you are happy with what is now passing through Parliament. So I want to acknowledge Grant Robertson’s contribution.He did it on behalf of not just the Wellington Central electorate because what people forget is that the town belt is also in the Rongotai electorate and partially in the Ōhāriu electorate. So it in fact covers a large part of the three Wellington electorates—all used to be red once. Never—well it is a long time since they were blue. But we do have Peter Dunne who I know was supportive of this bill as well. We have worked together behind the scenes not doing the grunt work that Grant Robertson has done but ensuring that whatever we could do to make this bill go through the House we would.I want to thank the Wellington City Counciltoo. The Wellington City Council I know has been very keen to have clarification of what has been some confusion around its role in the stewardship of this town belt and it has wanted that for some time. I also want to thank Councillor Helene Ritchie who has always had a great interest not only in the city but also in the environmental aspect of our city and in how unique our city is in terms of this town belt. As Grant Robertson said the staff are often overlooked when it comes to giving credit but I want to ensure that credit is also given to the staff of Wellington City Council.In Grant Robertson’s contribution he mentioned Joan Quinn and I too want to talk about Joan. Joan is actually a constituent of mine and she and Cynthia Wainwright shifted from Nelson very soon after I was elected. One of the first meetings I had with Joan was about the town belt. You might wonder why someone from Nelson was suddenly interested in the Wellington town belt. It was because Joan had done her Master’s thesis on the town belt. She had an enduring and long interest in this unique green encirclement of Wellington. So for many years along with other friends and guardians Joan Quinn has worked to have this day. I too am sorry that she cannot be here to witness it but I am sure that Grant will send her the transcript of the excellent debate that is taking place for the third reading.It is a unique part of Wellington. It is unique because it is a horseshoe-shaped green and open space and it runs from the border of Wellington Central and the Rongotai electorates across Mount Victoria and it goes right across to Wadestown and to the borders of Ōhāriu. We cannot be like Christchurch where in the middle of that city they have Hagley Park. You know they are so proud of Hagley Park in Christchurch because of this big green open area playing area trees recreation—a fantastic place is Hagley Park. We are a city on the side of a hill on a harbour. It is very difficult other than having the Basin Reserve as a big green area in the middle of our city. But what we have had and we have it now for the best part of 170 years is this horse-shaped green area—Paul Foster-Bell: Horseshoe.Hon ANNETTE KING: —that has become so popular and so important. Horseshoe-shaped—horseshoe-shaped. I see Mr Foster-Bell is getting a bit confused over there. It is a horseshoe-shaped town belt Mr Foster-Bell. Come and have a look at the Rongotai part. You probably have not been over there.This is a very unique part of Wellington and I will tell you why: the public love it. They value it. It is a public recreational area. And for those who do not live in Wellington I just want to tell them that on any day of the week if you go and look at the town belt you will see people out there walking their dogs pushing pushchairs jogging. This is an area that a city right on the edge of a harbour can use for recreation and green space. It gives us the feeling that we have a lot more space than actually exists in the Wellington area. It is unique. I think it is probably unique in the world to have this town belt and the protection of it. So it has been really important that it has been protected.I think one of the problems that Grant Robertson pointed out right from the beginning when he introduced this bill is that there has been a lack of clarity on some of the core aspects of the role given to the council under the deed that was set up for the town belt. We really—and I think the council and the residents of Wellington—wanted that to be fixed. What the bill does do is give very clear definitions as to what the roles are. I think that is really important—that the different roles the council has are clearly clearly set out.I think one of the things that has excited me about this bill has been the ability to add more land to the town belt because time—[Interruption] Yes I am going to talk about that in a moment. Time has been frozen—it goes back to the original creation of the town belt in 1873 and it has been frozen in terms of adding extra land to the town belt. This bill allows it and I think I heard Grant Robertson say that an extra 120 hectares will be added. Think about how often that happens in a city—where you are able to add more open land in the entire city surrounds. It is very difficult when you have more houses being built and urbanisation but this will enable another 120 hectares to be added.I do want to just mention one area that was able to be added and that was the old chest hospital. The old chest hospital—you can access it from Alexandra Road if you have not been to it—is now the home of the SPCA. It was derelict. It sat there for years with nothing happening and as Minister of Health I was responsible for handing the chest hospital over to the Wellington City Council for $1. That has now become a really important activity in that old chest hospital but it is part of the town belt. If you go up there on a Saturday you will see dozens of people walking up to look at the SPCA and its activities and enjoying the town belt. So it was able to be added but that was not the case for the Telecom land and so this bill will enable it to be added.I am delighted that we have reached this stage of the bill and we will certainly be having a celebration tonight for the work that has been done. I noted that Scott Simpson when he spoke said that the Local Government and Environment Committee had heard from 300 individuals and organisations through the submissions. That means a lot of people had a lot of interest in it and this is their day to celebrate as well. I would have grave doubts that there were many who opposed us keeping the town belt in Wellington.Can I say in conclusion to Grant Robertson well done. Well done Wellington City Council. Well done the councillors and the staff of Wellington City Council. This is a red-letter day—a day when we are passing legislation that is going to enshrine our town belt for ever for the people of Wellington.