Roy Eric: Southland Agricultural and Pastoral Association Empowering Bill — Second Reading Third Reading 
Roy Eric: Southland Agricultural and Pastoral Association Empowering Bill — Second Reading Third Reading 
[Volume:634;Page:5676] 
ERIC ROY (National—Invercargill) 
: 
 I move  
That the Southland Agricultural and Pastoral Association Empowering Bill be now read a second and a third time 
. This is a bit of a change of mood from the previous bill that Parliament has dealt with on this members’ day. It is my great pleasure to bring before the House for the second and third reading the Southland Agricultural and Pastoral Association Empowering Bill. My first desire is to thank members for the way that they have expedited this process. I have to pass on the gratitude of a number of people in that regard—including the gratitude of the agricultural and pastoral association itself and of the individual who will develop the Invercargill showground. I will talk a little more about that later; he has paid a deposit and has been waiting for over a year for this bill to be progressed. So those people send their thanks to this House. 
If this bill were to have gone through the normal process it would have taken months. I introduced this bill in the last sitting period of Parliament. It went to the Primary Production Committee which met in the adjournment. Members of the select committee went through the full process—they advertised and they sought to get submissions and feedback. It was not a shonky job. I assured them that everything was in order and that there were no issues but the select committee wanted to do its own thing. I congratulate the members of the committee on that. But having decided to put the bill through the process they expedited it in the best way possible—they advertised sought a response got a departmental report and then deliberated on the bill in the adjournment. My thanks also go to the House for accepting leave to complete all stages tonight and I am absolutely genuine in those thanks. 
One or two people have asked me what this bill is about. For the benefit of those members who are in their first term in Parliament I say that empowering bills are not something to be taken lightly. I can recall in my first term in the House having to speak for 10 minutes without notice on a Palmerston North playground empowering bill which was something of a challenge. If a land title is covered by an endowment we do not take that lightly. Our forebears set up around the country a whole range of endowment processes—some of them on rental land that generated revenue for harbour boards agricultural and pastoral associations and school-grounds. There were a whole range of mechanisms. Our forebears did that because they wanted the protection provided by an endowment and we should not ignore that. In this particular case we have gone through the process properly. To advance a private bill there is a prescribed process. Anybody who looks at Appendix C of the Standing Orders will see that there is a very diligent and prescribed process to make sure we get things right—and in this case that has been done. 
What is this bill about? I gave a commentary on the bill in the first reading and I will repeat it for the benefit of those people who were not there for that—and I apologise to those for whom this is repetition but it is quite important to do so. Agricultural and pastoral associations are part of the fabric of rural New Zealand. Their shows have been the expos of the rural community for in many instances well over 100 years. We are well past the centenary celebrations of the Southland Agricultural and Pastoral Association. A and P shows have been the expos where livestock are judged have provided social occasions for meeting people and have been the venue where new machinery new cultivars and new genetics are shown—you name it it happens commercially and agriculturally. It is a “town meets country” kind of arrangement. 
 In Invercargill the agricultural and pastoral association showground is almost in the centre of the city. It is a valuable property but essentially it has been used for only one major show once a year and also for one or two stud fairs. So there is a heavy over-investment in a property that could be used in a much better way. The Southland Agricultural and Pastoral Association has sought to go into partnership with the Ascot Park Raceway where there are grandstands grounds and better parking. The raceway is in a part of the town that suits people much better than the showground. The agricultural and pastoral association has a contract with a developer who will turn the showground into an industrial estate. Not only will that occur but a bypass will be created from the north of the city through the city to connect to the south of the city. It will take heavy traffic that is going to the port the freezing works or wherever else it may be in the south—there are fertiliser works chip mills the port and a range of heavy industry there. The transport to and from those entities has had to go pretty much through the centre of town so this development will create a bypass that will take that heavy traffic out of the centre of the town. 
Suffice to say that this bill has a great deal of support not just from the agricultural and pastoral association and not just from the developer who has an opportunity to do something in a very prosperous and growing provincial town in New Zealand: Invercargill a place where dreams are possible. Burt Munro comes from there. We have a great mayor Tim Shadbolt and all those things. Now we are going to have the very best agricultural and pastoral showground in the country in association with the Ascot Park Raceway. 
There are plans to do some significant things at the raceway. Sheep pens and a selling pavilion will have to be developed but there is also going to be an equestrian centre. I am not sure exactly how much will be achieved out of the sale of the showground property but it is in the order of $4 to $5 million and that money will be ploughed back into developing and extending the Ascot Park Raceway with an equestrian centre that will not have a parallel anywhere in New Zealand. Invercargill can do this. Members will know that we have one of the only three covered velodromes in the southern hemisphere. With a population of 50000 we have a whole lot of things going for us. This centre will be a valuable extension of the indoor arenas that are available in the south and it will happen when this bill is passed. Of course having an equestrian centre on a raceway park where horses are involved in a range of things will add opportunities not just for racing show-jumping dressage pony clubs and riding for the disabled—all of those things—but it will be another large expo venue. The opportunities are endless once this bill is actually passed. So I say to the House that there is a wide degree of support to see it progressed. 
Another reason the community is keen to see this bill advanced quite quickly is that there will have to be some applications to local funding agencies—the licensing trust the community trust and various other agencies—for funding to do this development. As time has gone by we have just about passed the deadlines for those applications; in fact we have passed one of them. The agricultural and pastoral association wants to progress those applications for funding as well so that the development can take place. 
I conclude by giving my sincere thanks to the House for its assistance in expediting the process of getting this bill through. It is an important thing that we recognise endowment land and we are not taking that cheaply. But in this case the requirements of drafting and presenting the bill to the House saw no mischief. The select committee went out and readvertised but there was not one submission. There was unanimity and support. So I can only say to the House that this is its finest hour. This bill has no mischief; everybody wants it. The House has risen to the occasion and has expedited it through in a very earnest way. I thank the House.