Porirua City Council (Pauatahanui Burial Ground) Bill

The Porirua City Council (Pauatahanui Burial Ground) Bill is a nice bill. I applaud the Local Government and Environment Committee for the work it has done on the nice bill that is before us, which is why I thought I would take a call. It is interesting; the bill is a history lesson, enabling us to learn about Pāuatahanui and about the history of the burial grounds. It reminds us that we go overseas to travel and visit other places, and we think “Wow!” about the history of Rome or Paris. We do not think that New Zealand has a lot of history, because we are such a young country. But then we find out about these stories and about these little areas of New Zealand. There is significant history in New Zealand; history that we just do not know about. I enjoyed the fact that I learnt a lot about Pāuatahanui and about its history. We should respect that history.

I applaud people like Roger Beauchamp and the Pauatahanui Residents Association, who care so much about the fact that this history is important, not only to Pāuatahanui and Porirua but also to New Zealand. They have spent countless hours and years and much energy in making sure that their space and area—this cemetery and burial ground—is well maintained.

I congratulate Winnie Laban and Chris Finlayson. They were both given special mention when the submitters came before the select committee to talk about the bill. The submitters said how well both members worked together on the bill, which I think is important. It is important as a signal to the community.

I say “Well done!” to Porirua City Council. Something that needs to be raised in this process, though, is a signal to Porirua City Council that there will now be an expectation of it. Porirua City Council has made all the right noises and it has sent all the right signals that it is happy to look after the burial ground and that it will maintain it. A new council has been elected in, of course. We must now put on the council that it needs to make sure in the long-term council community plan that money is set aside to make sure that the burial ground is maintained and has value added to it.

I know from experience in my former job as Mayor of Wellington that it is easy for councils to forget doing these sorts of things and to forget to put money aside to maintain some of the older burial grounds. I know the issues we had with Karori cemetery when I was Mayor of Wellington. We probably did not do it justice, put aside enough money, or put a focus on having that cemetery maintained as well as it should have been. I know it became an issue for the locals and for those who have ancestors there. We need to send a very clear signal to the Porirua City Council that it has been fantastic up to now—and the community is on its side—but it cannot now forget that it has made an obligation and a commitment, which very much need to be maintained.

Other than that, I just wanted to applaud the process, and applaud in particular people like the Pauatahanui Residents Association and Roger Beauchamp, who came along. My goodness me—do we not need those sorts of heroes in our community? Do we not need those people who just give up their time and energy and really get into maintaining these areas? They do not get thanked enough, really. We are not good at it, are we? I just want to take my hat off to them and applaud them. I am sure that this process has served them well. We will look forward to the Porirua City Council playing its part. I am sure it will, under Jenny Brash; I am sure it will. Thank you.

Part 1 agreed to.

Part 2 Burial Ground