Wellington Town Belt Bill

I move, That the Wellington Town Belt Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Local Government and Environment Committee to consider the bill. It is my very great honour to be moving the first reading of this bill today on behalf of the Wellington City Council and in my position as the MP for Wellington Central. I want at the outset to thank the mayor, councillors, and officials of the Wellington City Council for their hard work in getting it to this point today.

They say that good things take time. If so, then there is no doubt that this bill is a very, very good thing. I first encountered a proposal for legislation about the town belt some 14 years ago, when I returned to Wellington to work for the then MP for Wellington Central, Marian Hobbs. Some 7 years later, as the newly minted MP, I talked in my maiden speech about my desire to see the town belt fully recognised and protected in law. Some 7 years after that, we have a bill and a first reading. The man from Mainland cheese has nothing on us when it comes to patience and perseverance.

The Wellington town belt is a horseshoe-shaped green and open space that runs along the border of the Wellington Central and Rongotai electorates, across Mount Victoria, around to Te Ahumairangi in the west, and across to Wadestown and the border with the Ōhariu electorate. Today it comprises nearly 400 hectares. It is of unique significance to Wellington and Wellingtonians, and this bill will ensure that this remarkable asset remains a part of Wellington for many generations to come.

It is important to acknowledge at the outset the connection of a number of iwi with the land that we know as the town belt. I am particularly pleased that this connection is spelt out in the preamble to the legislation so that it will form part of the statute when this bill passes.

In 1839, when the New Zealand Company sought to establish a settlement at Wellington, the iwi groups with take raupatu over the harbour and its surrounding area were Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Ruanui, Taranaki, Ngāti Tama—collectively known today as Taranaki Whānui—and also Ngāti Toa Rangatira. The Treaty settlement processes for both Taranaki Whānui and Ngāti Toa have recognised the breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi in relation to Crown acquisition of lands within the Wellington Harbour and surrounding areas, and I want to acknowledge those breaches again today.

In early consultation on this legislation, the importance of not only the land to mana whenua but also the protection provided to it by the town belt was recognised. I am very pleased to note that in clause 4(1) of the bill—the principles—it is clearly stated that “the Wellington Town Belt should be managed in partnership with mana whenua:”. Such an arrangement serves only to strengthen the protection and enhancement of the town belt for future generations.

You will hear some Wellingtonians talk about the original town belt. What they mean is that in the New Zealand Company’s original plans there was a public reserve of some 1,562 acres—approximately 632 hectares—including what is now the Wellington Botanic Garden. The company’s secretary, John Ward, instructed that this land be “public property on condition that no buildings be ever erected upon it”. What, in fact, occurred was that the Governor of the time indicated in 1841 that the reserves were required by the Crown for public purposes. This was not the last time such a thing would happen.

Over following decades some land was reserved for the people of Wellington, most particularly through the Wellington City Reserves Act of 1871, which, in turn, led the Superintendent of the Province of Wellington to execute the Town Belt Deed in 1873. By this point the town belt had been whittled down to 1,061 acres, 1 rood, and 2 perches—more or less—as a result of the re-appropriation of land for Government projects. Although these projects saw the construction of Government House, hospitals, signal stations, and educational facilities, this purpose did fall outside the intention of why the town belt was set aside: for the recreation and enjoyment of Wellingtonians.

In addition to vesting the land in the hands of the Wellington City Corporation, the 1873 Town Belt Deed stated that the land should “be for ever hereafter used and appropriated as a public Recreation ground for the inhabitants of the City of Wellington”. The size of the town belt continued to decrease over time as allocations of land were made for roading projects and more and more land was opened up, leaving us with the 400 hectares that we have today.

It is important to outline the purpose of this legislation and what problems we are attempting to solve with it. The core purposes of the bill are, first, to provide a transparent statutory basis for the council’s trusteeship and management of the town belt on behalf of the inhabitants of Wellington. In addition to the trust deed, there are a number of pieces of legislation that, in effect, govern the town belt, including the Reserves Act, the Wellington City Exhibition Grounds Act, and the Wellington (City) Town Belt Reserves Act. This legislation brings the powers of all those instruments together into one place. The second purpose is to impose on the council responsibilities and powers to protect, manage, and enhance the town belt.

The trust deed continues to be the founding and lasting form of guidance for how the town belt should be managed. However, over the last 140-odd years, there has been a lack of clarity over core aspects of how the role given to the council under the deed should be interpreted. Clause 8 of this bill provides a clear description of the legal status of the town belt. The key elements of this are that “The Council holds the Wellington Town Belt on behalf of the inhabitants of Wellington as trustee of the trust created by the Town Belt Deed.”

Importantly, the bill states that the only term of the trust is to for ever use the town belt as a public recreation ground, and it also provides a definition of “public recreation ground”. This has been a contentious subject over the years as various parties have sought to have an expansive definition to suit particular projects. This bill defines a “public recreation ground” as “an area provided for—(a) recreation, sporting activities and the enjoyment of the public, with an emphasis on the retention of public access, open spaces and outdoor activities; and (b) the protection of the natural environment and historic heritage.”

This purpose also highlights one of the great virtues of having town belt legislation. At this point in time it is not possible to add land to the town belt. It is locked in time as if it were 1873—minus the various bits of land taken by the Crown. This bill gives the ability, under Part 3, to add land to the town belt. The immediate effect of passing this legislation will be the addition of more than 120 hectares of land, largely what was known as the old Telecom land. Polhill Gully, the former chest hospital, and Vice Regal Park, part of Government House, will be added to the town belt. Over time I would like to think that both the land previously taken that is no longer required by the Crown and other green space could be added to the town belt and get the protections that entails.

The bill also makes absolutely clear that the council cannot sell, exchange, or use as security any part of the Wellington town belt. The bill does allow for a series of small, one-off technical boundary adjustments where land inside the town belt is already a road or a driveway and should no longer be considered to be formally part of the town belt.

The third purpose of this legislation is to recognise the history of the original town belt and its significance to the mana whenua and the inhabitants of Wellington. As I noted earlier, placing this within the legislation is an important statement.

The legislation has been the subject of long and detailed consultation. Fifty written submissions were received and 20 submitters made oral submissions. A number of changes were made to the legislation along the way, and I am sure there will be more suggestions for them during the select committee process. I want to pay tribute to the Friends of the Wellington Town Belt and others, who have played a significant role in getting the legislation to this point.

In the process of drafting there have been issues and concerns raised. Perhaps the most significant has been around the application of the Public Works Act to the town belt. Over the 140 years of its existence, the Crown from time to time has taken land for public purposes—for example, the site of Te Aro School. The council has accepted that the Public Works Act will apply to the town belt, but this legislation has been drafted so that it would not allow the council to agree to acquisition under the Public Works Act, and it sets out the process for objection to, and compensation for, acquisition. I understand that since the drafting of the bill, the council and Land Information New Zealand have had further discussions about these clauses, and in submissions to the select committee will propose some agreed changes.

Many submissions focused on commercial activities in the town belt. The bill has taken up their suggestions. All business activities will require an authorisation and can be approved only if the activity is temporary and any effect is no more than minor. Essentially, this allows for buildings such as changing rooms, coaching facilities, and coffee carts; it does not allow for new buildings or for cafes or shops within them, or even for wacky ideas such as driving ranges and gondolas, which have been suggested in the past.

The Wellington Town Belt Bill is a significant step in protecting and enhancing one of the things that makes our capital so special. At its heart it is not just about providing green and open space; it is also about whom the city is for. Providing a public recreation ground that cannot be built out and that is held open for all the people of our city is just the kind of inclusive and progressive ideal Wellington is known for. I commend this bill to the House.

I rise as chair of the Local Government and Environment Committee to speak in this first reading debate on the Wellington Town Belt Bill, a local bill being sponsored by the local member for Wellington Central, Grant Robertson, and being promoted by the Wellington City Council.

I am not a resident of Wellington, but I have had the privilege over the years of visiting Wellington frequently and, of course, in my role as an MP I now get to fly in and out of the city on a very regular basis. One of the great joys of arriving by air into Wellington is the sight of what is clearly and obviously to all a very magnificent green strip of what looks to the naked eye to be forested area. It is a wonderful vision for visitors arriving to Wellington, to see this town belt strip, and the fact that the belt exists is, I guess, a credit to those who have gone past and created such a vision that enabled a belt such as exists today to have been created. They had great vision and great foresight to do that.

So it is right and proper that this bill attempts to modernise and bring into today’s language a set of governance rules and structures that will see the town belt protected and loved, as it is by Wellingtonians today, well into the future for future generations. I am very much looking forward to the select committee process, where we will, I am sure, hear from a wide range of submitters who will want to make the point about how much this town belt is loved, respected, and appreciated by Wellingtonians and visitors alike. I am pleased to confirm in this speech that the National Party will support this bill through to select committee, and we will be watching with a very keen interest as it goes through the House and through to select committee.

The history of this bill and this wonderful piece of natural heritage for Wellington and Wellingtonians has been, I think, quite well set out by Grant Robertson. The town belt is a very large area of land. As one who comes from a rural and provincial electorate in the Coromandel, I am very used to seeing large areas of native bush and flora and fauna in their natural environments, but for those people who live in urban environments such a setting is a little less familiar. It is a credit to those who have gone in the past and those who have served on Wellington councils in the past that this belt has been protected as well and as carefully as it has been over the years, to enable it to still be in a state where it is a very large area of some 400 hectares. It stretches from Mount Victoria in the north-east to Berhampore at its southern end, and then north-west between Wadestown and Thorndon. That is an area of land that I think many urban cities around the world would be very envious of—having that kind of facility, that kind of resource so close to the urban centre.

The stated aim of this bill is to both protect the town belt and modernise the governance of it, and it does this by, effectively, removing the current status of recreational reserve under the Reserves Act 1977 and giving it a separate legal status that will become consolidated under the bill. The bill aims to restrict the disposal of town belt land and increase the ease with which land may be added, and, of course, it is a tantalising prospect that this already large area of 400 hectares, which admittedly has been diminished over the years by the taking of some parts of it for public works, could in the future be actually now extended. I would think that that would be something that the committee will want to explore with keenness.

The other aspect that the bill seeks to do is to close all the paper roads that cross the town belt land. In my electorate of the Coromandel I am grappling at the moment with what will, I think, eventually turn into a local bill that exactly seeks to solve a similar issue in the Coromandel. Roads were surveyed, in some cases more than 100 years ago, they were never actually developed, and now they still exist in a legal way. The way to fix that is to actually bring a local bill to this House and resolve it in the way that Grant Robertson is attempting to do here, with the support of the council.

Grant Robertson, in his opening comments, made note of the fact that the bill seeks to exempt the town belt land from sections of the Public Works Act. That is, I suspect, something that will be of some interest and concern to some submitters. I notice that in public comments there have been some concerns already expressed by a number of organisations and individuals. For instance, the New Zealand Transport Agency and Land Information New Zealand have already raised concerns regarding the application of the Public Works Act 1981. The Transport Agency has, in fact, indicated that the bill is likely to impact planned developments, in particular the proposed second tunnel through Mount Victoria.

So I suspect that, as we hear submissions on this bill at select committee, we will be wanting to hear from submitters who seek to somehow straddle the demands and needs of a modern urban environment with the practicalities of maintaining a green town belt of the sort that we currently have. That is a delicate balance in any kind of discussion and debate on these sorts of matters. It is a discussion that occurs in other parts of the country. I am confident, however, that as a committee and as a House we will be able to grapple with those issues and that we will find what I hope will be a worthwhile and meaningful middle ground and a pathway through some of those things.

For over 170 years the town belt has been a reserve for the public of Wellington to enjoy. One of the things that I enjoy when I do visit Wellington is I quite enjoy the prospect, when it is possible, of getting out into the Wellington area and going for a walk. I have got to say that, as a visitor, I am incredibly impressed by the facility that the green town belt provides for people who want to enjoy a natural environment that is close to a city. For 170 years Wellingtonians and visitors to the city have been able to do just that. Parks and reserves and vegetated slopes visible from the central city dominate the town belt. The continuous and interesting shape of the belt of undeveloped hills around the city and suburbs has been a feature that has marked this city out as special for all of those 170 years. The belt also provides for a wide range of sporting and recreational activities to take place, and those are also worthy attributes of the belt and the facilities that it provides.

The council is proposing, by virtue of this bill, to strengthen the protection of the town belt, and to do this it has actually, I think, gone to a significant amount of trouble to draft this local bill. I want to acknowledge at the outset the work that the council has done in terms of bringing what looks to me, at first glance anyway, to be a very well-prepared, thoroughly researched, and good document for us to get our teeth into—so a pat on the back for the council for getting it to this stage. The council has already gone through—it is my understanding—a fairly significant and full public comment and submission process, and that is also to its credit, in terms of bringing a bill of this nature to the House.

What is not going to change is this: the bill is not going to change much of the history and the heritage that the belt has created. This is a bill that I think covers exactly the sorts of things that should be covered in a local bill, and I think that—on this side of the House, anyway—we will be very keen to do it justice. We are looking forward to getting involved in it and we are looking forward to working towards the creation of a new piece of legislation that, hopefully, will stand the Wellington town belt in good stead as it has been for the last 170 years—with a piece of legislation that will be enduring and durable for the next 170 years and there beyond. So I commend this bill to the House for its first reading.

This is a red-letter day for Wellington, for Wellington City Council, and for Grant Robertson in particular, because over many years there has been dogged determination—eventually desperation—to get this bill before the House and passed. So I want to begin by congratulating a number of people. I must start with my friend and colleague Grant Robertson because, as he pointed out in his contribution, he started working on this issue many years ago when he was a humble servant of a member of Parliament. Today he is the member for Wellington Central and the person who is proudly putting through this bill. You see, it is a proud day and a red-letter day because we are so blessed here in Wellington to have the town belt. There are very few places in the world that have the sort of green space around the city—the horseshoe-shaped green space around the city—that we have here in Wellington. It is something to be protected, something to care for, and this bill, as has just been said by Scott Simpson, who has just sat down, is putting protection in place, hopefully, for the next 170 years and beyond.

I want to also congratulate Wellington City Council staff and councillors who have worked hard on this bill. I particularly want to thank the parks and reserves people. You know, they are the people who keep the town belt looking so good, making it open and available. They are unsung heroes of the Wellington City Council, and I want to commend them. There are two people from my own electorate who are very dear friends and have worked for years to protect the town belt, and they are Cynthia Wainwright and Joan Quinn. I would like to acknowledge Joan, who is sitting in the gallery today. This will also be a red-letter day for the Friends of the Wellington Town Belt—the people who have kept an eagle eye on whatever happens on that town belt. For any encroachment or anything that was not appropriate, they certainly made their voices heard.

This is a very special day for Wellington. That town belt—it will be repeated many times—has for over 170 years been the reserve that the public has been able to enjoy, and it is a scenic backdrop to this city. Many of us have walked on that town belt. We see cyclists in places. We see kids and dogs and all sorts of outdoor activity. When people say “You wouldn’t live in Wellington—terrible weather.”, I can tell them that there is so much good weather in Wellington that we get to enjoy the town belt, and it has become very much part of how many people live in this electorate.

What I really like about this bill, apart from the protection that it is going to give, is the ability to be able to add to the town belt. That is something that the Friends of the Wellington Town Belt have wanted for years—to be able to add to it. This bill allows that to happen so that there can be more green space. Watts Peninsula on the Miramar peninsula is in the part of Wellington that used to be called Motu Kairangi—it was an island and it was called Motu Kairangi. That became a peninsula when there was an earthquake and it all joined up, and that part of it has the area called Watts Peninsula. It is about 76 hectares, and it has been decided that it will be a public reserve. I would like to see that added to the town belt.

In the short time that I have left, let me say that I think that Rongotai and the Wellington electorates are very, very lucky to have this asset but also to have a member and a council who are prepared to do the work over many years to preserve it. Finally, in response to Scott Simpson about the second tunnel at Mount Victoria—something that is felt very strongly about on my side of Wellington—this bill is irrelevant to it, because the Government can take that part of the town belt it might like down Ruahine Street under the Public Works Act. What the bill does do is talk about compensation, and I hope that compensation ends up as other land that can go into the town belt. This bill deals with the compensation of taking something like the Ruahine Street land. So this is a very good day and I congratulate all those involved.

Tēnā koe e te Mana Whakawā Tuarua. Tēnā koutou katoa e ngā mema o te Whare Pāremata o Aotearoa. It is a pleasure to take a call in this first reading debate on the Wellington Town Belt Bill, and I would like to congratulate my colleague and opponent Grant Robertson on presenting this bill to the House. It is important that after so many years the trusts and deeds that form the original foundation of this taonga, this asset, which is important to our city, are modernised and brought up to date.

This bill revokes the Wellington (City) Town Belt Reserves Act 1908 and the Wellington City Exhibition Grounds Act 1959 and puts into place a more coherent and consistent basis for the foundation of the town belt, which so many Wellington residents enjoy. I would like to acknowledge the work of the others who have contributed to bringing this piece of legislation to the House: the Wellington city councillors, in particular Councillor Helene Ritchie; Councillor Andy Foster, whom I noticed was taking an interest in this as well; and also the officials who have contributed to drafting what is a good basis for this bill, which will be obviously closely scrutinised by the Local Government and Environment Committee, so ably chaired by my respected colleague the honourable member for the Coromandel, Scott Simpson. He is a very hard-working MP and a very conciliatory chair of that committee, who works well across the House to make sure that the other parties are well consulted and that there is collaboration so that we get the very best possible result.

But I do need to respond to a couple of things that have been said so far in this first reading debate. I would like to comment on the remarks made by the member for Rongotai, the Hon Annette King, that the Public Works Act would be available to the Government should certain essential pieces of infrastructure such as the duplication of the Mount Victoria Tunnel, the drilling through of a second tunnel, need to be undertaken for the greater good of all Wellingtonians and, in fact, for the greater economic benefit of the country.

There were some comments made, prior to the introduction of this bill, by the chamber of commerce, which raised serious concerns that clause 23 of this bill in particular and also clause 6(b) could affect such vital projects as the Mount Victoria duplication, and also the deployment of the rapid transit bus routes around Wellington, not just because of the consultation that would be required but the fact that the original drafting of the Act, section 18 of the Public Works Act, did not apply in its entirety.

I understand that there has been some discussion and that the city council has agreed that there could be some changes and amendments usefully made in the select committee process of the consideration of this bill. Leaving the bill as it is would put a handbrake on potentially vital work, particularly around the transport improvements that we do require to be able to go ahead as a city.

Too often over the past few years we have seen essential projects either stopped or significantly impeded. We have seen the implementation of a more efficient route through the Basin Reserve impeded over the last couple of years, and that is something that we desperately need, given that that road link is at over 100 percent of its current capacity. We do not want to compound that further by introducing in this piece of legislation further handbrakes to that necessary development.

Similarly, I understand that there are arguments being made at the other extreme of the spectrum, from David Lee for instance—and I do not mean Councillor Lee; this is another David Lee—who has concerns that this bill goes too far in allowing the continuation of certain commercial activities on town belt land.

So, clearly, there are a variety of views. As a select committee we will be listening to those. I welcome the fact that the bill increases the ease of adding land and makes it harder to remove land from the town belt, but let us see how we go in the committee. Thank you.

Kia ora, Mr Assistant Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. It is not every day in this place that you get to rise and speak on a bill that traces its heritage to the age of sailing vessels and the settlement of this great city all the way back in 1839, so I would like to acknowledge the tremendous history involved with this. I rise to support the Wellington Town Belt Bill, a bill in the name of local MP Grant Robertson. This bill, quite simply, aims to simplify and make more transparent the basis on which the Wellington City Council manages and holds the town belt. It recognises the importance of the town belt as an asset, as a taonga, to the people of Wellington. I have lived in this great city for some 15-odd years, and the town belt is incredibly important to Wellingtonians. One of my favourite pastimes is walking up Te Ahumairangi Hill behind this House. It is a bit of a walk. I used to live on Mount Victoria, where we backed up near the top of the hill near the belt. For a few years there were actually reports of people biting people in the forests of Mount Victoria, and it led to a whole rash of newspaper headlines around vampires on Mount Victoria. I wonder whether that is where Taika Waititi got his inspiration for the great Wellington film What We Do in the Shadows—from the news of what was happening in our town belt. We know that the town belt is important to Wellingtonians. It is much loved. It is a treasure given by our forefathers and foremothers all those years and decades ago.

I would like to acknowledge the people who have put in considerable work to get this legislation to this floor today. I understand this legislation has been developed since 2010. There were more than 250 submissions, and I would like to thank all the people involved, including the local member Grant Robertson, council officials, councillors—and I know we have got some in the Chamber today—and parliamentary counsel as well. In a nutshell, this bill simply addresses the legal uncertainty flowing from those various old statutes and the nature of the deed dating from the 1870s. It provides strong protections around the uses of the town belt for recreational activities; safeguards against new buildings and commercial activities; and, I think, crucially, this bill prevents the council from selling any part of the town belt. So it gives a legislative protection to this point and the guiding principles and guarantees of public access, which is fantastic, and the Green Party absolutely supports it. It recognises the history of mana whenua, and I understand that the co-management regime is a positive step forward. We are seeing the ability of the council to add land not subtract land, and it is great to see another 120 hectares slated to be added to this beautiful area. So there are a lot of positives with this legislation. It is quite simple common sense to try to rationalise and simplify.

But I want to touch on something from the last speaker, Paul Foster-Bell, because he picked up on the big motorway vison that we are seeing from the current Government, and this is one of the controversial threats facing this taonga of the Wellington region. This is quite specifically the roads of national significance and the dream of a second tunnel, the dream of a motorway from Levin to the airport at a time when we do see traffic stable and declining, and the relationship with the Public Works Act. What we see is a debate in the city around what the provisions should be. I know that a controversial point in earlier drafts was the standing given to citizens. This town belt belongs to all of Wellington. I note that the council has a management role, a historical role, a leadership role, but I also question that, and that is something we will be looking at in the select committee. We also need to discuss the issue of compensation and the time lines around that, and I welcome the opportunity to hear submissions on this. I know that Wellingtonians will be very keen to have their say, and I look forward to working with members on the select committee, the council staff, and the local member of Parliament Grant Robertson, because, ultimately, what we are doing is trying to protect an area of Wellington that we love. We do want to see it protected. Kia ora, Mr Assistant Speaker.

It is very exciting to be able to stand and speak to the Wellington Town Belt Bill. It is a bit of a red-letter day, as an honourable member mentioned before. For me, there are a couple of reasons for this.

Firstly, I think that this may well be the only time in my political career when I stand shoulder to shoulder on a bill with a man with whom I used to be a student union president. So I acknowledge you, Grant, and—

💬 Grant Robertson: That’s right. You’ll come around again, Todd—don’t worry.

—one or two times, it may be—your commitment to this legislation. I also acknowledge the Friends of the Wellington Town Belt. It is great to see that you are here to see the fruits of your collective effort coming in front of us today.

Secondly, it is good to be talking about something other than avocados. I am sure that it was a very enjoyable conversation earlier.

Thirdly, I am someone who is passionate about history, and, actually, I am passionate about wide open spaces. So, for me, there is a convergence here of two things that I am actually quite interested in—and I am seriously interested in this. If you go to Hagley Park in Christchurch, or if you go to Maungakiekie, Cornwall Park, or One Tree Hill, you will see examples of our forefathers’ vision in terms of how we create the best place for people to live and of how we get that convergence, if you like, between places for us to live, work, and play. I am sure that they used different terminology back then. The Wellington town belt is very much in that same tradition as the vision of those people all those years ago, holding a view of what this great city could look like into the future.

As we have heard already this afternoon, in 1839 those visionaries drafted the initial settlement plan for Port Nicholson. That is an interesting name. Perhaps they should have stayed with it; it sounds slightly more romantic than Wellington. But, anyway, it did change over time, and, of course, it is now Wellington City. That initial plan to have the town belt hectarage as public property on the condition that no buildings could ever be erected on it was visionary for its time.

If you think back to 1839 in England, where most, if not all, of our directions came from back then, the idea of a town belt was a novelty. Yes, there were parklands in Britain, but they were where the wealthy went to cavort on Saturday or Sunday afternoons. Those who lived in the more intense industrial areas of town had no such places. So the vision was to create some green space where people could go, regardless of their socio-economic status, and enjoy that space. These spaces were called the “lungs” of the city. That was the vision that informed the New Zealand Company all those years ago, and it is what we are talking about here in order to ensure that we enshrine it in legislation that is relevant and effective for 2015 but that stays true to that initial vision.

As we have heard, that initial settlement deed was passed over at 1,061 acres by 1873. I need to get this right, Mr Robertson, so that it is on the record that I am endorsing and supporting you on this issue only. One road—1,061 acres; 1 rood and 2 perches. I think I have got that right. It was granted to the city in 1873 as a public recreation ground. Now, of course, the town belt is 400 hectares and it stretches from Mount Victoria to Te Ahumairangi Hill. But, of course, that deed, when established in 1873, provided the council with its authority to hold and manage the Wellington town belt. Obviously, it had certain rules and regulations to underpin it, but what we have found through this process—and, obviously, we will talk through this more specifically when we are in the select committee—is that the old town belt was difficult to interpret. Obviously, there are a range of statutes that are now not aligned with other particular bills and Acts, which we need to get some congruence around.

In particular, this bill will provide certainty because it becomes the principal source of the council’s powers for protecting, managing, and enhancing the Wellington town belt. The bill is in four parts, and no doubt we will have time to talk about that in the future. I am pleased to see that in Part 2, not only are the powers listed there but so are the responsibilities that lie with the council in respect of being very overt within a management plan, and that, of course, will get discussed regularly. I would love to carry on, but I shall sit down now and look forward to the select committee discussions.

Once again, we get to this point in the debate and you wonder how much more you can add to that which has already been said. But I will start by saying congratulations to the Wellington City Council, to the mayor and the councillors, and to all the staff involved in getting this piece of legislation on to the floor of the House. Most definitely congratulations also to the local MP Grant Robertson, who has been more than studious in advocating for this bill and getting around the House, around the parties, to garner the level of support required. It is not that I think it took a whole heap of arm-twisting, Mr Robertson, because it is difficult to disagree with or to object to this piece of legislation.

There is something that stands out as quite striking for me, at this point, if I could look for a point of difference in the kōrero thus far. It is the fact that the Government supports this legislation—the principles, the purpose, and the intent. Why I say I am astonished and pleased that the Government is doing this is that green belts, town belts, reserves, public reserves, and Crown reserves are all there—they all exist within communities, for the same purpose. They are there to promote the well-being of the people who reside in that locale—their well-being.

There used to be a time when local government was guided, directed, through the Local Government Act by well-beings and the need to focus on the well-being of the community, be it social, cultural, economic, or indeed, might I add, spiritual. It seems strange that on the one hand the Government should say that we no longer need to have well-beings mentioned in the Local Government Act, but here, today, it stands and recognises that the Wellington town belt is fundamental to the well-being, to the character, to the spirit, and, indeed, to the economic well-being of Wellington City. It would be nice to think that this epiphany, this realisation, this coming back to reality might actually permeate a little deeper into the thinking of National Party MPs as we passage this bill together, as a complete House—unanimously—through to its final reading, and that they might wish to reflect on those changes that they inflicted, imposed, and dictatorially handed out to the public of New Zealand through their amendments—

💬 Alastair Scott: Democracy.

There was no democracy about it at all—no democracy about it at all. The weight of numbers dictated against the overwhelming objection of Local Government New Zealand and all the National Party mayors and deputy mayors and councillors throughout New Zealand who actually objected to it.

This piece of legislation probably stands as an example of why we need to focus on the well-being of communities. It is good to see that we are recognising that. It is also good to see that in the “Purpose” clause of this bill there is not a thing we can disagree with. The principles—I will home in on a couple in clause 4: “(i) the Wellington Town Belt should be managed in partnership with mana whenua:”. Being Ātiawa myself and being very aware of the manner in which the land was obtained in the first place, it stands to reason that this is the just and right thing to do. Clause 4(1)(b)(ii) states: “the landscape character of the Wellington Town Belt should be protected and enhanced, including by recognising that it was the New Zealand Company’s intention that the original Town Belt not be built on:”. But this also recognises that there will be times when there will need to be adjustments, for the betterment of Wellington, in terms of allowing building. The fact that this legislation makes it possible for more land to be added to the town belt is eminently sensible and in fact fundamental, because it allows Wellington City to grow its town belt as the opportunity arises.

For the record, New Zealand First will support the passage of this bill and looks forward to working in the Local Government and Environment Committee alongside our other colleagues—cross party. We look forward to seeing the day when Mr Robertson will get to see his bill read for a third time. Thank you.

It is a privilege to rise on this, the Wellington Town Belt Bill, a bill that the National Party will be supporting through to the select committee hearings. I would just like to acknowledge the efforts of Grant Robertson across the years that it has taken to bring this bill to the House. The member mentioned that he made note of what he would like to see done with the town belt in his maiden speech. Should this bill make it through the select committee and through to enactment, I am sure that my colleague Paul Foster-Bell will be more than happy to accept Grant Robertson’s speech in the third reading of this bill as his valedictory. I would also like to note the hard work of the council and councillors, particularly Councillor Helene Ritchie, who is here to see the first reading of a bill that she sponsored within the council, and also the work of the councillors themselves.

As has been canvassed, the town belt is something that not only is immediately identifiable as people fly into this great city, the greatest city in our country, but also really helps to define some of the stuff that is so wonderful about the liveability of this city. Not only is the town belt used for recreation, such as walks and for its natural beauty, but it is actually used as a recreational facility in other ways. This bill will, in fact, protect those sorts of uses into the future. On an uncustomary cold winter’s day in Wellington I often join my daughter Micaela at the Wellington netball courts in the town belt, on Mount Victoria, where she plays that game, as many, many other young women and women in Wellington do. The town belt is also used for rugby. It has been used for cycling. It is used for running. It is used for many, many purposes. The top of Mount Victoria is a tourist attraction for the city. There probably are not too many tourists who spend any length of time in Wellington who do not go up there to have a good look at the city.

💬 Hon Member: Park up in the back seat.

There are also those uses, as well.

Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.

I was talking about the town belt around Mount Victoria. Effectively, it rings the inner harbour around to Te Ahumairangi, which, as Mr Robertson pointed out, is on the border of the Ōhariu electorate. There has a bit of parochialism on this debate tonight about Wellington Central, Rongotai, and the town belt, but I would just like to remind members that this is a Wellington City - promoted bill. In Wellington City the council boundaries extend both north and west. They take in the entire population of the electorate of Ōhariu, and the city is all the better for it.

💬 Simon O’Connor: Tell us about the list member for Ōhariu.

I could talk for a while about him.

It is very, very good to stand here in support of a bill going to select committee that is going to protect the town belt for generations to come. It is with some regret, though, which other speakers have noted and I will reiterate, that the bill is being introduced in not quite the perfect form we may have wanted. It does currently contain carve-out provisions from the Public Works Act that some would say are completely unnecessary but are certainly under contention. I think what does concern me somewhat is that through talking to people who have raised concerns and talking to people within the council I have been advised that the parties actually got together and nutted out these issues around these carve-outs in particular, and also around the areas of permitting any inhabitant of the Wellington region or the Wellington City Council area to lodge objections, and they actually worked through the issues. They sought and found solutions. They actually found the drafting that would address the issue.

So it is quite regrettable, having done all that work and reached a final point, that the bill has been introduced into the House with the original provisions—in particular, I am talking around the likes of clause 23—still in place. There was the opportunity. The bill could have arrived amended from what it currently is and we could, in fact, be debating in this first reading the provisions that we know that the people who have raised concerns, such as the New Zealand Transport Agency, Land Information New Zealand, and the council, have already thrashed out and already agreed on. We will now, instead, be having to discuss these during the select committee deliberations. I certainly would encourage the members on the select committee to pay very, very close attention to those areas. They are very serious concerns. They are things that need to be addressed, but I am very hopeful that at the end of that process we will see a bill that will go through a successful second and third reading to be enacted. I support this reading of the Wellington Town Belt Bill.

I rise to take a short call on the Wellington Town Belt Bill, which is a local bill that has been introduced by Wellington MP Grant Robertson. I commend him for what I understand has been a very long journey working with the council and interested Wellingtonians to get this bill to the House. I would also, as Grant Robertson did, like to start by specifically acknowledging mana whenua of Wellington and the fact that this bill provides recognition of their historical loss and grievance, and sets up co-governance, and to specifically acknowledge Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Ruanui, Taranaki, Ngāti Tama, and Ngāti Toa Rangatira, who all had land taken from them for the town belt in the original settlement of Wellington. I think it is progress, certainly, that this bill recognises that history and sets up co-governance of the space of the town belt, which is precious to mana whenua and more recent Wellingtonians alike.

Green spaces in our cities are precious, and there are strong feelings about preserving these spaces because of how much they contribute to our enjoyment of this space and in our daily lives. There are also, and have always been, strong development pressures to erode that same green space. This bill, I understand, was initially largely initiated as an attempt by Wellingtonians to ensure the protection of this pretty amazing town belt, even though it is only around a third of the size of what it was initially intended to be, and to stop the ongoing incursions that were threatening it. I understand that this bill will enable, for the first time, the town belt to actually grow in the future, and that absolutely is a win.

The Green Party, though, will be looking very carefully through the select committee process at the provisions in the bill that relate to the Public Works Act. We do register our concern that in the process of this bill the involvement of the New Zealand Transport Agency was to pressure the council to change the bill away from what the council’s original intent was. I understand that there were certainly a significant number of people who wanted to see the town belt exempt from pressures of the Public Works Act, as Hagley Park in Christchurch is protected from incursions and from parts of the park being taken through the Public Works Act, but the New Zealand Transport Agency applied very heavy pressure on the council to change this bill. Through the public consultation, the agency put pressure on the council to change its wording around the land taken under the Public Works Act.

The council did not agree, because part of the intent of this bill and the reason for it to come to this House was about the amount of land that had been taken under the Public Works Act. So part of the initial intent was to protect it from that very piece of legislation. My understanding is that the New Zealand Transport Agency managed to persuade the Government that the compromise that the council had reached was not supportable and that the Government said that it would even refuse for the bill to go through its first reading unless the council agreed to some changes that had been put forward by the New Zealand Transport Agency. Thus, we have this bill in front of us, which I believe, due to that pressure by the New Zealand Transport Agency and this Government working alongside it on that, has actually compromised the local democratic process.

The point of local bills is to represent the desires of a local community. If the Government has concerns, the appropriate place for that to be debated would be in the select committee, not beforehand, and not by threatening the ability to progress a bill to the select committee before it came to this House. That is a subversion and an arrogant domination of central government over local government and local communities’ intent. That is disgraceful, to be honest. I absolutely give credit to Grant Robertson for getting this bill here, but the Government should be called out on its undemocratic behaviour.

I stand to support the Wellington Town Belt Bill sponsored by the member Grant Robertson. I say congratulations to you, Grant, for having it come through after such a long time there in the Bills Office. Timutimu pāria, rākau pāria, whānui te ara i a tāna—ward off post and weapon so that the expansive path of mankind is opened up. This is the whakataukī uttered by Te Wharepōuri Te Kakapi-o-Te Rangi during the arrival of the colonial ships within the Wellington Harbour and upon the foreshores of Pētone in the 1830s. The words he uttered show foresight on his part and on the part of his whānau, his hapū, and his iwi and signalled that the world that they were currently living in was going to change and it was going to change for ever. However, I am sure that back then the process for acquiring lands for the town belt from the Crown left a lot of unanswered questions. I am sure that the iwi of Te Ātiawa, Ngāti Ruanui, Taranaki, Ngāti Tama, together with Taranaki Whānui ki Te Upoko o Te Ika and Ngāti Toa, were a little bit shocked to find out that this was all happening to their lands. But as time has gone by things have changed.

Yet, none the less, the land acquisition went ahead, and the New Zealand Land Company’s initial settlement plan provided 1,562 acres for public reserves for the original town belt around the Port Nicholson area, or Wellington City, as it stands today. On 16 October 1841 the Governor of New Zealand notified that the reserves provided for in the company’s plans were reserved by the Crown for public purposes, without consulting at the time or compensating iwi.

On 3 June 1861 the Crown conveyed to the superintendent of the Wellington province, in trust, the lands for the purposes of public utility to the town and its residents. The Wellington City Reserves Act 1871 instructed the superintendent to convey parts of the town belt to the mayor and councillors of Wellington City, which he did. Then, in 1873, the superintendent implemented the Town Belt Deed, which conveyed three parcels of land, which have been discussed in the House so far, on trust to the council’s predecessor, which included the town belt, the Canal Reserve, and the Basin Reserve.

As I said at the start of my speech, iwi have not been consulted, let alone compensated for the actions the Crown took at the time, so they carried grievances on these actions for a very long time. It was not until August of 2008 that these grievances were heard and the claims came through this House for the settlement for Taranaki Whānui ki Te Upoko o Te Ika and then, in December 2012, for Ngāti Toa Rangatira.

In closing, there has been some uncertainty about the legal status of the Wellington town belt, the extent to which the Wellington town belt is protected for future generations, and council powers to protect, manage, and enhance the town belt, but what this bill does is it gives that certainty. It now brings it all together for the council and for the people of Wellington by becoming a principal source of the council’s power for protecting, managing, and enhancing the Wellington town belt by providing a transparent statutory basis for the council’s trusteeship and management of the town belt and, most important, by providing a mechanism for land to become part of the town belt.

Again, I say congratulations to Grant Robertson. I look forward to this bill coming through the Local Government and Environment Committee. I commend it to the House. Kia ora.

Five minutes in reply—Grant Robertson.

I want to thank all the speakers who have spoken during this debate, and all parties for their indications of support for this legislation. It is welcomed very much by me and by the Wellington City Council. While I am on the subject of thanking people, it is timely to thank the Wellington city councillors who have helped drive this project. I particularly want to acknowledge Helene Ritchie and Iona Pannett, in most recent times, and other councillors before them, who have been the driving force to get this legislation through the process that the Wellington City Council has. It has not been easy. We have gone through a couple of trienniums, but we have got there, and I am very grateful for the support that those councillors have given. Behind the scenes, council officials have worked overtime to get this legislation into good shape.

I want to particularly acknowledge Paul Andrews, and especially Michael Oates, who has lived and breathed this with me for many years. Michael has done a terrific job in pulling together all of the threads that make up this legislation. Michael, you deserve all the congratulations for that. The Wellington City Council officials have been helped by a team of lawyers. We have been at this for so long that the law firm has changed its name about four times while we have been doing the bill, but to Adam Holloway and Nick Chapman, thank you very much too for your excellent work in getting the bill to this point.

My colleague Annette King has already mentioned the advocacy of the groups in the Wellington community that do truly love and live the town belt, in particular the Friends of the Wellington Town Belt group. It has worked hard on this legislation for a very long time. Annette King mentioned Joan Quinn, who is in the public gallery today. Joan has a lifetime attachment to the Wellington town belt, and she epitomises the way Wellingtonians feel about it. Joan, I hope you will be pleased today to see the legislation finally find its way into this House.

There were a number of matters raised in speeches that I do want to refer to just briefly. The first of those is the issue around the Public Works Act. I did say in my comments that this has been an issue of debate. The Wellington City Council itself has never formally proposed that the town belt be exempted from the Public Works Act. What is in the legislation is an attempt by the council and officials to come up with a formulation that protects the councillors in their roles as trustees of the trust deed. As councillors, they are not allowed to do anything that would dispose of the town belt, so that is protected.

What was then suggested in this legislation was a process that would give standing to councillors and other Wellingtonians in any attempt to acquire the town belt land under the Public Works Act and an outline of a process for compensation should that occur. There have been discussions between Land Information New Zealand, the New Zealand Transport Agency, and council officials and, as I said in my opening remarks, that has led to some proposals that the Wellington City Council will bring to the select committee. To correct Mr Hudson, that is the process the Minister for Land Information agreed to—specifically, that those amendments would come to the select committee. That is the correct way to deal with an issue like this when a bill has gone through the Wellington City Council’s processes. This is a local bill. It comes to us from a decision of the Wellington City Council. It has made its decision; that is the bill we have in front of us, but it has acknowledged that it will propose changes in this area at the select committee.

The other area I want to mention, just briefly in the couple of minutes remaining to me, is around the other concerns that were raised in early consultation on this bill. That is the question of commercial activities, and I want to be very clear with anyone who is listening. Commercial activities are limited by this legislation. This bill is about protecting the purpose of the town belt as a public recreation ground. Under this bill, no more than 8 hectares of land in total at any one time can be leased, and those leases cannot be granted for more than 20 years, including any renewals, with exceptions for the chest hospital site and Wellington Zoo.

I am proud to bring this bill to the House. It is the product of a lot of work, and it does speak for the city of Wellington, a city that values its green and open space, but also a city that values that every Wellingtonian deserves to be able to enjoy this. This bill upholds those principles and it provides certainty, clarity, and confidence that the town belt will be there for many generations to come. I commend this bill to the House.

Bill read a first time.

Bill referred to the Local Government and Environment Committee.