Statutes Amendment Bill

Members, we come now to Part 17. This is the debate on clauses 70 and 71, “Amendment to Heretaunga Tamatea Claims Settlement Act 2018”. The question is that Part 17 stand part.

Thank you, Madam Chair. This is a little unusual. I mean, I have been around a couple of years or so now, and using a Statutes Amendment Bill to change a Treaty settlement Act—and it’s not the only one—is a little unusual. It does look like a technical amendment. The key bit seems to be that there’s a marginal strip—it’s unclear how large it is—that ceases to be a marginal strip under Part 4A of the Conservation Act. It’s unclear to me if that is perhaps going to the iwi or not. But, I guess, there’s just a couple of things I’d ask: what does this actually do, other than change the designation of a marginal strip, and is this something that’s come out of, essentially, consultation with the iwi around implementation of their Treaty settlement and just a wrinkle that’s being ironed out and needs legislation? I just think it would be good for the record to kind of put that down, because it’s a little unusual to see, essentially, a change to a settlement, presumably in favour of the iwi, I hope—that’s the kind of assurance I’d like—in a statutes amendment bill.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, the member is quite right that there are two Treaty settlement bills within here that are having amendments. That is, of course, with the approval, in writing, that we have received from iwi who are wanting us to make these changes for them.

In relation to this particular one, the Heretaunga Tamatea Claims Settlement Act 2018, I’ll first start off with “What is a ‘marginal strip’?”, and then explain that to our viewers. A marginal strip is a piece of Crown-owned land generally about 20 metres wide that is reserved along the margins of waterways and are generally retained by the Crown through the Department of Conservation when land is disposed of.

This proposed amendment is to remove the requirement for a marginal strip of a deferred selection property and replace it with a smaller, tailored esplanade reserve vested in Hastings District Council. This is to account for an error when the property was valued and enable a planned housing development to proceed.

Part 17 agreed to.

Part 18 Amendment to Housing Act 1955