Auckland Harbour Board and Takapuna Borough Council Empowering Amendment Bill

I move, That the Auckland Harbour Board and Takapuna Borough Council Empowering Amendment Bill be now read a third time.

It is with a deep sense of gratitude that I rise today to speak on the third and final reading of the Auckland Harbour Board and Takapuna Borough Council Empowering Amendment Bill. This is a moment we have all been waiting for. It is a moment that many have worked towards, and I am incredibly pleased that this piece of local legislation is on the cusp of becoming law.

Local bills are a rarity in this House, and it has been a privilege to shepherd this one through on behalf of the North Shore electorate. This bill, though modest in size, carries significant weight for our community. It represents an opportunity for revitalisation, growth, and a new future for a cherished heritage asset, the Takapuna Boating Club’s Bayswater clubhouse. For far too long, this once proud building has stood in a state of disrepair, a silent testament to the outdated legislation. The 1923 Act, while well intentioned for its time, was imposing restrictions that rendered that site financially unviable. This is a place where public swimming baths were a stipulated use—a poignant reminder of a bygone era, long before the polio epidemic of the 1950s made such facilities obsolete.

The peppercorn rental clause, designed to ensure public access, inadvertently stifled any real ability to maintain that building, let alone generate the revenue necessary to maintain its upkeep. My earlier speeches highlighted these historical burdens. Today, I want to re-emphasise that this bill is not just about amending an old law; it’s about potential. It’s about taking a significant step forward towards enabling the Bayswater clubhouse to once again serve its community with purpose and vibrancy. The core of this bill is its ability to loosen these restrictive conditions and allow for commercial uses while ensuring the principal use of the land remains for community purposes.

The Governance and Administration Committee—and I acknowledge members in the House today—spent considerable time clarifying the definition of community purpose. Their insights and amendments have strengthened this bill, making the original intent even more transparent regarding the use of any revenue generated. The bill strikes a crucial balance. It is not so onerous that the site cannot be used, yet it is strict enough to ensure that the community can be confident that it will always serve the public good. It is important that while we preserve the community purpose, we don’t pass a law that ends up being too restrictive in the future, meaning that another North Shore MP in a hundred years from now will have to come back and lament the old laws that we’re doing right now.

These strengthening clauses provide robust parameters that will safeguard the historical and communal spirit of the site. Ultimately, what occurs at the site will be up to the boating club and our community. I can’t wait to see what that looks like. The current wording allows for flexibility and multiple arrangements, ensuring that Auckland Council, or a body or person acting through or under it, can grant leases that best serve the multifaceted needs of the site while also ensuring that it is fit for purpose, whether that’s one commercial venture or several complementary ones on site.

My caucus has come to refer to this bill as the “Takapuna Ice Cream Bill”, and the club would be a great spot to take the family, on an afternoon, for an ice cream or maybe a coffee. The intent here is to enable, not to restrict further.

During its journey through the House, it has become clear that the story of the Bayswater clubhouse is not unique. Many members in this House have noted that across New Zealand many communities grapple with similar restrictive legislation that leaves local treasures unused and in disrepair. This bill, I believe, provides a pathway to hope. It demonstrates that through a local-bill process with dedicated effort and broad bipartisan support, we can indeed return these assets to their full potential for community good.

I’m pleased that consideration was given at select committee towards a broader framework that could be used in the future, not just for this site but for others as well. In the end, for the Bayswater clubhouse, this bill was the best avenue, but I think a wider look at places like these would still be valuable. I have already heard discussions about this bill sparking conversations in other electorates, and I sincerely hope it sets a precedent.

The Bayswater clubhouse can become an example of what can be achieved when a community works together. The boating club, the council, local press, and parliamentarians have all played their part. As part of the process that this bill underwent to get to this House, an extensive consultation by Auckland Council and the Takapuna Boating Club took place to ensure that all parties were well prepared for the new chapter for the clubhouse. This bill’s success is testament to the power of collaboration and dedication. I want to extend my deepest thanks to all of those who have made this possible: the Takapuna Boating Club, patron Penny Roberts, commodore Wendy Baker, former club president Barry Ward, and the late Ralph Roberts and Ray Welson for their unwavering advocacy.

The boating club is a fixture on the North Shore and an important part of our community. I have no doubt that that will continue. I thank all of the members in this House and the supporters in my community for their work on this bill and for their contribution to the North Shore. I’d also like to thank Caroline Williams from Stuff, whose early reporting brought this issue to wider attention, and other journalists on the North Shore who have kept the pressure up on an issue that could have been easy to put in the too-hard basket.

As mentioned before, Auckland Council and the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board and the members within that—both councillors and board members—have played an important part in the formation of this bill. I want to thank them and their hard-working teams, particularly the legal team at Auckland Council for drafting and managing this bill. Their unanimous support was crucial.

Finally, and most importantly, I want to thank my community of the North Shore. Your feedback, your passion for our shared heritage, and your desire to see the Bayswater clubhouse thrive have been a driving force behind this bill.

What happens next for the Bayswater clubhouse? Well, that’ll be up to the boating club and our community. Perhaps it will be a bustling cafe, a vibrant function centre, or even—Cameron Brewer—a very popular ice cream parlour. The possibilities are now and, for the first time in many years, those options are truly open.

I’m immensely proud to have brought this bill to the House today. I commend it to all members, and I hope that you all will lend it your support in its third and final reading.

The question is that the motion be agreed to.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s a pleasure to rise in support of this local bill. Firstly, I want to congratulate the Hon Simon Watts for being the MP sponsor for what is this very important bill. It seems very small, but it’s actually very significant and important to the North Shore community more broadly, which is one of the most beautiful places in Auckland, along with West Auckland, of course.

I think that if you spend some time on the North Shore, and I was there with my kids over the weekend—[Tsunami alert noise]

DEPUTY SPEAKER: Ah, it’s a tsunami watch. Is it on somebody’s phone, or—

Hon Member: It’s on everyone’s.

DEPUTY SPEAKER: It’s on everyone’s phone—OK. So, instructions from here—do we need to evacuate the House? Do we know—can I have some advice, please? I think we will. We’ll just adjourn for a moment until we’re certain. We’ll suspend until we’re sure—yeah, I’ll suspend the reading. We can wait here until we get some advice and bring it back. OK, so we’ll just suspend until the ringing of the bells, is my advice.

Steve Abel: Point of order, Madam Speaker.

DEPUTY SPEAKER: The House is suspended, but if you wanted to make a statement to the members, that’s—

Steve Abel: Well, it’s just that the warning itself advises that if you are on shore, you do not need to evacuate, but stay away from the water. That’s what the warning says.

DEPUTY SPEAKER: OK, we don’t need to suspend. The House is resumed, and sorry for interrupting the member. I’m quite happy for you to start again on any part that interrupted your flow. We’ll start your 10 minutes again.

VANUSHI WALTERS: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I will be brief as we will be supporting the bill on this side of the House. I just wanted to communicate how important it is to the community on the ground. While it might seem small to us, these local bills—and while they’re few and far between, and we only ever see about two to four every term, they are hugely, hugely significant on the ground.

For the Takapuna Boating Club Inc., it will mean a lot. It will mean that rather than depending purely on their members’ fees to do the work they desperately need to do in terms of re-roofing the building as well as re-piling the building, they will now be able to look to commercial means to be able to do that important work.

I was going to say as well that while I have been to their Takapuna premises, which is just a wonderful space to be with family and friends, I haven’t yet been to the Bayswater property. There are some very interesting visual comparisons of what they show the property to look like now versus what they believe it could look like in the future, so I will definitely take the opportunity to go down and visit now so that I can see what investment has been made on the property going into the future. I commend this bill to the House.

Yes, likewise, we will be supporting this bill, as we have through all of its readings, and, likewise, I commend the member Simon Watts for bringing the bill to the House and his success in about to be having passed this bill through all stages.

I commented on it earlier, but for those listening who are not aware of the history, it’s a pretty cool history of this building, because it was originally a tannery on the shore of the Tāmaki River in Panmure—which the Taranaki Boat Club members pulled apart and sailed it around the Auckland bays and across the harbour to where it currently stands. They put it back together in Bayswater.

It’s awesome that this building is getting another lease of life so that it may continue to be of value to the community in Takapuna. I just want to acknowledge, also, that the intent of the policy should be that the broad community purposes to which the club is put can assist in raising—it can take on commercial actions which assist in funding the club’s restoration and support broad community purposes, such as those named in the background document of the legislation. They might include water sports and recreational activities, such as yoga and mah-jong. I’m keen to play a game of mah-jong, and I didn’t know that anyone knew what that game was until I read that word again from my childhood. So I’ll be over at the Takapuna Bayswater boat club—with the blessing of the members, obviously—to play a game of mah-jong when the restoration is complete.

We commend this bill to the House. Well done to the member and well done to the people of Takapuna.

The ACT Party is proud to support this bill, and I want to commend the member the Hon Simon Watts for bringing the Auckland Harbour Board and Takapuna Borough Council Empowering Act Amendment Bill to the House.

If you think about community facilities like this one: a boating club, a yacht club, which has been lovingly tendered over decades and decades by its members, but, unfortunately, because of the strict limitations on how they might use the premises—say, to run a sausage sizzle, a cake stall, hold a card night, even a mah-jong night—they haven’t been able to raise the revenue needed to maintain the facilities.

I would suggest to the member Mr Steve Abel, who spoke before, that on top of mah-jong, there might even be a venue where he might be able to play some of his famous songs that he composed when he was a famous New Zealand folk singer. A venue like the Takapuna Boating Club might be somewhere—we don’t have any venues like this in West Auckland, by the way—

Steve Abel: There’ll be no commercial value in that, I can tell you.

SIMON COURT: We don’t have commercial venues where we can have a beer and listen to a folk song in West Auckland, because we have a liquor licensing monopoly that won’t allow us to have one. But, Mr Steve Abel, maybe this boating club will allow you to sing one of your famous songs. The proceeds from the sale of tickets to such an event would help contribute to the upkeep and maintenance of the facilities. So on that basis, and thinking about how important the time of this House is and how much legislation we have to get through, I commend this bill to the House.

One never knows where their endorsements might come from.

Look, it’s quite interesting to see that people are now starting to take shorter speeches on this. But, look, I want to rise on behalf of—[Interruption]. Oh, that wasn’t the instruction I got at all, so I’ve prepared a 25-minute speech!

Look, I’m delighted to rise on behalf of New Zealand First, and also as a member of the Governance and Administration Committee, which considered this bill. It’s always great to see a bill get to the stage of the final reading and to have unanimous support across the House—that’s brilliant.

I want to start with a few congratulations: first of all, obviously, to the Takapuna Boating Club for their vision, for their initiative, and for the hard work they’ve done already, and no doubt for the hard work that is still to come, because they’ve actually physically got to get in and get this building restored and rejuvenated. I want to congratulate the Hon Simon Watts, the member for North Shore, for the bill that he’s sponsored before us, and I want to also thank, as we went through the select committee process, the officials that we had but also the Auckland Council, who were very, very helpful as advisers on the bill.

It’s a simple bill, it’s a common-sense bill, and it’s a local bill. Now, first of all, this bill is a very specific bill. We all know that it’s focused on one building: the historic 17 Sir Peter Blake Parade, Bayswater—what a name for an address. This grand old dame has graced the waterfront of Bayswater since 1923, and, especially as we’ve got through this process, I’ve been looking out as I’ve driven across the Harbour Bridge to go, “Oh, it’s over there”—I’m looking out safely, I might say—“I can see it and I can see how significant a building it is.” At the moment, though, the 1923 legislation prevents commercial activities occurring in this building. This, essentially, makes it, as Simon Court said, uneconomic to refurbish and maintain the building.

I want to cover three themes in my speech. The first one is the reason for the bill. Look, we all know that owning and maintaining buildings is quite expensive. This is an old building, it’s a big building, it’s a heritage listed building, and it’s a waterfront building, and all of those things combined make it quite a challenge maintaining a building like this. The Takapuna Boating Club, as you go back in time, was once a social hub for the area. We’ve heard about hosting dances, social and sporting events, even weddings, and now it seems like mah-jong’s on the table as well, which is a great, very good game. But the Takapuna Boating Club now also has another premises and the Bayswater clubrooms are now somewhat rundown. What the select committee heard is that the building is structurally sound but it definitely needs significant work. The club, which is really, really great, wants to restore this grand old dame.

The Takapuna Boating Club has a problem, which it has in common with many community and sports clubs right around the country, and that is the difficulty and the challenge of maintaining clubrooms and other assets with an often limited financial base and limited volunteer base and a reliance on member’s contributions. Actually, I might make a little aside there that I’ve just been approached by a lot of the sporting organisations who are very concerned about another piece of legislation—the offshore casino legislation—because they’re worried that they may lose access to funds which are vital to look after these kinds of clubrooms. So I put that there because that is really, really important to those organisations.

This building needs some TLC, and that takes money. I know from personal experience it’s expensive to look after club buildings, even much younger ones. For many years, I was both the club chairman and a club patron of organisations which had to look after buildings, and what we did on both of those occasions was to have a commercial cafe come into those premises to work alongside the club, both to operate, to maintain, to bring life to those buildings, and to help fund the maintenance of those respective buildings.

The purpose of this bill is to allow commercial use—very likely hospitality, but there could be other things—on a fantastic waterfront location, looking out to the Harbour Bridge across the Waitematā Harbour. That commercial use must be ancillary to the primary use of sailing and aquatic purposes. That commercial use will allow the earning of revenue, in the first instance, to maintain the building properly, which the building so clearly needs. That commercial use, I believe, will also return life and vibrancy to this part of the Bayswater waterfront, and that’s a great thing for any community. The 1923 legislation which we’re amending prohibited that.

One of the questions that we considered during the Governance and Administration Committee process was where the money from any commercial activity will go. I think the Minister has already said—or the member, in this instance—that it’s about what a community purpose is. The first thing it needs to go to is the building—because if you don’t do that, if you don’t look after the building then, obviously, you’re not going to keep on having the revenue to go anywhere else—to repairing the building, to maintaining the building, and, I hope, to keeping it going for another 100 years and more.

Secondly, the flexibility is there and the boating club specifically wanted to make sure this was the case for the wider needs of the boating club, which doesn’t just operate from this site but also most of its operation is on the other side of the Takapuna isthmus. So it needs to go to the wider needs of the boating club and the great work that it does in the North Shore community.

Finally, there was quite a bit of discussion about what community purposes were, because if the boating club were ever to fold, the beneficial owner would be the Auckland Council. Of course, community purposes from a council’s perspective are very, very broad. Then, effectively, the only protection for the building is that you need to have the building in a good state to be able to have revenue derived from it. Community purposes are very, very broad and we had some discussion about whether they should be narrower or not. So for me it is about the building, the boating, and then the broader use in that order when the first two needs are fully met.

The second theme—and I said I had three themes—is that this bill also, in giving new life to this heritage building, in my view, supports our sailing heritage. New Zealand has a long and very proud sailing heritage. That goes from Kupe chasing the wheke, the seven waka of the great migration all the way back there, to the early European explorers, Tasman and Cook, and I’m just going to put in a little aside there. James Cook gets a lot of vitriol for all sorts of things that apparently he visited on this country, but a boy from humble roots in Whitby became, through hard work and talent, a leader and one of the great navigators, great explorers, great cartographers—the first one to map these islands really pretty well, and also for the time, I think, a very enlightened person in terms of his approach to his crew, their health, and also to the Māori he encountered. So I thought it was worth putting those on record, because often a lot of vitriol is directed at him and he is part of our sailing history.

But what about the modern-day great sailors, mostly in sailing competitions? We could pick a hundred names. Whether it’s Barker, Burling, Butterworth, Coutts and the Kendalls, Dalton and Dickson, Schnackenberg and Tuke, they will have all learnt their trade at a club like Takapuna. Indeed, several very big names did. The Takapuna Boating Club sits, as I said, at a place graced with the address of 17 Sir Peter Blake Parade. Sir Peter was a member of the Takapuna Boating Club himself, an adventurer—

Steve Abel: And a greenie.

ANDY FOSTER: —he might have been a greenie—an explorer, and a Whitbread winner, but he might not have espoused your particular Green values. If you lost a bit of the red stuff, you might be better off. He was an America’s Cup winner, of course. Olympians Ralph Roberts, Geoff Smale, Tom Ashley, Helmer Pedersen, Peter Lester—who was also, of course, a great and famous commentator. So what I’m saying is that the Takapuna Boating Club over the years has contributed enormously to our sailing heritage.

All around the New Zealand coast in places like Bayswater and off the Takapuna beaches, we see regattas of small sailing boats where the next generations of sailors are learning their craft. Aren’t we so fortunate to call such a beautiful country with so much opportunity our home? The Takapuna Boating Club stands proudly on its and our sailing history.

Then my third theme is the fascinating history of the building itself. New Zealand First is a very, very strong supporter of heritage, because heritage tells our stories. This building has a really interesting history. It started its life in the 1880s, as I think we’ve already heard, as a tannery on the shores across the harbour of the Tāmaki River in Panmure. The Bayswater Boating Club, which was founded in February of 1914 and lasted until 1917, obviously lapsed during the First World War, and then it was succeeded by the Takapuna Boating Club. In the space of three years after their formation, they started with a plan, a passion, and a purpose. Within three years, not only did they manage to get an Act of Parliament to allow them to use this Bayswater site but they managed to acquire this tannery from Panmure, deconstructed it, stuck it on a barge—it took three days, apparently, around the coast—and then re-erected it on the Bayswater foreshore. Within three years they had it open. That is energy and purpose and that is an inspiration to any club.

As I said, it’s a heritage building. In its heyday it was used for dancing, boxing, library, school events, ladies’ mornings, roller-skating, and of course boat storage, and it also had a swimming area in front of it, closed in the 1950s. So it tells a lot of stories. It’s got good bones but it needs a lot of TLC.

Just to finish, this is a good day for the boating club, it’s a good day for Auckland, it’s a good day for this grand old lady, and I want to wish the club and the community well in restoring the building. I hope that this bill opens the door for this building to have a very, very long life in the future. I commend this bill to the House.

The next call is a split call.

Tēnā rā koe e te Pīka, otirā, tēnā rā tātou e te Whare. E tū ana ahau ki te waha i ngā kōrero mō Te Pāti Māori i tēnei rā, waihoki.

[I acknowledge you, Madam Speaker, whilst also acknowledging those of us gathered in this House. I am standing today as a representative of the views of the Māori Party.]

Waihoki, under the usual circumstances, Whaea Takutai would be speaking to this bill, but her voice lives on in the hearts and minds of our people. Haere rā koe e Takutai.

Tāmaki-makau-rau, loved by many, reminds us that there is and always will be a hundred reasons to love Tāmaki-makau-rau, and I just want to thank the Minister, the Hon Simon Watts, who brought this bill to its third reading. Te Pāti Māori supports the bill. I actually just want to also put out there that I grew up in North Shore for 12 years of my life, and my MP was Dan Bidois. I have been across the Harbour Bridge many, many times, going from North Shore into the city, and I think one of the letters that I wrote to Dan Bidois at the time was around the T3 lane. So I’m very, very aware of Auckland and the many great things that it does and represents.

Te Pāti Māori supports this bill. Te Pāti Māori notes the recommendations of the committee on the insertion and renumbering of section 5(2)(b), specifically that all money received from use of the land, buildings, or other improvements for commercial purposes is subject to the restrictions. Te Pāti Māori supports the provisions as a protection against the potential for private gain on ratepayer and/or public assets while enabling certain commercial activities that achieve the purpose of this bill.

We note that the committee received no submissions on the bill from mana whenua o Tāmaki-makau-rau, either individually or collectively, and where mana whenua deemed it appropriate to do so. Te Pāti Māori supported the bill to the first reading and on the basis that we would be able to hear from Auckland Council and how it has gone about identifying alternative options, consultation with local boards, and engagement with the public, iwi, and Māori. We also just had a hui with Te Houkura, which is the Auckland statutory board, just today as well.

The original general policy statement on this bill explained that restrictions in the principal Act prevent the club from securing the commercial income necessary to fund restoration of the boat club building and provide an income necessary for the club to maintain the boat club building into the future. Te Pāti Māori notes that the principal use of the land is intended to remain for the community and will always query the way the land was acquired and mana whenua’s views on the land more broadly.

We look forward to learning more insights about that he whenua makau-rau, which translates into “Auckland has many partners”. Auckland is a diverse city, which I have come to call home in this way. It is always important to work alongside our key partners to ensure that those matters are raised in general policy statements and adequately addressed. Therefore, Te Pāti Māori supports this bill. Tēnā rā tātou.

Tēnā koe, Madam Speaker. I rise on behalf of the Green Party to support this bill. It was very interesting for me to be on the Governance and Administration Committee. It’s the first time I’ve actually met a local bill face to face, as it were, and it was just interesting to see that what was seen as necessary legislation so many years ago comes back to require quite a lot of work—the submissions, the time for a busy Minister, the time for the select committee, the processing of all of those submissions in a very busy Parliamentary Service—but it was the right thing to do. This is, potentially, a real jewel in the crown, as long as the money can be found to look after the building and to continue the purposes of the Takapuna Boating Club.

Also, after a busy sail or an energetic kayak or perhaps a paddleboard—of course, with life jackets, as my colleague over the House would encourage us to be wary of—the idea of coming back to a cafe is most appealing, but I would just note that this consideration of local bills requires the local authority to be a promoter. This is one of the very, very many roles of local authorities, and these sorts of legislative imposts are something that sometimes get forgotten in the jobs that people do.

Looking back through the history of this: once upon a time, there was the Auckland Harbour Board; once upon a time, there was the Takapuna Borough Council. So things change, the shape of local government changes, but they are still there to serve the community. For members that want to really restrict what local government does and what responsibilities they have and how they go about them, I would just think of what happened so many decades ago in the creation of this excellent place and the definition of the lawful uses of the land.

I think it’s most important to have the introduction that requires all of the money that the commercial use provides back to be used for community purposes, and I’m delighted to see the broad range of what “community purposes” means here. Again, that might be something that in any discussions of the role of local government, we might want to be expansive about in our view of community purposes and leave exactly what those might be to the local community and the consultation that a local authority takes with the local community.

I look forward to actually visiting Takapuna Boating Club at some stage in the near future, because I will be up in Auckland, and then seeing it after the legislation has enabled the commercial usage of part of it, which will be completely complementary. This is a very nice partnership between a voluntary organisation and some potential commercial usage which will be enjoyed not only by the boaties but, I’m sure, by the local residents of Takapuna. We support this bill.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s a pleasure to rise in support of this bill, the Auckland Harbour Board and Takapuna Borough Council Empowering Act Amendment Bill. I’m so pleased that there is so much support across the House for this bill. It’s a member’s bill, it’s a local bill, brought to us by the Hon Simon Watts, MP for North Shore—great MP for North Shore. He was a bit cheeky in his speech about, you know, perhaps in 100 years the local member for North Shore might have to come back and potentially amend this because times would have changed.

I just want to say that this bill actually amends the Auckland Harbour Board and Takapuna Borough Council Empowering Act of 1923. I guess, going back to 1923, this was something that gave power to the local community and the local board to make arrangements for this facility. But times have changed, and currently the Act actually states that the land donated to the Takapuna Boating Club is only be used for the purposes of “boat sheds, public swimming baths, a social hall, or any similar community purpose”, so they really cannot make money out of it; commercial use, to create money.

I don’t know about other members, but I’ve lived in a house that was 120 years old. It was an old kauri villa. It was cold, and the maintenance of that house cost a lot of money, because every couple of years you need to make sure that all of the boards are safe, there’s no bugs eating into the wood, and you had to paint it. All of that actually cost a lot of money. But for this old girl in this borough, the Takapuna borough: it’s a big building, it’s an old building, it’s an historical building, and without maintenance—it actually needs commercial activity to raise the funds if the council wasn’t able to actually pay huge amounts of money to do the upkeep. I think this is only right that after more than 100 years, this local bill has actually come to Parliament to make changes, to provide the ability to allow commercial use so that this law is not so restrictive, so that they can actually earn the money to maintain this building and provide for more community usage.

It’s a small bill. I know many members have said that it’s a small bill, but it was a pleasure to actually have that discussion, not only with officials but also with Auckland Council, who were advising us as well, and it was lovely to have this conversation. In New Zealand, if I tell my friends who actually come from overseas that I used to live in 120-year-old house, they actually baulk at the idea, “How do you live in a house that’s 120 years old?”, considering the fact that old buildings in some Asian countries go back more than 100 years. But to live in a house that was 120 years old—it almost made news that I lived in a 120-year-old house.

The change that this amendment bill actually gives to the Bayswater clubhouse of the Takapuna Boating Club is the power to actually do maintenance, because currently it’s in disrepair and there isn’t a lot of activity happening, and potentially, this allows commercial activity to actually happen in that space or around it for the purposes of the community benefit. There were some discussions about community benefit, because when you say “community”, does it specify Auckland community, or does it specifically mention the community in and around the Bayswater Marina? That was something that I was a bit concerned about during the select committee process. What it means is that the money that is actually raised could potentially be used for the upkeep, maintenance, and other activities that the community can actually partake in. I think it’s a great thing that this bill allows for the local community to get together.

I know that the Minister, the local member, had actually said that the core of this bill is the ability to loosen these restrictive conditions for the purposes of his community. But the other thing that I like is that there are community spaces that don’t attract people to come to—they call it a community space, but often the activities that they do are actually quite restrictive. I know the Hon Simon Watts talked about how it, potentially, could be an ice cream place, it could be a cafe—it actually draws people to those spaces. That actually means that that space will be used more often, and that means that that boating club could potentially also have new members and potentially grow with the new generation of people who actually use that space.

It was a real pleasure, and I found it quite interesting that there was some media coverage—I will quote something that was written by Jonathan Killick back in 2024: “A quirk of archaic legislation means MPs will decide whether to increase the supply of caffeine on Auckland’s North Shore. The Takapuna Boating Club has long held ambitions to rent out part of its clubrooms at the end of the peninsula in Bayswater to a cafe.” “However, a law from the 1920s specifically states that the land and building may only be used for the purpose of swimming, boating and ‘any similar community purpose’.” I say, we are amending that to make sure that there’s more variety of community activity happening because of the changes that we have made. This is a great bill. I commend it to the House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s always a pleasure to take a call on the Auckland Harbour Board and Takapuna Borough Council Empowering Act Amendment Bill. This is, I think, the third call I’ve been able to take on this bill at this third reading, and I won’t go through all of the history of this bill. I’ve made substantive contributions in previous readings, but just to say that this is a good bill. It’s an unusual situation where Parliament essentially uses its time to deal with, essentially, one building. But in this case, the Governance and Administration Committee has gone through the options in relation to that and this is the best option, moving forward. So I think we just have to celebrate that the House is coming together on this particular issue.

I know that Councillor Richard Hills and Councillor Chris Darby, who are the Auckland councillors in this part of the world and the North Shore, really appreciate the work that’s been done on this bill by the Minister and also by the Parliament. I think it is their hope, and also our hope on this side of the House, that the actions that we take today not only allow new life to be breathed into the Bayswater site of the Takapuna Boating Club but also allow for the building to be maintained and protected and to be able to earn some revenue.

I do have to say that since I first took a call on this bill, my husband has subsequently joined the Takapuna Boating Club, so I feel I have to be honest with the House that I do have a slight conflict of interest here. Let me just tell you, sailing is a very interesting hobby to have one’s partner involved with. It has the unusual effect that sometimes when it’s raining and windy—most people would be disappointed with that—sometimes others can feel happy at that sight because of how long the sailing does take.

But no, in all seriousness, he has enjoyed it. It is a very good local club, and I know that they run their Takapuna operation very professionally and make sure that that particular site is very, very successful, as far as I can tell, and it seems to be well utilised by the community. So we can only hope that the same thing happens for Bayswater. So congratulations to the Minister and to the council for bringing this local bill to the House, and I commend it to the House.

It’s with great pleasure that I speak on this third reading of the Auckland Harbour Board and Takapuna Borough Council and Empowering Amendment Bill. This has come together thanks to the Governance and Administration Committee and its conscientious members. It’s come together thanks to the MP for North Shore, the Hon Simon Watts, sometimes known as “Megawatts”, and, looking at his name tag, he’s now called “Gigawatts.” The Hon Simon Watts continues to do some good work in many areas, and this is just another example of how he’s keeping his feet firmly on the ground locally.

I suspect that there will be crowds gathered in different church halls and cafes around the parish of the North Shore, watching this live stream—hopefully, on high ground—as we get to this momentous third reading. I want to also pay tribute to Auckland Council, to the officials who effectively drafted this piece of legislation. I remember that when I was on the Governance and Administration Committee, we had a number of Zooms with them, and they have been integral to this progressing.

It comes, as other members have said, with a lot of history and a lot of heritage. If I take you back to 1923—and we’ve got some members on the back row opposite there that will recall this as well—New Zealand had a population of 1.4 million, and Auckland had, I think, a population of about 190,000. As has been articulated, the timber was barged from the Tāmaki River in Panmure and taken to Bayswater, where it was assembled as the Bayswater clubhouse. The Takapuna Boating Club, a hundred years later, can be very proud—its officials, its leaders, its volunteers, its members—that this is now going to get a second wind, with the Act enabling some sensible commercialisation while the rest of the building remains in public use in perpetuity.

There’s no better site than sitting above the Waitematā Harbour, and there’s actually few locations, in a commercial sense, that you can do that. If you look at the investment that the Royal Akarana Yacht Club have put along Tāmaki Drive, that is a great facility that’s being well used. If you go further up the harbour to a very modest place called Hobsonville Point, Catalina Bay, you will see coming out of the ground or coming out of the ocean or coming out of the foreshore, at least, the Upper Waitematā Marine Centre at Hobsonville Point, Catalina Bay. That, too, will be opened in early 2026.

So, as has been articulated, this could be a cafe, this could be a function centre—part of it—

Dan Bidois: Ice cream parlour.

CAMERON BREWER: This could be an ice cream parlour, and this could have some on-licence capability. Of course, it will need to go through a rigorous local board process and district-licensing process for that, but wouldn’t it be a fantastic place to have a Heineken Zero or something else?

For those that don’t know the location, it’s when you go over the Auckland Harbour Bridge and you’ve got the parish of Northcote on the left and North Shore on the right there. You look on the right over to the Bayswater Marina and you see that old timber building, three storeys high. It’s got a new roof and it’s had a lot of work on its foundations, but it is now up for a multimillion-dollar redevelopment thanks to the leverage that a commercial tenant’s lease will provide. That is enabling this much loved building to be redeveloped for another hundred years and for people from all around Auckland and New Zealand to enjoy it—even, dare I say, some of us that live in the old West Auckland, we might be given the passport to cross the bridge [Interruption] for Greenhithe, or over the Harbour Bridge, and get the visa and go there and enjoy these fabulous, fabulous facilities.

While you’re looking on the right and you see this clubhouse, you will also see a barge in the harbour. That is not a barge looking to build a $56 billion harbour crossing that was proposed by the previous Government, that is a barge that is doing geotechnical testing for a potential harbour crossing or a potential replacement of the bridge. That sits in the harbour, and so that is something that is also part of the Waitematā Harbour at the moment.

This is a very exciting development. It’s in an iconic part of Auckland. Someone mentioned Sir Peter Blake Parade. It’s known as Sir Peter Blake Parade because that’s where Sir Peter Blake grew up—in Bayswater, with Tony and his other family members, his mum and dad. That’s where he learnt to sail. Of course, he came home with the America’s Cup from San Diego in 1995, to a ticker-tape parade—I don’t know if a ticker-tape parade’s environmentally friendly these days—down Queen Street. I suspect, when this third reading is finished, that the Hon Simon Watts will be going down Lake Road at the weekend to a similar ticker-tape parade for this third reading.

I would argue that Bayswater has a big part to play in the America’s Cup, which we have won as a country five times—the last time back-to-back-to-back—and again we will defend that title and hold that cup up high in Naples in Italy in 2027. The Bayswater area, the Sir Peter Blake Parade, is a very, very iconic part of Auckland.

This place has hosted a number of things over the years. I know friends of mine, Stephen and Jan Franklin—Jan used to go to dances there in the late 1950s, so it’s had multiple uses. This particular piece of legislation will enable its use for the public and for its members in perpetuity while enabling it—where it has been prohibited—some commercial element. As I’ve said, what could that be? People will be listening to this third reading, and, I suspect, having a bid: who wants to set up a business there? Whether it be ice creams, whether it be a cafe, whether it be a licensed restaurant, whether it be a function centre, there’s no better location than the Bayswater clubhouse. The Takapuna Boating Club can be very proud of the work that they’ve done and the advocacy that they’ve led. As has been articulated, the North Shore Times and reporters out of there have been critical to advocating for this as the local member Simon Watts has shepherded this through Parliament, and we now get to the third reading.

As I said, there will be a lot of celebration locally. I just note, in the North Shore Times, the regret of the changing shape of the media and the changing loss of community newspapers, to a certain extent. But we still have the Channel Magazine in Takapuna, we still have the Devonport Flagstaff. There are still localised publications that, we can only hope, local businesses and local people continue to support. I suspect that at the opening of this facility, the local media will be there in numbers, as will the public, because this 1923 facility, this heritage building that was assembled by the community and by the Takapuna Boating Club, is about to be returned to its former glory thanks to this legislative tweak which will enable some commercial activity. It will mean that the Takapuna Boating Club’s Bayswater clubhouse will not fall into a derelict state. It will sail through—do you like that?—the 21st century, serving many more people and many more Aucklanders and New Zealanders. I commend the bill.

This is a split call.

Well, the member Cameron Brewer did well to remain on his feet for nine minutes and 48 seconds, but it came at a terrible human cost. Those of us in the House this afternoon—we’re the living evidence of that.

Madam Speaker, I’m guessing that you’ve never had the pleasure of strolling around the Bayswater Marina in the late summer afternoon. It’s one of the finer things to do in the city of sails. It’s a wonderful floating boardwalk, in a horseshoe shape, that juts out into the Waitematā Harbour, and when the late afternoon sun is catching the Auckland skyline, it is quite a scene. As you walk back along the boardwalk of the Bayswater Marina, back to the shoreline, the site of the Bayswater clubhouse is very imposing. It is a pretty remarkable structure. As long as I can remember, it’s looked like it’s about to fall into the sea. To say that it’s ramshackle is an understatement, and it would be a very brave person to dance down the deck that sits out on the veranda in front of this building. So it’s undoubtedly a good thing that this bill will enable the financing of a renovation project to make this Bayswater clubhouse usable by the public, by allowing commercial usage in the building.

I want to note with some regret the reported comments of the owners of the Bayswater clubhouse, ruling out the rehabilitation of the saltwater pool. This is very disappointing. Auckland needs more saltwater pools, and we only need to look as far as the fine example of Sydney where there are so many fantastic saltwater pools along the eastern bays in Sydney.

Simon Court: Te Atatū Peninsula, Phil.

Hon PHIL TWYFORD: The member’s quite correct, actually—Te Atatū Peninsula would be immeasurably enhanced with the addition of a saltwater pool. I’m willing to work with the member on a cross-party basis to progress that particular project. Labour is supporting this bill, and I commend it to the House.

I rise in support of the Auckland Harbour Board and Takapuna Borough Council Empowering Amendment Bill, and I want to acknowledge, first, the local MP, the hard-working local MP, the Hon Simon Watts, for bringing this important local legislation to the House.

Although it’s a local bill—someone mentioned it’s a small bill—I think it raises a broader question relevant to communities across New Zealand: how we protect our heritage, maintain public assets, and empower locals to care for places that matter. It also reminds us that law must keep pace with reality.

Like my colleagues say, the issues go back to 1923, when the land was gifted in Bayswater, home to the Takapuna Boating Club, to the council with strict conditions: It could be used for boating sheds, public swimming baths, social halls, or similar purposes, but not used for private gain. Well, that made sense at that time, ensuring the land stayed in public hands and served the community purpose. But today, that restriction is doing the opposite. The clubhouse is now in disrepair: the roof leaks, the foundation needs work, and upgrades are essential for safety and usability. Restoration costs are well beyond what community fund-raising can achieve.

Here, I want to acknowledge all the community members who have been doing a lot of fund-raising to help to restore this premises, with all their sausage sizzling, you know, fund-raising—they’re doing very well, and I acknowledge their hard work. Yet because of the outdated restriction, the club cannot lease even a small portion of the space to generate income. No cafe, no venue hire, no co-working space—

Hon Member: No ice cream.

Dr CARLOS CHEUNG: —no wedding venue, or, like my colleague here mentioned, no ice cream shops. In short, they are legally prohibited from creating the revenue needed to save the building.

This bill fixes it. It updates the law to allow part of the property to be leased for commercial purpose, but only if those activities are aligned with the community character of the site, and only if all the profits are reinvested into the facility and the community. Let me be clear: no private profit, no sales of the land; just the ability to keep a valued community asset here.

This is about more than just one building; it’s about recognising that local people should not be penalised for wanting to preserve their own heritage. It is more than that. It also can be a potential model for other communities. Across New Zealand, we’ve got groups who are working to sustain local community halls, clubrooms, and marae, but they are often restricted by outdated legal frameworks. They want to preserve the building, they want to preserve the heritage, but they can’t do so. This bill shows that we can honour the past while making practical reform that ensures this place has a future.

I support this bill because it protects community assets, because it respects the original intent of the land gifted. It also allows practical, modern solutions, and it keeps decision making local and accountable.

I think, before I finish my speech, I would like to congratulate everyone in the North Shore for achieving such a milestone to restore their historical building. Also, I feel the same as all the Auckland-based MPs as well: we are looking forward to having a meeting with our local MP there, Simon Watts, to have a cup of coffee, some ice cream—and the most important thing is there’s no surcharge when using payWave. So let’s pass this bill and give Takapuna Boating Club the means to continue serving its community for generations to come. I commend this bill to the House.

Madam Speaker, thank you. It’s a privilege to take a third call on this bill and to see it come through the House to become law. It has made a lot of sense with all, I think. I just want to draw and extrapolate a little bit the lessons from it, which is that to allow an ancillary purpose, which is a commercial use, to support something that is of social good, is something that I think we all see a future in.

I just want to draw the attention of the House to the issue over charities that came up recently, where there was a lot of suggestion that we would change the rules with regard to charities and when they were taxed, when they had a purpose that was supporting their charity. So if they were running some form of business and the money was going back to charitable purpose, at the present time they don’t pay tax, and this Government is considering the idea that they will. I’d like to contrast it with this bill. Here we’ve seen the commercial purpose support the social interest, and the community is better for it. We end up with a building that’s protected, a community asset, and all the money is poured back into something that’s of a social good. That is as true for our charities, where if we support them through businesses, then, actually, as long as the money is going into a charitable purpose, we are absolutely all better off.

I’d just like the House to consider that. I’m thrilled to see this building has a future. I’m thrilled to see the flexibility of the House. I’m also thrilled to see a report that talks about a wider application of this kind of purpose. So thank you very much. I commend the bill to the House.

Madam Speaker, can I just start by acknowledging your elevation to the Speaker role for today. Hey, it’s a pleasure to be the last speaker rounding off this debate today in what is, I think, a small but important piece of legislation. I wish to start by acknowledging that club sports are really the heart and soul of our communities. I witnessed this clearly this year at the Takapuna Boating Club, on Waitangi Day of all days, where I was given an invitation to meet people on Takapuna Beach for a waka ama rowing lesson. It was organised by the Takapuna Boating Club in conjunction with the waka ama club which is housed within the Takapuna Boating Club. I showed up dressed inappropriately, not really for waka ama, but had a great experience and got to know people from around our communities on the North Shore who had varying degrees of interest in boating, waka ama, Waitangi Day. It was just great to see this event organised, so I do want to acknowledge the Takapuna Boating Club and the work they do, plus all other boating and sporting clubs around our communities in Auckland to keep our communities humming.

In the words of a great North Shore resident, Martin Cooper, the North Shore is a great place to live. This is just a bit of a plug for the North Shore, but, clearly, it’s a great place to do outdoor sports and sports like boating and sailing and lots of sports on the water. My colleagues here have talked about the greats that have been born and raised on the North Shore and have used the boating facilities to reach their potential.

That is why we’re here today, to talk about the Takapuna Boating Club and the Bayswater building that is going to be set down for restoration. That’s the purpose, why we’re here, to enable this derelict building, which you can see from the great electorate of Northcote when you’re going down Onewa Road and on to the motorway—you can see it in the distance that it has had its life. Since 1923, it’s had a fantastic life and, no doubt, there’s been some amazing stories and some great relationships that have been formed through that club. But it is in desperate need of repair, and that is why we’re here, to make sure that that club and that Bayswater building can be restored, and that there’s going to be a range of services that can be provided to our community.

That is, essentially, what this bill, the Auckland Harbour Board and Takapuna Borough Council Empowering Amendment Bill—it is a mouthful—is all about. Our Minister, who is the local MP for the area, Simon Watts, who’s the Minister sponsoring—otherwise known as the Minister for “Ice Cream”—has talked about the advantages of this bill and the significance of the facility for the community and what it will mean in the future.

In terms of next steps, it’s really quite exciting. As we’ve discussed here today, there’s going to be a range of options for this facility, whether it is an ice cream parlour or a cafe or a dance facility or any such facility as that. It’ll be enabling them to get on with this important piece of work to restore this building so that it can continue to thrive for people in our community.

I think a lot of us here across the House look forward to receiving an invite from Simon Watts—maybe we can have a public meeting; I don’t know on what topic. He’s also Minister for Energy, Minister of Local Government, and the Minister of Climate Change.

Rima Nakhle: Getting local government back to basics.

DAN BIDOIS: We can get back to basics.

Cameron Brewer: Second harbour crossing.

DAN BIDOIS: Second harbour crossing—we can have a public meeting.

Rima Nakhle: And then councils to focus on rubbish collection.

DAN BIDOIS: Yep, and I’m sure they’ll charge for the public meeting, but that’s fine. That’s what this bill enables them to do, to charge so that they can recoup the cost and use it for specific purposes in the building and as part of the facility.

So, look, it is a great bill. I do wish to just pass a few thanks today. Firstly, to the Minister Simon Watts: for those of you who don’t know the Minister, he’s not only got a huge amount of responsibility in his portfolios but he takes an active interest in his community. So even though he’s trying to improve competition in energy, get councils back to basics, and make sure we become net zero by 2050, he’s also trying to attend to his local issues, whether it is the boating club issue or—what we’ve been working with as local MPs is in particular around the flood resilience, because his community was impacted by the floods of 2023, and I’ve been impressed by how much he’s been involved in that given his other ministerial commitments. So thank you to the Minister for sponsoring this bill and for his work.

Thank you to the good people on the Governance and Administration Committee for shepherding this bill through the House. I know the submissions—

Rima Nakhle: Almost as good as the Justice Committee.

DAN BIDOIS: Yes, almost as good as the Justice Committee, Rima Nakhle’s told me. I know these submissions may have been as contentious as the Justice Committee submissions, but they got through it and they got through it very diligently.

It’s very easy to bash council, but actually council’s done the leg work to understand what’s required to change this piece of legislation and has really come to the Government and said, “Here’s what we need to do.” So I wish to acknowledge Auckland Council, the officials, and also a special shout-out to Caroline Williams from Stuff.

I do at this point and juncture in my speech wish to acknowledge that the North Shore Times is ending later on this month after, I think, about 97 years in publication, one of the oldest and most respected publications to our community in Auckland. Unfortunately, times have changed; we’re all getting our news and information digitally. So I wish the people at North Shore Times well and just wish to acknowledge Caroline Williams, because she has really led the charge and is somebody who I think takes an active interest in making sure that local issues are publicised and aired. So I do wish to acknowledge Caroline specifically.

This is, I think, my third speech on this bill, so I won’t take too much more of the House’s time, but I do just want to again acknowledge the process, acknowledge the future, which looks very, very bright for the Takapuna Boating Club. It is in their hands now. We’ve changed the legislation that will give them the authority and the autonomy to get on with it, but it’s up to them. I’m certainly one of those in the House that believes in minimal government and empowering communities to just get on with it. So I wish to acknowledge everybody from the Takapuna Boating Club. Commodore James Jordan: thank you. Commodore James Jordan—outstanding man who is deeply embedded in our community across a range of areas, not just in the boating club but I know he’ll be tuning in with his ice cream at home at the moment watching this on the live stream TV.

I just wish to end my contribution with a quote from a great New Zealander, because I think if you’re looking at great New Zealanders that emulate the qualities of what can be achieved in society, I think Sir Peter Blake fits that bill. I remember, you know, buying my red socks and championing his contribution in sailing but also his contribution off the field. I wish to just end with a quote from him. He said, “You’ll be probably frightened at times, scared, [and] worried. You’ll hate it … and when you get to the finish, you’ll know why: because there’s nothing like it. It gets in the blood and you can’t get rid of it.” With that, I commend this bill to the House.

Motion agreed to.

Bill read a third time.