Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard
Hon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): Thank you, Madam Speaker. My friend and colleague Ian McKelvie has given a very good analysis of this bill at its third reading. I’ve had an opportunity to speak in the first reading, second reading, during the committee of the whole House, and at the Environment Committee on this bill, so there’s not much more to say. But I think that the point Ian McKelvie raised about legacy legislation that dates back in some cases to the 1800s is an issue that this House will actually have to address at some point, not just for matters relating to Palmerston North but for a whole range of other bespoke pieces of legacy legislation that were passed by our predecessors decades and decades ago and that now are no longer suitable or fit for purpose. Then the only mechanism available to address those matters is redress by amending legislation through this House, and that raises questions about the efficiency of doing so.
But I want to congratulate the member who has been sponsoring this bill, the Palmerston North MP Tangi Utikere. He’s managed the process thoroughly and he’s been successful working with the council and the select committee and the Parliament in a way that his predecessors have not been able to be successful. So kudos to both the Palmerston North City Council and to Tangi Utikere for their stewardship of this piece of legislation.
It’s a common-sense, sensible little piece of legislation. There’s nothing contentious about it. But the only point that I would make in summary is that it does, I think, highlight a larger issue that confronts the House with historic legacy legislation, bespoke pieces of legislation, that apply to councils, district councils, reserves, and racecourses, as Ian McKelvie indicated. There are a lot of those pieces of legislation, and I think that at some point this House maybe needs to consider some kind of streamlined methodology for addressing those issues. We on this side of this House are pleased to support the legislation.
