PESETA SAM LOTU-IIGA (National—Maungakiekie) Link to this
I move, That the Eden Park Trust Amendment Bill be now read a first time. At the appropriate time I will move that the bill be considered by the Government Administration Committee.
This bill is promoted by the Eden Park Trust Board. It introduces changes to the governance arrangements for Eden Park, New Zealand’s largest stadium and one with a rich sporting and social history and an iconic international reputation. Eden Park has been named as the finals venue for the Rugby World Cup in 2011, and it is likely to be included in the venues for New Zealand’s co-hosting of the Cricket World Cup in 2015. But it had more humble beginnings. In 1899 the Kingsland Cricket Club leased a large space, cleared it of rocks, and used the space for friendly games. The Eden District Cricket Club purchased 15 acres in 1903, and the park was formally opened on 9 November 1903.
The land was in constant danger of flooding at that time, and was often completely submerged. Difficulties with the site continued, and in 1910 the Auckland Cricket Association purchased the grounds with funds guaranteed by a number of Auckland gentlemen, who became the registered proprietors of the park and, in essence, the first trustees.
In 1914 the Auckland Rugby Football Union entered into a 21-year lease of the park for every football season, and hence began the joint use of the ground. The inception of the lease allowed the drainage to be improved and the original grandstands to be built, one by Auckland rugby and one by Auckland cricket. The stand built by Auckland cricket remains today, and overlooks the outer oval. In 1924 the trustees, the Auckland Cricket Association, and the Auckland Rugby Football Union entered into an agreement whereby the beneficial interests of the two sporting bodies were recognised by the trustees. A board of control comprising representatives of the three parties was set up to manage the park. In 1955 the Eden Park Trust Act was passed, giving the complex arrangements the force of law, and it provided the basis on which the developments over the past 50 years were instigated.
Over the years the park has been the venue for many notable events far too numerous for me to name today. Some of the highlights have been the New Zealand cricket team’s first-ever test victory in 1957, not to mention its lowest-ever score, against England, 2 years earlier; the 1992 Cricket World Cup opening match and semi-final; the All Blacks’ first Bledisloe Cup match in 1931; and the unforgettable Springbok test of 1956 in front of over 61,000 spectators. For me, the favourite is, of course, the victory in the final of the first Rugby World Cup in 1987. The park has also been the venue for the 1950 British Empire Games, the 1988 Rugby League World Cup final, hockey tests against India and Pakistan, football internationals, and athletics events, including the Auckland school athletics championships from 1939 to 1965. In addition, the park has been used for public events, including royal visits and religious events.
I now come to the Eden Park Trust Amendment Bill, which makes amendments to the Eden Park Trust Act 1955 to implement new governance arrangements for Eden Park. In order to meet the International Rugby Board’s requirements as a finals venue for the Rugby World Cup, it is necessary to redevelop the park by expanding its capacity, so as to accommodate over 60,000 spectators for the Rugby World Cup in 2011. The Crown and the Eden Park Trust Board have agreed on matters relating to the funding and management of the redevelopment and the establishment of a new structure for the long-term governance of Eden Park. The trustees, the Auckland Cricket Association, and the Auckland Rugby Football Union recognise the significant financial contribution that is being made to the redevelopment of the park by this Government, and they have agreed to open the governance and use of the park to the wider community, in partnership with Auckland cricket and Auckland rugby.
The new governance structure will ensure the recognition of the interests and rights of the park’s beneficiary bodies, the public ownership interest in the park, and the desire for broader community use to be made of the venue. A trust deed has been prepared, and it sets out the detail of the new governance arrangements. The deed is modelled on that which is in place for the Westpac Stadium right here in Wellington. The deed is incorporated as a schedule of the bill, and it sets out the new constitution, functions, and powers of the Eden Park Trust Board. The trust deed broadens both the community involvement in the ground and the park’s uses. It makes provision for five Crown-appointed trustees from the wider Auckland region, and one each from the Auckland Rugby Football Union and the Auckland Cricket Association, together with two appointments from the current trust board. After 3 years the current board members will be replaced by one each from the Auckland Rugby Football Union and the Auckland Cricket Association. The deed also includes provisions to deal with the transition from the current trust board to the newly established board.
The redevelopment of Eden Park is on schedule to be completed by October 2010. It is highly desirable that the new board of trustees is in place as early as possible, to enable appropriate governance and management operations to be in place prior to the completion of the redevelopment.
I pay tribute to the current trustees of the Eden Park Trust Board, who are promoting this bill, and to the members of the board of control, former and current trustees, and members of both Auckland cricket and Auckland rugby who have, for over a century, given their time unselfishly and been responsible for developing the park. Through their endeavours and their commitment, Auckland has a sporting stadium that is internationally recognised. Eden Park has played host to a wide variety of sporting and other events and brought a large economic benefit to Auckland, and it has achieved all of that as an independent trust.
PHIL TWYFORD (Labour) Link to this
I am eminently qualified to speak on the Eden Park Trust Amendment Bill, which Labour supports—I live only 10 minutes away from the stadium. But I was just wondering who that last speaker was. Does anyone know? He looked very familiar. Is he a councillor? [ Interruption] So he is an Auckland city councillor. It is the Richard Worth approach to dealing with political issues.
Chris HipkinsI do not know whether a trustee of the Eden Park Trust Board deals with conflicts of interest.
The purpose of the bill is non-controversial. The bill is designed to clean up the trust deed, to give the trustees flexibility to deal with the run-up to the Rugby World Cup in 2011, to change and amend, as necessary, the governance arrangements of the trust deed, and to obviate the need for the trust to come back to Parliament whenever it needs to make a change to the deed. It is very important. It gives the trust board the flexibility it needs. In future, the trustees will be able to agree amongst themselves on the changes they need, and those amendments can be confirmed by regulations made by the Governor-General by Order in Council. The bill gives the board an important level of flexibility as it prepares for the world cup, and any potential legal bottlenecks will, effectively, be removed in advance.
One of the interesting provisions of the bill is that the trustees are not personally liable under the bill; it extends protection to all the trustees, past and present. Interestingly, it does not include any event or circumstance that could have been avoided by the trustees exercising a reasonable standard of care. Presumably, that means that if the trust board gets David Beckham to come and play a game of football, and the board loses a pile of money over it, it will be liable for that debt.
The real reason this bill is important is that the New Zealand economy is very, very dependent on big international events coming to New Zealand, and we have got a lot riding on the Rugby World Cup in 2011 in terms of our tourism and also our national self-esteem. Given some of the dire predictions about how long it will take for our economy to climb out of this global recession, and given the lack of any decent stimulus policies from this National Government, we really have to make sure that we are as well positioned—
Paul Quinn—as well positioned, I say to Mr Quinn, as we possibly can be in the international tourism market. We get only one shot at the world cup. It is absolutely important that we get it right.
So let us just pause for a moment and think about what it is worth to us for this event to go ahead, and to do so successfully. The economic analysts project that it will be worth $476 million in direct additional expenditure in New Zealand outside of Auckland, an additional $262 million in expenditure within Auckland, additional GDP in the New Zealand economy of $507 million, and additional GDP in the Auckland economy of $240 million. There is a huge amount at stake—something like $1.5 billion. We have to see this measure from a wider perspective. It is about the future of our economy, the future of our tourism market, and the crucial role that the Rugby World Cup plays in that. It is like the Olympics; it is essential that we make a favourable impression on the many thousands of visitors who come to New Zealand.
When I think about tourism and how well we are placed, I have to say it reminds me of how little progress we have made—in fact, how far back we have gone—in the last few months, since the election. There has been a complete failure to reposition New Zealand’s tourism industry as a sustainable industry. I am reminded of the complete failure by the Minister of Tourism to rebut the claims that were made as part of the air miles debate in Great Britain—one of our most important markets for tourism. It was a terrible shame to see the Minister of Tourism completely fall into a trap and argue how badly poor little New Zealand had been dealt to by the people involved in the air miles debate. Strongly positioning New Zealand’s tourism industry as sustainable would have been a much more intelligent approach.
I want to discuss another aspect of Eden Park for a moment.
According to a clipping from the Australian newspaper—and some members in the House may have heard this story—when workmen were demolishing the main stand in preparation for the current upgrade, they found a secret escape route that had been built for the Springbok rugby team in 1981. For the sake of members on the other side of the House, I probably should explain what the 1981 Springbok Tour was. Most of the members on the other side do not even know what happened in 1981, let alone how they felt about it.
For the information of Mr Quinn, it was all about a rugby team from apartheid South Africa coming to play rugby, in defiance of an international boycott. Apparently, a local builder was called in, only days before the famous flour bomb test at Eden Park, to build a series of escape hatches. He built a hatch up through the roof of the changing rooms. He cut holes and built a series of interconnecting doors between the offices. The escape route was built to spirit the Springbok team out of the stadium, if things got too hot and heavy for them, with the protesters and so on.
Today we can see, in a wonderful little echo down through history, that it would be great for the National Government to have a similar kind of escape hatch so that its members could scuttle away from the public outrage at all the election promises that have been broken in the last few months. One that springs to mind today—it is at the very, very top of our minds—is the complete abdication of any moral commitment to their election campaign promises to consult the people of Auckland about the findings of the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance.
Hon Ruth DysonNothing. They had no answer this afternoon in the House. They had nothing to say on this issue, even though it is there in black and white in their election manifesto. There are many, many more broken promises, and I want to touch on just half a dozen of them.
The National Party said it would clean up the streets. Its members made a huge fuss about their 100-day plan and they rushed all sorts of legislation through under urgency. What was the ultimate result? I can tell members that the Bail Amendment Bill, the Sentencing Amendment Bill, and the Education (National Standards) Amendment Bill amounted to nothing more than window dressing. I have to be honest and say that it was extremely disappointing to see that kind of performance during National’s first 100 days. National promised a very dramatic 100 days. It used urgency. It broke every democratic and constitutional convention in the book by not submitting any of that legislation to select committee scrutiny, and not allowing the public to make submissions.
Chris Hipkins: No regulatory impact statements?
No, none at all. It is extraordinary. If National members really had wanted to do something of substance on law and order, they would have brought into effect the Order in Council of Labour’s 2007 legislation requiring that a minimum of two-thirds of a sentence be served before parole was granted. But no. What did we see instead? We saw window dressing and small ideological gestures. Instead of making the ridiculous claim that murder and other crime are out of control—and we now know that is a complete lie; anyone who saw the information in the New Zealand Herald on Tuesday knows that the murder rate has been cut in half in the last two decades—they might have done something constructive, like putting in place Labour’s early intervention initiatives to stop child abuse.
That is rather a long way of saying that Labour supports the first reading of the Eden Park Trust Amendment Bill.
It is a very important amendment that allows the trustees of the Eden Park Trust Board to make the amendments to their trust deed that they need to make, without having to come back to Parliament and endure any more speeches like this. Labour supports this bill. It is non-controversial.
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker) Link to this
I remind members that the next speeches are to be 5 minutes in length.
JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki) Link to this
That was an entirely forgettable contribution from an entirely forgettable member. In fact, I do not even recall that member’s name. But that is not surprising, because the contribution was not worthy of the Eden Park Trust Amendment Bill. It came as a complete surprise to me, at the end of that forgettable member’s dissertation, to discover that in fact Labour is supporting this bill. That speech was hardly an indication of that, so if that is the way that the Labour caucus members are going to behave from now on, we just have to wonder, do we not, about how they will perform in the future.
This is a good bill. It is a bill introduced by the Hon Murray McCully, and I will dignify this bill with a decent speech on it and some good debate on the topic, unlike the previous member, who rambled through some sort of strange Labour Party speech that was a mystery to me, anyway. Most important, I think, the bill was excellently supported by my friend and colleague, Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga, who is also from Auckland. The bill amends the Eden Park Trust Act 1955, which established the Eden Park Trust Board. Invested in that trust is the property that is Eden Park. It is a condition of an agreement that Eden Park is to hold the Rugby World Cup final in 2011. That is, of course, exciting for Auckland and for New Zealand, but in order for that to happen, Eden Park needs to be upgraded in order to hold a capacity of 60,000 people. This is a significant event for New Zealand and a significant event for Auckland, so Eden Park needs to be ready for it, and so does the legislative framework that supports that. It is a shame that the previous speaker did not really touch on these important issues; he was too busy being a Labour member. But there you are!
In 2007 the Crown entered into an agreement with the Eden Park Trust Board that it would underwrite $190 million for the redevelopment of Eden Park. Of course, the Government’s proviso was that changes were to be made to make the park’s trust board and management structure more representative of the public and more representative of the whole region. Because the trust had been created by statute, of necessity, therefore, it can be changed only by statute. So the purpose of this bill is to amend the Eden Park Trust Act of 1955, and to introduce the new Eden Park Trust deed, which is a much more representative trust arrangement that will allow us to meet our obligations relating to the 2011 Rugby World Cup final. The other purpose of the bill is to empower the Governor-General, by Order in Council, to amend the schedule containing the trust deed, to give effect to any validly made amendment to the trust deed.
The bill will facilitate the creation of a redeveloped stadium with a capacity of 60,000 people, which is exciting news for Auckland, and I do hope that that number of tickets will be sold for the Rugby World Cup final. This bill implements an agreement between the Crown, the existing Eden Park Trust Board, the Auckland Cricket Association, and also the Auckland Rugby Football Union. The new structure will ensure recognition of the interests and rights of the beneficiaries of the trust, the public’s ownership interest in the park, and the community’s interest in using and benefiting from the park. The redevelopment of Eden Park is to be completed by October 2010, in time for the Rugby World Cup in 2011. It will provide many benefits. Some of those are regional; some of those provide recreational benefits. There will also be local community benefits arising from this redevelopment, but perhaps more significantly today, the benefits are to the Rugby World Cup to be held in 2011. The Rugby World Cup is, of course, one of the world’s premier sports events. The spotlight will be on New Zealand and New Zealand sport.
On that basis, I commend this bill to the House.