POINT ENGLAND DEVELOPMENT ENABLING BILL PRESS RELEASE:

FROM SAVE OUR RESERVES

Taking of Reserves Part of National housing programme

We are extremely disappointed that the Development Enabling Bill to allow housing on the Point England Reserve has passed its Second Reading.

We were disappointed in particular that the Government sought to label those in Parliament who opposed the Bill as obstructing the National Party’s housing programme. This shows that the taking of public reserves is a part of the National Party’s housing policy. We utterly oppose such a policy.

It is not only the policy we oppose but the means by which the Government is choosing to implement it, namely, by a process which gives those who use the Reserves no effective voice in the fate of their reserves. The people of Tamaki voted unanimously at two public meetings to oppose this Bill, and put in 131 submissions against the Bill with only four in favour.

They have been completely ignored because the process used allowed the Government to do so, and will allow them to do the same in other reserves in Auckland and all around New Zealand.

Let us be quite clear. We are totally in support of the building of more houses but we are totally opposed to the taking of reserves as a mechanism for achieving this.

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