From the House: Helping communities help themselves

Stuart Nash is Napier MP. Photo / NZME

Last week I had the privilege and pleasure of officially opening the Hawke's Bay Community Fitness Centre Trust's (HBCFCT) new 72-bed hostel during a special event at the regional sports park in Hastings.

The hostel will be known as Sir Graeme S. Avery House in recognition of Sir Graeme's incredible vision and contribution towards sport and wellbeing here in the Bay. It will be a truly great asset for our region and I want to thank Sir Graeme for his vision for this hostel.

I also had the pleasure of joining the Prime Minister up in Tauranga last week, where we opened the Port of Tauranga Rescue Centre.

This centre will secure surf lifesaving facilities for what is one of New Zealand's most popular stretches of coastline.

It's one of many community-led projects we've invested in up and down the country to ensure our regions have the infrastructure they need to thrive and grow, and to boost local economies.

I also announced Government funding to Deep-Dive – a fantastic and innovative commercial and scientific diving company that operates out of Hamilton and Tauranga.

Deep Dive is the only Māori and Pasifika owned commercial and scientific dive company and they are driving innovation in the regions in a way that is hugely exciting. It was great to be able to announce a $700,000 loan to help them create jobs, and continue to grow the aquaculture sector in our regions.

This project will create rewarding and exciting job opportunities in our regional communities and support a sustainable aquaculture value chain. That's this Government's vision for the regions – to create opportunities, drive innovation, and set our communities up for the future – and that's what we're delivering on.

It's also worth noting that the Government is consulting on a proposal to give local councils greater control over where forests are planted in their communities.

Uncontrolled planting of permanent forestry undermines the sustainability of rural communities. This is something we committed to in our manifesto ahead of the 2020 election because we believe that local communities are better placed to make these decisions about how land is used in their region.

Local councils know their communities best, and I encourage everyone, rural and urban, to submit to allow their council to permit exotic carbon forestry in a way the community wants.

It's important that we're planting the right tree in the right place.

You can submit by going onto the Ministry for Primary Industries' website consultation page under 'National direction for plantation and exotic carbon afforestation'.

• Stuart Nash is Napier MP