Dyson Ruth: Arts Centre of Christchurch Trust Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDyson Ruth: Arts Centre of Christchurch Trust Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 01 April 2015. Volume:704;Page:2820. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills): It is a real pleasure for me to join the debate on the second reading of the Arts Centre of Christchurch Trust Bill. I want to begin by acknowledging the Hon Nicky Wagner in whose name this bill is. It is a private bill and I know that the Hon Nicky Wagner who is MP for Christchurch Central has had a lot of involvement with the Arts Centre and with the Arts Centre of Christchurch Trust Board and she has done a good job of shepherding this bill through the House. I hope it gets unanimous support from Parliament. That would be a really nice message to send to Canterbury.I want to acknowledge Scott Simpson who I am pretty sure replaced the Hon Nicky Wagner as chair of the Local Government and Environment Committee. I think there was somebody in between the two—that is right there was. I remember now. The Hon Nicky Wagner used to chair the committee and now Scott Simpson does and he does a very good job. I have sat on that committee a number of times. He chairs it with common sense and rational behaviour and with a great deal of respect which I think is acknowledged by all members of the House. He gets a better outcome actually as a result of doing that. That is not why he does it; he does it because it is his personality but it is a good attribute for a chair of a committee to have.Hon Member: What a lot of brown nosing.Hon RUTH DYSON: I am going to say some nice things about the Assistant Speaker any minute now. That will really bring the house down. Mr Assistant Speaker Mallard I want to commend you on the extraordinarily competent way you chair the House. I also want to acknowledge Jen Crawford and André Lovatt—Jen is chair of the trust board—and the other members of the Arts Centre of Christchurch Trust Board including a former colleague of ours the Hon Margaret Austin who has indeed put a lot of effort into this bill as well.She actually made an early arrangement to invite members of the select committee that I sit on—the Government Administration Committee—to have an early briefing on the bill. At that stage she had been told that the bill was going to be referred by Parliament to the Government Administration Committee. So we all took up the offer. We got an early briefing we felt very confident in our preparation to receive the bill at our committee and then when it came to the House it was referred to the Local Government and Environment Committee. We felt cheated actually. We would have really enjoyed the opportunity to have had that bill and I think the members of the trust board were a bit disappointed that they had to give a briefing to another committee.More of us knew about the background of the bill. Members have spoken about that as well as about the history of the Arts Centre. It is quite an interesting position to have the administration of a centre such as the Arts Centre and indeed the governance structures determined by an act of Parliament. It is not all that common and thank goodness it is not because we would spend a lot of our time debating those issues I am sure. But in this case I do believe that it is warranted. I do believe that the structures that we have put in place mean that we can have confidence in the governance arrangements and indeed in the future of the Arts Centre. It is one of the most valuable assets that we have ever had in our city actually but particularly now that we have lost so much.Dr Megan Woods acknowledged her participation as a university student and the involvement of the Rt Hon Norman Kirk—as MP for Lyttelton then Sydenham and indeed as Prime Minister—in the transfer arrangement from the university to the city of Christchurch. Indeed that was a pretty extraordinary gift and transfer. We also have Sir Ernest Rutherford a former student on that very site—a great name for all of us to be proud of. I also want to acknowledge the early student engagement of the Rt Hon Sir Dr Michael Cullen—I am never quite sure in what order to put all those titles. Michael a former colleague of ours in the House was also a student when the Arts Centre of Christchurch was indeed the university.Members have mentioned that there were only four submissions on this bill and nobody in the House should imagine that that is because of lack of interest. It is actually because by the time the bill got here there had been widespread discussion amongst all of the relevant parties and people were confident in the content of the bill.I do want to make mention of a concern that was raised because the House needs to ensure that it is very clear about the response to the submission that the select committee gave—particularly as we go into the next stage the Committee stage because there may well be some calls from Canterbury for us to make sure that the legislation leaves no doubt of this one point of concern that was raised. That concern is that throughout the bill there are references to historic stone buildings. Of course that is blindingly obvious to anyone who has been to the Arts Centre because that is what the overwhelming majority of the Arts Centre is. It is historic stone buildings but it is not all historic stone buildings. There are some buildings that are brick and wood. I just want to put on record that we want those buildings saved restored repaired and used for our city’s benefit in the future as well. The legislation although it refers in that way to historic stone buildings does not exclude—as is the desire indicated to us from the trust board—the other buildings. Of course that includes the former student union building as well which many people will have very fond recollections of.As I mentioned earlier one of the reasons why we are very keen to ensure that the Arts Centre is part of our life in the future is that we have lost so much. Some people particularly people from outside our city say: “Well of course you have lost so much. You had huge earthquakes and seismic events.” and that is undoubtedly the case. We lost a lot as a result of the quakes but actually in Christchurch we have lost a lot because of section 38 of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Act. You might think that this is a bit of an anomaly—how could a part of the legislation designed to support recovery of a city post - a traumatic event be part of the destruction of it—but that is exactly what has happened.We have had perfectly good buildings—you know damaged but perfectly good and reparable buildings—destroyed by bulldozers and wrecking balls at the whim of the Minister for Canterbury Earthquake Recovery the Hon Gerry Brownlee. In one instance a magnificent theatre the Majestic Theatre which was loved by Cantabrians as much as the Arts Centre—and I know that the local MP the Hon Nicky Wagner would agree that the Majestic Theatre was an extraordinary and beautiful building—was bowled over put in the back of a truck and dumped. The reason for that was that the Minister has decided as part of his blueprint for the future that the street that it was on would be wider. So we lost this magnificent heritage building in order to make the street wider. I think that is just tragic I think it is a shame and I think it was the wrong decision. So that reinforces our desire to make sure as far as we can that similar things do not happen to as many of our buildings. We have lost too much. We do not need to lose anything else.I just want to conclude by saying that I also want to acknowledge and thank the members of the Local Government and Environment Committee. Not only did they hear the small but important number of submissions with a great deal of interest—in fact Scott Simpson we could have you as a Cantabrian; you sounded really passionate about the Arts Centre—but they did take the time and trouble. They did not just fly into the city have a meeting and then leave. They took the time and trouble to go to the Arts Centre and to become part of the atmosphere which you cannot help but feel. Mr Simpson I am sure you went to the cheesemongers on the way out and got some of their magnificent cheese. I want to acknowledge all the members who made the effort to actually go through the Arts Centre and learn a little bit more about the history about the damage that was incurred and then of course about the amazing restoration work that is going on. The use of crafts that are not really part of our everyday life now—and this was acknowledged by Scott Simpson—is extraordinary. The work that those people are doing is truly wonderful. I would invite any member of this House to go to see it. It is absolutely inspirational.I hope that through the next couple of stages of this bill—the Committee stage and the third reading—we can give a lot of confidence to the current trust board the management and indeed the people of Canterbury that this Parliament understands not only the importance of the history but also the importance of the future of the Arts Centre. This legislation will give us all the confidence that the Arts Centre has the backing of Parliament and that its future will be strong. Thank you.