Robertson Grant: Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRobertson Grant: Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 10 December 2013. Volume:695;Page:15411. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central): I just wanted to pick up a point that Rino Tirikatene initially raised on the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Bill. It is in relation to clause 19 “Protection of names”. As I stated in my earlier call this is the clause of the bill that means that nobody else is allowed to use any of the names listed in clause 19. It actually is quite clear what a protected name is and it is all of the names listed. Some of them are going to carry on. The Arts Council ofNew Zealand Toi Aotearoa is going to carry on and it is being protected—clearly because this is a bill that repeals the previous Act. Presumably there was a protection of names section.But where things go awry is where a name is protected but the board is being dissolved as in the case of Te Waka Toi because what the Government is effectively saying is: “We own the name Te Waka Toi.” It took me only a couple of minutes ofgoogling to discover that the phrase “te wakatoi” has actually been used as a name by a number of people over the years as my colleague Rino Tirikatene said. It is a poetical name—the arts waka. In fact it is the name of a couple of works of art. You can go to see one of them by Fred Graham in the Auckland Art Gallery if you like. It is the name of an exhibition that has been held previously. And yet the Government wants to come to the Chamber tonight and tell us that it controls Te Waka Toi. It controls it by dissolving it disestablishing it and saying that no one else can have the name. Well to me that is absolutely ridiculous and it is unfortunately typical of this bill because of as we discussed previously—and I will come to this in a moment—the confusing language around community arts councils in Part 2. None of us were actually clear by the end of it exactly what was happening with that. But by taking away the ability of anybody to actually use the name Te Waka Toi in the future the Government in my view has wholly overstepped its mandate and that is under clause 19(1).If we carry on down we come to clause 19(3): “No body other than a community arts council within the meaning of this Act may be incorporated or registered or may operate or carry on activities under any enactment or in any other manner under a name that includes the words ‘community arts council’ or ‘arts council’.” So the Government in clause 19(3) is banning the use of the term “arts council” unless it is as defined under this bill which as we discovered during Part 2 is completely meaningless and gobbledegook.But “arts council” is a term that will be applied in a lot of different ways. Once upon a time I was the trustee of something called the New Zealand Students’ Arts Council. Hekia Parata I think may once upon a time have been involved in the New Zealand Students’ Arts Council as well. Would we not have been able to call ourselves the New Zealand Students’ Arts Council because the term “arts council” is now apparently owned by the Government? It is protected by the Government. You cannot call yourself an arts council. I have just looked it up online again. We have got the North Taranaki Community Arts Council and the Motueka Arts Council. Are these people allowed to be arts councils any more? Unfortunately we were very unclear when we looked at clause 16 that it seemed possible that the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa could establish community arts councils in particular geographical areas.But it is not just community arts councils that the Government is trying to control here; it is the term “arts council” generally and that is what is written in clause 19(3). Nobody can in any other manner use the name “community arts council” or “arts council”. I am sorry to say that this bill once again I think either has created an unintended consequence or is a result of the Government overreaching in what it wants to do in this area. Clause 19 of this bill is now giving rise to significant concerns for me about the way in which the Government intends to control the usage of terms like “te wakatoi” and “arts council”.I simply do not believe that those people who provide arts services in the community who want to come together in different communities band together and create a body that helps develop artists in their area are now going to want to have to go through this bizarre process under clause 16 of this bill to establish themselves as a community arts council. Otherwise they are up for prosecution I presume if they decide to call themselves an arts council. It is a farce.This bill is the product of a Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage who has not stood up and justified it. He has got a bill he has been sitting on for years and now he brings it back to the House with a clause like clause 19 which quite frankly I think goes miles beyond his mark. [Bell rung]I will take another call here on one other matter and that is to return to clause 21 briefly. Just think for a moment about what this Committee is about to do. This Committee is about to vote to dissolve the Pacific Arts Committee and Te Waka Toi. I was at the Creative New Zealand Arts Pasifika Awards with the Minister a few weeks ago. JonathanLemalu received an award and Victor Rodger the playwright received an award. We had a stunning performance by a woman namedNatalia Mann who is a harpist. These are artists who have been fostered by the Pacific Arts Committee. They have been fostered by a group of people who understand not only Pacific communities but also the role of the arts. They understand the diversity of those Pacific communities.On that night the representatives of each of the different Pasifika communities got up and presented awards. We had representatives from Niue to Tuvalu from Tokelau through to Samoa and Tonga. They all got up there and that is the strength of that body. That is what is being dissolved tonight under clause 21 in the hope that two people—two people—sitting on the new Arts Council will be able to represent those communities. They will not. It is unfair on them it will put undue pressure on them and it will not lead to the kind of Pacific arts vibrancy that we would expect in New Zealand.Te Waka Toi has been responsible for encouraging all manner of Māori artists—Patricia GraceWīremuKaa Kiri Te Kanawa. All of these people have been recipients of awards and grants from Te Waka Toi which recognises the special place of Māori arts in New Zealand. That body is being dissolved tonight in the hope that four people—who do not have to be Māori—appointed by the Minister of Māori Affairs can come along and somehow represent that rich diversity of Māori arts as well.Part 3 of this bill is flawed. It is the part of the bill that dissolves organisations that have done a great deal for the arts in New Zealand and I believe that this is a very sad day indeed.