Fenton Darien: State Sector Management Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Fenton Darien: State Sector Management Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Sitting date: 09 December 2010. Volume:669;Page:16304. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 I appreciate very much the opportunity to take my first call on the State Sector Management Bill on Saturday afternoon at 2.30. We will be on this bill for some time I think; there is a lot to talk about too. I am sure that Mr Henare will make a contribution. He will get on his feet and make a 5-minute contribution because he obviously feels so passionately about this legislation although I suspect that those opposite will continue to sit in silence. 
In addressing Part 3 I say that I have been listening to the debate on this bill and I have been becoming increasingly concerned about what is happening to the independence of our National Library and our Archives New Zealand. They really are important; in many ways they define us as a people. They protect our democracy our history and of course the accountability of the Government—a very very important matter. But we are seeing that this Government’s preparedness to be accountable is being washed away by every session we have in urgency. No one is allowed to come along and say what they think. No the Government does not want to hear from people. It does not want to go through the process and actually I am really worried about that because I do not ever want to see a situation exist where those in power write our history or influence it. We have seen that happen in history and we do not want to have that happen in New Zealand. But this could be a key step towards it and I am very worried about that. 
Archives New Zealand and our National Library are part of our collective memory as a nation. I was looking at what is in the Archives; for the purposes of listeners I tell them that I think the Archives are worth going through. What are we talking about there? We are not talking about a few dusty old books locked away in a couple of rooms; we are talking about over 96 kilometres of archives 21500 motion picture reels and over 5 million records. They are described on Archway which is the main online website finding aid. 
Archives New Zealand also holds our founding document—the Treaty of Waitangi. It holds our founding document— 
Grant Robertson 
: Damaged when the DIA had it. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: That is right. It was damaged when it was last under the auspices of the Department of Internal Affairs. Archives New Zealand also holds the Declaration of Independence of the northern chiefs. I would have thought that the Maori Party would be really concerned about the possible damage that could be done to that document and the interference that could go on if for example the Government pretended that we had never had it. 
Hon Member 
: They might twink it out. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: Yes they could twink it out. The “Minister for Twinking” could just twink it out. That is right. The Archives hold the women’s suffrage petition from 1893. That is really really important but of course that could be twinked out as well could it not? We could pretend and just go back to saying that we did not want women to have the vote. 
I noticed that one of the really interesting collections on display at the moment at Archives New Zealand is called “Walter’s World”. Mr Nash that wonderful Labour member would be interested in this because it is about his great-grandfather. The collection is called “Walter’s World: the Nash Collection”. The Archives website says about the exhibition: “From food to fascism from world travel to World Wars Walter Nash kept everything. His papers provide an insight into all aspects of the world in which he lived. The extent of the collection is vast—several thousand “bundles” of papers photos and other items. They are currently being listed for placement on Archway.” The collection is based on loose themes it is the Nash collection and it is about one of the great Labour Prime Ministers of New Zealand. It is an important part of our history a really important part of our history on display at Archives New Zealand along with many many other really important collections. As I said they are part of our collective memory as a nation. 
Recently a Booker Prize winner said of politicians: “Tell me what you read and I will understand what you know.” I would love to know what the Minister reads—I would love to know. He has clearly taken no notice of the very good advice he has had from Archives New Zealand or the lessons of the 1990s merger. There was a lot of history there but National took no notice and Labour of course had to fix it up. The Minister had to twink out a document that was tabled in the Chamber today because he had not read it properly so I think we understand what he knows because we know what he has not read. 
I am friends with a number of senior people in this field and they are really alarmed at this bill. They are very very alarmed at the potential of this bill to undermine their independence and their passion and— 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: Professionalism. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: —their professionalism; that is right—also their jobs. We know that this move is driven by ideology.