Eckhoff Gerrard: Christchurch City Council (Robert McDougall Gallery) Land Vesting Bill — First Reading 
Eckhoff Gerrard: Christchurch City Council (Robert McDougall Gallery) Land Vesting Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:606;Page:3587] 
GERRARD ECKHOFF (ACT NZ) 
: 
 I am happy to take a short call on the Christchurch City Council (Robert McDougall Gallery) Land Vesting Bill. 
Rod Donald 
: Has the member ever been there? 
GERRARD ECKHOFF 
: No I have not been to the gallery. We have a wonderful gallery in Dunedin. Visiting a wonderful gallery is one of life’s great experiences I am sure and visiting the new gallery is something I can look forward to. As I read through this bill one thing strikes me as a member of the ACT party and as a taxpayer and a ratepayer: I would be extraordinarily reluctant if I were a member of the Christchurch community to vest anything in the Christchurch City Council. It is a city council that cannot even get right such basic requirements of its community as its sewerage scheme. Sewage still pours out into the estuary as I understand it yet in this bill we are saying that we think the council is a highly skilled property manager. That is essentially what this bill is about. It is about vesting property in that city council. That idea just does not seem to make any sense. 
If the city council in the “People’s Republic of Christchurch”—Mr Carter referred to Mr Moore as a well-known devotee of the Labour Party; a fact that I would have to say makes him pretty suspect from the start—cannot actually perform why would we want to vest anything in it? If the council cannot get right the fundamental requirements such as sewerage and rubbish collection—and Christchurch does have a major problem with its rubbish collection system—why would we want to vest anything in it let alone something that is obviously very valuable and very meaningful to the people of Christchurch? What is at stake here? 
Hon Dover Samuels 
: Does the member live in Christchurch? 
GERRARD ECKHOFF 
: The building is a neoclassical perimetrical design and I am sure that Dover Samuels will enlighten the House and tell us all exactly what a neoclassical perimetrical design actually is. I am sure it is very important. It is appropriate that these historic buildings do receive adequate and full conservation by members of the community. 
But I cannot help but wonder why members of the Historic Places Trust for example do not actually step forward and say: “We do not want this building to be a cost to the people of Christchurch. We will pick it up. We will raise funds.”? Why do they not say that they will ensure that the building is treated in the way it should be treated—as a very important and historic part of Christchurch? Yet again we have the concept of “Let’s bung it all on the ratepayers or the taxpayers. They can pick up the tab.” 
Well I suspect there are a lot of people in Christchurch and indeed throughout New Zealand who have never visited an art gallery. They would actually struggle to pay for it. Is there a cost? I image that one needs a silver coin. 
Rod Donald 
: It’s free. 
GERRARD ECKHOFF 
: Oh it is free. I see. So in other words it will not cost the city council anything to maintain it. Is that what Mr Rod Donald is saying? [ 
Interruption 
] He says it is free so there is no cost. I say to Mr Donald that the reality is there is a cost to the people of Christchurch. There is a very significant cost. But that cost of course is being “redistributed” which is another favourite word of the Labour Party and the Green Party. They say: “Let’s redistribute this cost amongst everybody so that we the users can benefit and get it nice and cheaply and so that people who do not enjoy abstract art or whatever and who have other interests like going bowling or playing golf on Saturday still have to contribute.” The concept in this land-vesting bill is that the cost is spread amongst the entire Christchurch community for the benefit of a relatively exclusive few. 
Well if that is way the public really want it so be it but I am not at all sure it is. So it is important that submissions come from the people from ratepayer groups in Christchurch. It is important that people come before the Local Government and Environment Committee or at least inform the select committee of their views so that it can better decide whether this bill should progress in its current form. The ACT party will support this bill going to the select committee.