Donnelly Brian: Historic Places Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Donnelly Brian: Historic Places Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:632;Page:3925] 
Hon BRIAN DONNELLY (NZ First) 
: 
 The Historic Places Amendment Bill seems on the surface to be bread and butter legislation that mainly reorganises the structure of the Historic Places Trust. In fact its provisions are set upon three important principles and I would like to go through them one by one. The first principle is: who pays the piper calls the tune. There can be no doubt that funding for the Historic Places Trust has increased dramatically over the past few years from $4.5 million in 2002-03 to $7.5 million in the last financial year. Moreover the Government has initiated the National Heritage Preservation Incentive Fund to be administered by the trust to encourage the preservation of privately owned and nationally significant heritage properties and once again a significant amount of money is to be distributed through that process. 
Increasingly it is the Government as the representative of taxpayers that is paying the piper. Therefore it makes sense and it is totally justified to tip the proportion of membership of the trust to Government appointees. 
The second principle is that no Government should allow greater membership of a statutory body than is essential for the task to be carried out. There are ongoing costs to the taxpayer resulting from the number of members of statutory bodies such as this. I would have thought the Opposition would agree with that principle yet quite incomprehensibly it has argued against the reduction of this body from 11 to nine members. 
The third principle relates to what the member was talking about just before and that is the amendments to the qualifications and attributes required for the three Maori appointees included in the six Government appointees. I want to read these out as outlined in new section 42(3) in clause 19: “At least 3 of the persons appointed under subsection (1)(b) must in the opinion of the Minister after consultation with the Minister of Maori Affairs be qualified for appointment having regard to their knowledge of te ao Maori (Maori worldview) and tikanga Maori (Maori protocol and culture).” 
One would not have to be a genius to work out that 99.99 percent of those appointees will be Maori by ethnicity but New Zealand First has always argued that such positions should be filled by the people who have the requisite knowledge and understanding etc. rather than the DNA in their blood. 
A couple of weekends ago I attended the opening of a museum exhibition called Ko Tawa. The exhibition was opened by the Associate Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage on a very wet and cold morning in Whangarei and I must admit that other than Dave Hereora I was the only MP to turn up. Ko Tawa is an exhibition of selected pieces from the works collected by Major Gilbert Mair. It was quite a stunning and outstanding collection of over 200 pieces but the most important pieces were selected for exhibition. I must admit that Paul Tapsell and his team from the Auckland Museum have done just an absolutely marvellous job of curating that exhibition. Gilbert Mair was in fact born in Whangarei up in the Ngunguru area. Included in the collection for example is the koauau reputedly used by Tutanekai for example. There is a rain cape there that Te Kooti gave Mair in honour of his friendship. He said that it would not keep the rain off him but that it demonstrated his love for him. Yet Gilbert Mair had led the forces that had attempted to capture Te Kooti on the East Coast over many years. It is a remarkable piece. 
Gilbert Mair however was totally Pakeha. He was baptised by Maori he spoke the Maori language and he had a great understanding of Maori culture but if the Greens had their way he would not be able to be appointed to the proposed board. 
The other little irony that occurred there was that during the powhiri which I must admit was somewhat unusual the Associate Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage Mahara Okeroa spoke and then had to turn to find somebody to do his waiata for him. Dave Hereora was there but the person who had to step up to the plate in the absence of anybody else to do that was yours truly. In other words maybe I could be appointed to that board. 
Te Ururoa Flavell 
: You will have to learn to sing properly. 
Hon BRIAN DONNELLY 
: Hang on a second—the member had better ask Dave Hereora before he makes a comment like that! The point is however that I think we have to be careful not to be so precious. As I said in my Committee stage or second reading speech if the principles of the amendment that has been put forward by the Greens were applied to this legislation we would have a situation where Dame Kiri Te Kanawa could not be on an opera board because she is not Italian. That makes a mockery of the whole thing. 
Finally I say that New Zealand First strongly supports the preservation of our heritage and our culture and certainly very strongly supports the objectives of the Historic Places Trust. We believe that the changes that have come through into this bill will strengthen the activities that the trust is required to carry out. Thank you Mr Speaker.