Tizard Judith: National Library of New Zealand (Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa) Bill — Third Reading 
Tizard Judith: National Library of New Zealand (Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa) Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:608;Page:5113] 
Hon JUDITH TIZARD (Acting Minister responsible for the National Library) 
: I move  
That the National Library of New Zealand (Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa) Bill be now read a third time 
. This bill replaces the current National Library Act of 1965. It clarifies the relationship between the National Library and the Alexander Turnbull Library and states that the Crown is to continue to own the Alexander Turnbull Library collections in perpetuity. A new body the Guardians Kaitiaki of the Alexander Turnbull Library will provide assurance to the people of New Zealand about that library’s collections and services. The bill has been amended to allow for the temporary loan of items from the Alexander Turnbull Library’s collections for exhibitions in New Zealand or overseas. 
The bill establishes the Library and Information Advisory Commission. That body has the brief of advising the Minister on the rapidly changing field of libraries and information and of providing a national and an international overview. That move supports a more outward-looking National Library empowered by the legislation to work alongside other bodies with related aims. 
Maori interests are also addressed in the bill. The provisions go well beyond the addition of the library’s already commonly used Maori name and the inclusion of Maori names for the bodies established by the bill. Any person exercising powers and functions under this bill is required to protect the collections as documentary heritage and taonga and all references to knowledge and information in this bill are paralleled by references to taonga Maori. 
In passing this bill this Parliament will be just ahead of the United Kingdom in extending legal deposit to cover electronic as well as print materials. All around the world there is agreement that libraries must take appropriate steps to ensure that countries’ documentary heritage which is increasingly presented and stored in electronic form is collected and preserved and is accessible for future generations. What has been at issue is how the commercial interests of publishers can be safeguarded. It is acknowledged that access to electronic material is a very different matter from managing access to a limited number of copies of printed material. 
The world of information and communications technology changes at a dizzying rate and this bill has been designed to try to avoid the need for frequent revision to accommodate such changes. Those issues are addressed by providing for legal deposit requirements to be made by ministerial requirements that have the status of regulations under the Regulations (Disallowance) Act. Books and other print material will continue to be collected as comprehensively as possible in similar fashion to the current arrangements while electronic materials online and off-line will be addressed selectively by separate requirement. That requirement will be made following consultation with affected publishers about format and about terms and conditions of access. 
The final matter addressed by the bill is an amendment to the Official Information Act to deal with a conflict between that Act and certain oral histories commissioned by the library. With the passage of this bill the National Librarian will be required to comply with the conditions of access made by those donating such histories to the library. 
On behalf of the Hon Marian Hobbs I would like to express my thanks and hers to the Education and Science Committee for its detailed and collaborative work on that aspect of the bill as well as to the library community and the information community for their positive contributions. I would also like to thank the committee of advisers that the Minister called together chaired by Dr Lydia Wevers who have advised all the way through the process on this bill particularly on the protection of the Alexander Turnbull Library the Government’s relationship to that collection and the ongoing safeguarding of it. 
This bill fulfils a promise made when Labour came into power in 1999 both to secure the Alexander Turnbull Library and its collection’s unique status and to support the National Library as an institution of central and primary significance in New Zealand’s creative life and economy. We are pleased that the issues for the modern library and for the protection of our evolving heritage have engaged the interest and support of members on all sides of this House. The library community is eagerly awaiting the passage of this bill and I commend it to the House.