Tirikatene Rino: Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTirikatene Rino: Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 13 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:17780. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker. I am pleased to take a call on this the final reading of the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Bill which creates the new Heritage New Zealand body. I guess it is the progression of the Historic Places Trust into this new body. I remember speaking on this bill at its first reading and it was so long ago I think we were all just beginning MPs and trying to find our way through. But it is nice to be slotting in here at the end at its third reading. I want to make just a few remarks. I would hope that we do support the intent of this bill which is to improve the governance of the Heritage New Zealand body and to strengthen the partnership which we do commend around the Māori Heritage Council and its alignment with the governing body. We also support moving it into an autonomous Crown entity but notwithstanding that it is good to see the local branches around the country that will no longer be members of the Historic Places Trust still continuing on their important local community advocacy work.We also do commend the fact that there is still the advocacy role contained within Heritage New Zealand. Let us hope that come Thursday Mr English has a few more dollars to spare for Mr Finlayson on heritage protection. We will wait and see but it would be nice to launch this new body with the resources so it can do its important mahi. It is important that we do recognise and protect historic places our buildings and the wāhi tapu of our country because they make up the identity of us as Kiwis as New Zealanders.Just reflecting on heritage and I recognise the contribution from Miss Hauiti I say that it is not just about buildings but about places and especially for us as tangata whenua fresh in our minds are the recently commemorated sesquicentennial battles of Ōrākau Rangiriri and Pukehinahina. Shortly there will be one in Tauranga. The coverage of these commemorations which has been received on Māori and mainstreammedia has been encouraging. I do not recall ever seeing the marking of those milestones ever across our mainstream media. There is so much more to our rich history and we definitely do want New Zealanders to know all about that because everyday Kiwis pass by within metres of historical sites and they never realise it. In towns cities and rural and coastal areas history is all around and it is ready to reveal its secrets and all it takes is recognition and an information board of some description.But I am also aware of the difficulty some hapū and iwi face when dealing with wāhi tapu especially on private land. Sadly as more and more Māori became alienated from their land many of the sacred sites of our people became locked up in private ownership so it will not come as a surprise to this House that not all private landowners care as much for wāhi tapu. But indeed wāhi tapu are very important to the tangata whenua and it is encouraging that in this legislation there is a strengthened role for the Māori Heritage Council to be working alongside and I recognise the contributions from I believe Miss Delahunty in terms of the amendment that was made to beef up the expertise for tikanga and Māori matters through the archaeological sites. All of those elements to this bill are encouraging to see and it is going to be good to see the new organisation carry on its new task under this piece of legislation. But it is not only about the wāhi tapu and about Māori winning battles even though we were outnumbered seven to one; there are also significant buildings that have historic significance that require the statutory umbrella of Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga.One case in point which has been in the news recently is the Harcourts building just several blocks from here. From memory the landlord wants to pull down that building because it is deemed an earthquake risk he cannot afford to have it strengthened to the required standard and it is easier for him to build a new building that will be fully tenanted. So there are those catch-22 situations that arise and hopefully there can be some wise judgments given to those sorts of cases through the work of Heritage New Zealand.Lastly I am aware of the impact of the Christchurch earthquakes. They have had a big impact on the mahi of the Historic Places Trust. We know that its resources have been stretched in all areas and those people at the trust have been charged with saving much of our historic heritage in that fine city but they also face some serious dilemmas over building integrity versus the safety of the public. So let us hope that by strengthening the statutory powers through the creation and the governance of this new body Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga and also hopefully by strengthening its budget the good work of this small—now a Crown—organisation will be able to continue in our communities across the country. Kia ora.