Kaye Nikki: Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Kaye Nikki: Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 08 May 2012. Volume:679;Page:2066. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central) 
: 
 I am very pleased to speak on the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Bill. I think it is really important. Many of us will have had situations in our electorates where community groups have come to us seeking to protect some of the heritage sites within our particular areas. I personally have had a number of situations in Auckland. We have unfortunately lost many buildings in Auckland Central and also right across Auckland partly because we have not done the work and the research to actually understand where our heritage is but also because I think we do not have the right legislative framework that would encourage direct conversations between the community and developers. If we can achieve a couple of things out of this bill I hope that one of those things is that we are able to achieve much more direct conversations between communities and developers.  
I think when we reflect on how we have come here that we must reflect on the fact that there were a couple of key issues as to why this bill has come to the House. The first issue is that we know that the archaeological authority provisions of the Historic Places Act have been unnecessarily complex. We know that there has been no alignment of processing times for archaeological authorities and resource consents and we also know that there has been unnecessary duplication. I just want to focus on a couple of key areas in the bill because I think they are very important. The first one concerns those archaeological provisions. We have had two phases of reform of the resource management legislation and what this bill aims to do is to align the archaeological provisions with the resource management legislation. The second area concerns emergency provisions within this bill. This is very important obviously in the wake of everything that has happened in Canterbury. I have just come this evening from the Speaker’s Science Forum held in this Parliament and attended by a number of members of Parliament where we have been reflecting on potentially new investments and technologies that will ensure that our heritage is protected in the future. I think it is very important that we are here today to be guiding this legislation through the House with the support of many parties and to really be looking at those clauses that will enable in the event of emergencies much quicker responses from authorities. So I think that is a really important aspect of this bill.  
The other important aspect of this bill is actually around transparency. There is a very key provision within the bill that requires the new organisation Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga to consult and publish its policy. If I can give one plea from all of my experience in terms of local heritage issues in Auckland I do believe that there is a lot that can be done in the protection of our heritage in terms of greater transparency and notice of people within the community.  
That brings me to what I think is really at the heart of a number of heritage battles and at the heart of this legislation and is something that all members across the House will be interested in. That is the role of individuals and sometimes smaller organisations who advocate for local heritage situations. I recently had a situation in Auckland Central around the Birdcage and the Campbell Free Kindergarten. We were able to do a lot and to save the historic Birdcage as a result of really direct conversations between the community and the developer. 
 I think this bill is very good in that not only does it align key provisions around archaeological consenting in terms of the Resource Management Act but it makes it much more efficient in terms of simplifying and streamlining those provisions. But there are also some very core transparency provisions and I think it also retains that core role that we all know within our electorates around local heritage advocacy. There are so many organisations and individuals right across New Zealand who are involved in the protection of our heritage.  
I am very pleased to be supporting this bill to the House. I think that as long as we are members of Parliament there will always be tough decisions to be made in terms of the balance between developers the protection of private property rights and protecting our heritage. But I am confident that this bill will go that bit further to reduce complexity and to reduce the amount of time that is spent on consents while ensuring that we have direct conversations between the community and the developers. So I am very pleased to be supporting this bill.