Tirikatene Rino: Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTirikatene Rino: Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 10 December 2013. Volume:695;Page:15406. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): Kia ora Mr Chair. Thank you for this opportunity to speak at the Committee stage of this bill the Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa Bill. It is my first contribution on this bill. We are up to Part 3. I was just coming up to speed with the background to this bill and I was really very surprised at the delay in the passage of this bill. This bill was introduced 3½ years ago way before I was honoured to be in the House. It was way back in June 2010—3½ years ago—that the bill was introduced. It was reported back in November 2010 and here we are now in December 2013 and we are still plodding our way through the Committee stage. It has taken a very long time and I think that a question we definitely need to pose to the Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage is why there has been this length of delay because this bill has been around for a long time.I would like to just refer to the briefing to the incoming Minister dated December 2011. In that briefing Creative New Zealand says: “Creative New Zealand regards the passage of the Bill”—this bill—“as the top priority for 2012.” It says that this bill is the top priority for 2012. It continues: “The current hiatus in its passage makes it difficult for the current Council and boards to progress significant policy and structural initiatives as the implementation date for the new governance structure remains unconfirmed.” There we have it—a plea from Creative New Zealand to the Minister to get cracking and to make the passage of this bill a top priority for 2012. Here we are on the verge of passing through 2013 into 2014 and we still have not got this bill through. I think it is an injustice to Creative New Zealand and the arts sector of our country.Creative New Zealand also goes on to state in the briefing to the Minister: “Creative New Zealand and the arts sector are operating in a period of considerable change and challenge.” There have been considerable challenges for the whole arts sector particularly post the Christchurch earthquakes and right through to the present time given the uncertainty of the governance structure of the Arts Council. So against that background we come now to Part 3 of the bill which as my colleague Grant Robertson outlined is really the guts of this piece of legislation in that it deals with the actual expiry of the membership of what would be the former Arts Council and also the dissolution of the councils—in particular Te Waka Toi the Arts Council and the Pacific Arts Committee. Those are the key provisions in Part 3.I have had to do a bit of mental gymnastics because here we are in December 2013 but the commencement date for this piece of legislation which was amended by the Minister at the Government Administration Committee will be on 1 October 2011. So we are enacting a piece of legislation that will be enacted back in time on 1 October2011. As soon as it comes into force all of the decisions all of the board all of the activities and operations of Creative New Zealand are basically in limbo I suppose because back in time on 1 October 2011 effectively there was no board. Oh no—sorry it is 1 October 2010. That is the date on which this legislation will actually come into force. It is sort of making my mind go “What’s going on here?”.Can you imagine what it is like for those poor people in Creative New Zealand and the arts sector across New Zealand who have had to operate under such a twilight zone? It is a twilight zone they have been in for the past 3½ years of waiting for this legislation to go through. I am really surprised that the Minister has taken such a long time. We can contrast that with the rapid-fire Treaty settlement legislation that he has been firing at us left right and centre through to the Māori Affairs Committee. A tremendous amount of legislation has been going through that committee at an incredibly fast pace. Yet this most important piece of legislation for our arts community right across New Zealand has been languishing. I am very concerned at the length of time it has taken and the impact it has had on the operations which is given effect to in Part 3 of the bill.There are a couple of other points I would like to point out. I am really lamenting the loss of the beautiful name Te Waka Toi. My colleague Shane Jones who is the expert linguist knows that that is a poetic term—the arts waka for Māori. Yet what we are seeing in Part 3 clause 19 is that basically those names are off limits and cannot be used by anyone or anything. Not only that but nor can the names Arts Council and Creative New Zealand which was the trading name for the council be used. I do lament the loss of Te Waka Toi because those are iconic names iconic terms poetic terms in Māori Te Reo and now they are effectively off limits never to be used again unless there is a change to this legislation.Tracey Martin: Crazy.RINO TIRIKATENE: I agree with Tracey Martin. It is crazy. Looking at the creation of the committee I see that Te Waka Toi is now going to be four Māori representatives. No actually they do not have to be Māori representatives. They could be any person as long as they have some sort of artistic expertise in the Māori arts and crafts or culture and heritage areas. It could be any person as long as it gets the stamp of approval or it is run by the Minister of Māori Affairs—and that is pretty easy. You could put anything past him. He will give it the nod or he will not really care.Te Waka Toi is an iconic committee. It made a huge contribution to the Māori arts. There are Te Waka Toi scholarships and Te Waka Toi awards. Now I lament its dissolution under this legislation. And it applies not only to Te Waka Toi but to the Pacific Arts Committee as well. That representative group has close to 16-plus years of history of working with the arts sector.But what I am really disappointed about is the complete lack of representation for ethnic New Zealand. There is no voice for ethnic New Zealand on this new arts council body. Today we had a press release from Statistics New Zealand saying that New Zealand has more ethnicities than the world has countries. We are growing in ethnic diversity. Our population is increasing and changing all the way through. Yet that fast-growing demographic of our society has no voice on this arts council body.Those are some of the key aspects that I would like to draw to the Committee’s attention and hopefully the Minister will be able to address some of them. The delay in the passage of the bill and the effective dates and what that means in terms of how the whole Creative New Zealand group has been operating for the past 3 years have definitely been a disservice to this great organisation. Thank you.