Woods Megan: Arts Centre of Christchurch Trust Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWoods Megan: Arts Centre of Christchurch Trust Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 01 April 2015. Volume:704;Page:2816. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram): It is my pleasure to rise to give a speech on this piece of legislation. It is important legislation and Labour is happy to support this bill. I would like to acknowledge the work of the member who has just taken her seat the Hon Nicky Wagner in sponsoring this bill as a local bill. I would also like to acknowledge the work of the chair of the Arts Centre of Christchurch Trust Board the Hon Margaret Austin and the work she has done to save this set of buildings.I think that for most Cantabrians after both the September and the February quakes and after questioning whether their family and their friends were safe their thoughts turned to what had happened to the Arts Centre buildings and whether or not they were a set of buildings that had survived the quakes. For Cantabrians and Christchurch people as the previous speaker has just said there is a deeply personal connection to this site. This was a site that was gifted to the city in 1973. The announcement was made in 1973—the year I was born.I feel a personal connection with this site. Growing up in Christchurch in the 1980s everything happened on this site. It was the place of the Dux de Lux the place where everyone gathered to have a drink; it was the place where there was a market at the weekend when there were no other markets in Christchurch; it was the place whereas a young teenager in Christchurch I received my first pamphlet about New Zealand becoming nuclear-free; it was the place of the Court Theatre; it was the place of the Southern Ballet Theatre; and it was the place of Le Café. This was a place where memories were made in Christchurch. It means so much to the people of Christchurch that we can save it and that we can have this legislation that enters on to the statute book the original trust deed which will ensure that this set of buildings does endure.The Arts Centre buildings and the trust deed being entered into legislation has personal significance for me. It was one of the predecessors in my seat—a predecessor I share with the Hon Ruth Dyson—the Rt Hon Norman Kirk who announced the decision that the university centennial convocation was going to gift it is said the buildings on the Arts Centre site to the city of Christchurch to be used as a cultural centre. But according to Kirk family folklore—I spoke to members of the Kirk family today—actually it was a deal done for a dollar because the university could not simply gift that land to the city; it needed to be sold to the city. I am informed by the son of the Rt Hon Norman Kirk—Bob Kirk who went on to become a deputy vice-chancellor of the University of Canterbury—that the university administration when talk of the university moving back into the city was raised would often talk about just collecting the interest on that payment as payment for moving back on to the site.For Norm Kirk there was a huge significance in this set of buildings being gifted to the city of Christchurch and becoming a cultural and educational centre for the city. When he announced it he said that it was a great gift to the city the province and the nation. He expressed his hope that the bodies would use the buildings to draw the threads of all the cultures of New Zealand and attempt to produce something uniquely New Zealand in character. I would like to acknowledge the former member for Sydenham and the work he did in making sure that we have this unique set of buildings standing in the centre of our city a set of buildings we can rebuild our city around.Norman Kirk saw culture as vitally important to New Zealanders and the world in which they were living. Defending the appropriateness of a politician addressing a cultural conference in that same year—1973—Norman Kirk said: “Politics is the conscious projection of a country’s identity. The culture is that identity and not something removed or remote from everyday life.” I would like us to reflect on those words which are as true today in 2015 as they were when Norman Kirk said them in 1973. He said he saw the arts as having a very important part to play in our desire to foster regional cooperation. Again I would like to endorse those words and say they have as much to offer us today as they did when Norman Kirk said them.At the centennial convocation where Norman Kirk made the announcement that the Arts Centre was being gifted to the city of Christchurchthe gifting was the brainchild of Professor Neville Phillips from the University of Canterbury. As a PhD graduate from the history department at the University of Canterbury I would like to acknowledge one of the greatest professors of history from that department the contribution he and the others have made to the cultural life of Christchurch and the foresight that people like Neville Phillips and Norman Kirk had about the value of these buildings to the city of Christchurch. Neville Phillips certainly saw that.The gifting of a set of buildings this unique and this special spawned the need for special rules to be made. Those interested in issues of planning and zoning and perhaps even resource management in today’s context might like to reflect that the first cultural zone that New Zealand had was this set of buildings. A special part of town planning was needed to ensure that the heritage fabric of these buildings stayed intact and did not come under any threat. We in Labour hope that by enshrining the trust deed in legislation as we are with this local bill we are protecting the heritage value and the very rich heritage both social and physical that these buildings offer to the city of Christchurch. We want to be sure that these buildings stay.The Minister in her speech addressed whether or not stone buildings would cover the whole site. Well I think I speak for generations of not just Christchurch people but people around the country who have fond memories of times at the Dux de Lux or the student union if they were students at the university when it was on the town site and who would like to think that this building will survive the wrecking ball of Christchurch’s rebuild as well. This is a special building reflecting our character and is something that needs to be preserved.The departmental report that the Local Government and Environment Committee brought back made it clear that the purpose of the legislation was to enshrine the original purposes of the trust deed which referred only to stone buildings. But I would like to place on the record and I would like to implore everybody involved in that decision that it needs to be more than that because the precinct of the Arts Centre encompasses more than that to us as Christchurch people. We are told that it would need special consent as a group 3 building in the Christchurch district plan to be demolished. But Christchurch people and Cantabrians are only too aware of section 38 of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Act which bypasses many of the protections we have had for our heritage buildings. We have had 1240 demolitions within the four avenues in Christchurch an area that falls under central government control. Compare that with the 292 rebuild consents that have been granted in the same space. Of those 1240 demolitions 20 percent of those buildings were heritage buildings.On this side of the House we would like to make it strongly known that we have a desire to see the heritage fabric of our city retained because our rebuilt and recovered city needs to value its past. It needs to value the words that Norman Kirk spoke in 1973 when he talked about drawing the threads of all the cultures of our city together to show something truly unique about our city and our nation. I would like to honour the people who have fought for the retention of this site in the past and to thank those of today who have ensured it will last for many more years to come.