Williams Poto: Arts Centre of Christchurch Trust Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWilliams Poto: Arts Centre of Christchurch Trust Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 03 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4292. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]POTO WILLIAMS (Labour—Christchurch East): It is a pleasure to rise to take a call on this bill. I just want to acknowledge the previous speaker Matt Doocey and his ramblings through Canterbury. It was a little bit like a tourist brochure for Canterbury so I am—Dr Megan Woods: He’s no Chaucer.POTO WILLIAMS: Yes. I am going to confine my comments to the bill at hand. Firstly I do want to acknowledge Minister Wagner for her stewardship of this bill through the House and the Local Government and Environment Committee for the fine work that it has done shepherding this bill through its various stages to the third reading today. I acknowledge that we have the representatives of the Arts Centre of Christchurch Trust Board herein the gallery. They have been here for every reading and through the Committee stage. I know that because as a relatively new MP this is the first bill that I have had the pleasure of speaking on at every stage through the House and the Committee and they have been here watching the debates and contributing to the development of this bill and I acknowledge and congratulate them on this great day.While we have been traversing this bill as it has gone through the House everyone has had the opportunity to reminisce about the importance of the Arts Centre its various buildings and the make-up of the Arts Centre. They have all had an opportunity to talk about how important those experiences have been to them. Everyone has had that opportunity. My colleague Dr Megan Woods talked about her days as a university student and about many of the fun activities that she encountered particularly at the Dux de Lux and other venues. Of course Eugenie Sage talked about her time actually working in the buildings and it is has become a very personal piece of work for many people in this House because of the love that they have for the Arts Centre the buildings and the complex. I even have my own reminiscences of when my daughter who is now 23 was a very young girl. We were visiting a family in Christchurch at that time and we had a beautiful afternoon there. We had some lovely food and we were able actually to watch the craftsmen at work in the Arts Centre and at the time I thought it was an extraordinary thing to be able to watch artisan craftsmen diligently completing their tasks under the gaze of tourists like me. It is no surprise that we have employed the best craftsmen to come and restore this beautiful set of buildings. It will be a real pleasure to watch them throughout its restoration.The bill itself—what does it do? Well it offers protection. It offers protection to enshrine those important objects of the trust so that they cannot be diminished tampered with or changed in any way other than by an Act of Parliament. I think that is really important because it speaks to how important heritage is in this particular set of buildings—because heritage is important. Many of my colleagues have talked about how saddened they have been by the loss of heritage in our city. I know that this bill actually goes towards restoring some of our faith that a beautiful set of buildings can be restored. It is going to cost an awful lot of money to do so and it is going to take the top craftsmen from around the world to do so but the trust board got it right in terms of ensuring that they have the insurance cover right and ensuring that they have the vision right. I for one am very supportive of this piece of legislation to ensure that we give the trust board the support that it needs to be able to find those people and that skill set so that it can continue to do fine work into the future.I do not really want to stand between my speech and the final passing of this bill other than to say that there have been a couple of examples in recent times where we know that heritage buildings will be saved and there is one final call to go out for one of the most significant buildings in our city. It is not too late to do what the fine people from the Arts Centre of Christchurch Trust Board have done to ensure that they retain and restore those fabulous buildings. It is not too late to make a call for our cathedral. We know that the Catholic cathedral is going to be restored and I for one am really supportive of doing everything we can to ensure that we retain as many of those beautiful old buildings that speak to our history as well as hold the thread into the future. So on that note I commend this bill to the House. Thank you very much.