Wagner Nicky: Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Wagner Nicky: Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 08 May 2012. Volume:679;Page:2058. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
NICKY WAGNER (National—Christchurch Central) 
: 
 I rise to support the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Bill. As you heard from the Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage this bill will replace the Historic Places Act 1993. It changes the governance structure of the Historic Places Trust and it introduces new archaeological provisions and new emergency provisions. It will also update the drafting of the bill and improve the workability of the Act.  
The New Zealand Historic Places Trust was established in 1955 as a voluntary organisation but it is now an autonomous Crown entity with statutory responsibilities and over the years it has developed into a professional organisation with over 100 fulltime-equivalent staff. Over the years the members of the Historic Places Trust have done wonderful work. Volunteers have worked long and hard to identify to protect to restore and to raise the profile and appreciation of the heritage of our country. However as the organisation has become more professional and mostly funded by the Crown there has been some confusion and some tensions between the volunteers the members of the branch committees and the staff of the organisations and their statutory responsibilities.  
The Crown now provides 80 percent of the Historic Places Trust’s funding of a total budget of about $15 million. Less than 5 percent of that income comes from membership subscriptions. The new bill will allow for ongoing membership but it disestablishes the branch committees. Volunteers will be encouraged to support the work of the organisation. For example they do a lot of work in terms of managing guiding and being involved with the 48 historic places that are administered by the trust. But others who want a more active role in advocacy will be encouraged to form new independent organisations and Heritage New Zealand is interested in working in partnership with these organisations.  
As the MP for Christchurch Central I am particularly interested in the provisions of the bill that concern emergency authorities. But before I discuss this further I would like to pay tribute to the Historic Places Trust and the work that it has been doing in Christchurch since the earthquakes. Malcolm Duff and his team have worked tirelessly. We have seen them day after day under really difficult circumstances in and out of civil defence headquarters trying to get the best possible outcomes for heritage and for our special buildings in Christchurch.  
The problems were absolutely magnified by the significant number of earthquakes simply because they had to keep on looking at analysing and re-deciding what to do with buildings. In many cases restoration plans had to be re-thought through and then re-thought through again and then finally re-thought through again—and in some cases actually abandoned as the earthquakes continued. In some cases earthquake strengthening emergency propping work and even remedial work did not save valuable buildings.  
Although some of our special buildings in Christchurch have survived—for example the Christ’s College complex the museum area and the Arts Centre—and although that has been damaged it will be restored—many of our well-loved buildings have been extremely badly damaged and only some will be rebuilt.  
We have two cathedrals—we have the neo-Gothic cathedral which was designed by George Gilbert Scott and Benjamin Mountfort in our Cathedral Square and then we also have the Frances William Petre cathedral which is a French-style neoclassical Catholic basilica in Madras Street—and both these cathedrals are in that category. The provincial chambers are also a particularly significant building but the provincial chambers are in public ownership and I am hopeful that we will be able to rebuild those although I suspect that it is going to be a very long and probably gruelling task.  
Christchurch has been fortunate to have two distinctive cathedrals and I have always enjoyed the story about George Bernard Shaw who visited Christchurch in 1934 and complimented his hosts on the beautiful cathedral. Of course they thought he meant the cathedral in Cathedral Square but “No” he replied “it was that one down by the gasworks.” Of course that is the Catholic cathedral the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament which is well known as probably one of the most beautiful buildings in Australasia.  
 But I will come back to emergency powers. The bill establishes a separate emergency authority process that applies in the case of natural disasters. These are the disasters that could cause or are likely to cause loss of life injury or serious damage to property. The process will give Heritage New Zealand the ability to process archaeological authorities more speedily following a state of emergency. The time frames are shorter reflecting the emergency context and are not limited to working days. In other words weekends and public holidays must be included in the calculation of times.  
It will be very pleasing if something good can come out of the Christchurch earthquakes and if we can use the experience to ensure that this legislation is fit for purpose and can be used in future disaster situations. I think it is timely that we review this present Act and I think it is important that we get the legislation right. Therefore I commend this bill to the House.