Field Taito Phillip: Auckland War Memorial Museum Site Empowering Bill — Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Third Reading 
Field Taito Phillip: Auckland War Memorial Museum Site Empowering Bill — Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:611;Page:8369] 
Hon TAITO PHILLIP FIELD (Minister of State) 
: 
 As an Auckland MP I am very happy to contribute to the second reading debate on this bill. It is a bill that is certainly overdue in relation to the money that needs to be put into significant improvements to the Auckland War Memorial Museum and I congratulate the Minister with Responsibility for Auckland Issues the Hon Judith Tizard on sponsoring it. 
It is interesting that we found through the select committee process that there are discrepancies and previous speakers have aptly pointed to the discrepancies that need to be validated by this new piece of legislation. It is quite amazing that we have found that some of the decisions made long ago are now quite out of kilter in relation to the lease arrangements for the land and needed to be validated also in relation to the 1918 Act. It has been determined that the museum site is on the cone of the volcano instead of the slope and therefore the bill makes it clear that the site should be exempted from section 5 of the Reserves and other Lands Disposal and Public Bodies Empowering Act 1915. One only hopes that we do not have an eruption of that volcano in the short or long-term future. Obviously if that occurs some of the valuable artefacts the heritage and history that we have in the museum may be lost. 
I want to congratulate the Government Administration Committee on its work. The improvement that we hope to see developed next month in October is a significant one and it is most apt that this legislation is going through the House tonight. The sum of $46.5 million has been dedicated to the redevelopment of the site which will mean a 60 percent extension to the facility’s interior space plus a new underground car park which will improve the facility—certainly from the point of view of visitors. The Auckland War Memorial Museum is still one of the most visited attractions in Auckland. It is very important in terms of various aspects—not only in terms of what museums represent and what is stored in them from an educational and heritage point of view but also in terms of the Pacific region. 
As some of my colleagues have mentioned the museum houses artefacts from the South Pacific that are very important and valuable for the region. I take up and support the points that have been made by my colleague Judith Collins in relation to some of the Pacific treasures and taonga that are in the Auckland War Memorial Museum. They are valuable not just for Polynesia and its history but also for Melanesia and Micronesia as my colleagues have mentioned. I am sure that the Pacific leaders who came to the Pacific Islands Forum recently would have been quite surprised at the treasures from the Pacific that are in the Auckland museum if some of them had visited the museum during their short stay in New Zealand. 
I commend the work done by the select committee on the bill. It is a bill that has the cross-party support of all parties and all members of the House. I believe that it is a very good bill and I congratulate the Minister who is sponsoring the bill and those who have worked to improve the legislation. We have a worthy bill that will inject a significant amount of money into improving the Auckland War Memorial Museum which is not just a museum but is also a tribute and memorial to those who have fallen in battle and paid the ultimate sacrifice for the freedom that we enjoy today. 
Bill read a second time.