Ogilvy Bernie: Auckland War Memorial Museum Site Empowering Bill — Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Third Reading 
Ogilvy Bernie: Auckland War Memorial Museum Site Empowering Bill — Second Reading Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:611;Page:8365] 
BERNIE OGILVY (United Future) 
: 
 It gives me great pleasure to support the second reading of the bill. The bill allows the Auckland War Memorial Museum to lease the land in the domain as well as including the planned extension to build a new underground car-park. It also ensures that the lease granted to the Auckland Museum Trust Board by the Auckland City Council in 1920 extends to the land included in the schedule and will be treated as if this had always been the case. 
I would like to take this opportunity to speak about how these plans will be affected by the work of the Government Administration Committee in scrutinising this bill. I certainly put on record my gratitude to the members of that committee for doing such a thorough job on the bill. I am an Auckland-based MP so I have a really keen interest in how the bill proceeds. 
The purpose of this bill is to validate the lease of land in the Auckland Domain to the Auckland Museum Trust Board for the Auckland War Memorial Museum and to increase the land area subject to that lease so that redevelopment plans for the museum can proceed. In doing so the bill repeals the Auckland Institute and Museum Site Empowering Act of 1918. A sensible recommendation was made by the committee to clarify that the lease includes both the existing area and the proposed leased area. The difficulty with the bill as it stood was that it was unclear whether the description referred to the existing leased area the proposed leased area or both. I think the Surveyor-General pointed out this potential confusion and advised that it was more accurate to describe the original area as the lease by referring to the plan that defined it rather than to the latest plan outlined in the schedule of the bill because this shows the original area only as an abuttal. The committee recommended that the bill be amended to ensure that it referred to both the existing and the proposed leased area and this seems to me to be an eminently sensible suggestion. 
It should be noted that this bill also has a retrospective effect because it corrects anomalies between the existing location of the museum building and the legal description of the site leased to the board back in 1918 through the 1918 Act. In general I am not in favour of making retrospective law on principle. But in this case I can see that this would serve to correct an error and that act would not conceivably cause harm to anyone. Thus the bill validates the lease granted in 1920 by the Auckland City Council to the enactment of this bill. 
I think it is right for the Auckland Museum Trust Board to seek a new bill to tidy this up once and for all rather than deciding as was an option to amend or repeal the 1918 Act. That also shows in the council’s support for the bill during the submission process as it also supports the redevelopment of the museum. The land described in the schedule of the bill is also deemed to have been always covered by that lease. 
I was fascinated to learn that the discrepancy between the leased area in the 1918 Act and the actual location of the museum building was discovered only when the proposed car-park which will be a part of the redevelopment was surveyed. I guess that is what progress is all about—we find out little things like this. Given that the museum has been there for 70 years I see no reason that now when redevelopment is about to begin this legislation should not have retrospective effect. 
The other thing to remember is that the council already considers that the total lease area in the bill is largely within the area set out by the district plan for “museum purposes” within of course the Auckland Domain. It should be pointed out that any development in the Auckland Domain is also subject to extensive controls according to the district plan. The council has already issued a resource consent for the redevelopment and it should be noted that this has been supported by the Historic Places Trust. The council has also made it very clear that any development in the Auckland Domain will always be subject to wide public and expert scrutiny. This also applies to a rather curious element that applies most specifically to development in the Auckland area. 
Because the museum is situated on a volcanic cone it is included under a very old Act namely section 5 of the Reserves and Other Lands Disposal and Public Bodies Empowering Act of 1915 which restricts quarrying excavations terraces or cutting on the side or slope of volcanic cones or hills bounded by or abutting a public reserve. Because the museum site for the proposed car-park sits on top of the volcanic cone not on its side or on a slope then the 1915 Act on the face of it in any case does not apply to this very case. Indeed the 1915 Act was not an issue when the museum was extended on two occasions both in 1929 and 1960. Even so I think it was wise for the committee to have put this issue beyond any doubt and to have recommended an amendment that would exempt the lease from the requirement of the 1915 Act. 
Because the proposed lease area has been expanded from the original it does include existing and proposed roadways immediately adjacent to the museum buildings. I have found out that all roadways in the Auckland Domain fall under the provisions of the Auckland Domain Act which effectively means that all roadways within the domain remain in the ownership of the council with consequent responsibility for their upkeep and maintenance. I commend the select committee’s decision to amend this bill to make absolutely sure that all the roadways on the proposed lease area are subject to the Auckland Domain Act and therefore remain under the council’s responsibility. I note also that this has already been agreed to between the council and the board. Similarly the move to strike out reference to the 1918 Act—the very Act that will be repealed by this bill—means that a consequential amendment will be required to the Auckland Domain Act. This will exchange reference to the 1918 Act with reference to the Auckland War Memorial Museum Site Empowering Act of 2003 particularly for the purposes of determining responsibility for the care and upkeep of the domain roadways. Once again I believe that this was a sensible recommendation by the select committee. 
I think at this point it is timely to remind members of what the statutory role of the Auckland War Memorial Museum is as defined by the Auckland War Memorial Museum Act of 1996 because we have to look at what this bill attempts in that context. The board is entrusted with the recording and presentation of the history and environment of the Auckland region New Zealand the South Pacific and in more general terms the rest of the world. It has responsibility for the institution itself involving conservation of the heritage of the museum and of global resources. Something that should definitely not be forgotten is the role of the museum as a war memorial which is something that I would like to talk about during the later stages of this bill. 
The museum celebrates the rich cultural diversity of the Auckland region and its peoples. It provides education that involves and entertains people to enrich their lives. It promotes the well-being of society and advances and promotes cultural and scientific scholarship and research. And not to be forgotten the museum is now committed to greater financial self-sufficiency through the prudent operation of compatible revenue-producing and fundraising activities that supplement public funding. The goal is to provide maximum community benefit from the resources available and that should be the watchword for the museum as it prepares to embark on a major redevelopment at a very significant cost. This bill facilitates that process and I hope that the goals I have mentioned remain uppermost in the mind of the board as it proceeds with its plans.