Dean Jacqui: Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Dean Jacqui: Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 08 May 2012. Volume:679;Page:2063. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki) 
: 
 In the first reading of the Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Bill I say that I am looking to this bill to make the Historic Places Trust a more user-friendly organisation and also to be more responsive to the wishes of the wider community. I am going to give a few examples of what I mean by my desire to see that in this bill and what I am seeing in this bill and I draw the House’s attention in particular to clause 80 of the bill which covers these matters. The Waitaki electorate is rich with built heritage whether it is Oamaru itself and the built heritage the Edwardian heritage which is a notable feature of the town or whether it is the signs of early Chinese occupation in Central Otago and early settlement there. All around the electorate there are the gold diggings and all sorts of built heritage features. You should not really start naming them because you will leave some out. But 
there are a few instances that have come to me as the local member and one of those I want to talk about as an example of how I want to see the Historic Places Trust change. I think the bill will allow it to give wider consideration of some of the issues that come to it.  
One of them is the stamper battery which is on the Old Man Range out of Alexandra. It is an old gold mining relic and the stamper battery is this wonderful contraption that literally has batteries that stamp. They crush ore and gold is extracted. It is driven by a waterwheel. The waterwheel sits outside the Central Stories Museum in Alexandra and is enjoyed by thousands and thousands of people every year. In fact the Central Stories Museum in Alexandra is a wonderful example of a regional museum telling the story of New Zealand’s history and built heritage.  
A group was formed that had the desire to bring the stamper battery which is the other part of this waterwheel contraption for extracting gold down from the Old Man Range and to restore it—because of course it was lying in bog—and put it on display for everybody to enjoy. They had quite a long battle with the Department of Conservation which ultimately in about 2008 gave its consent for the stamper battery to be brought down from the Old Man Range but we still had the barrier of the Historic Places Trust. Its objection ran along the lines of no it has to stay up where it is high altitude sitting in bog decaying away and can be reached only by four-wheel drive and then you have to walk down a very steep slope so it requires a good deal of mobility. Really it is under snow for a lot of the year and safely accessible for only about 36 days in the year. It seemed to me that that fixed position is more of a barrier than making our built heritage accessible to more New Zealanders.  
There is also the Oamaru basilica—a beautiful building a category I building but the presbytery associated with it is not. It is a mishmash of many years of alteration on behalf of the Catholic community and the Catholic community who own the building wish to have it reclassified. They have found it extremely difficult to have that done. I am hoping that consideration will be given to that and I see clause 80 and I think that that might provide a way forward for that community for the future of their building.  
Also I have had a number of people come to me. There was the private homeowner in Palmerston with a beautiful old manse. It had a heritage classification and they were most upset at the prospect of Historic Places Trust people coming into their home and classifying it. It was a bit like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. There are ways of doing these things working with the community and I hope that the changes signalled in this Historic Places Trust bill will enable that to happen. I certainly know that that is the will of the Minister who is promoting this bill so I hope it is going to happen.  
This bill will provide for a new process for archaeological consenting which will be faster simpler and more efficient. It will reduce costs and also difficulties for property owners. We must never forget that a number of our built heritage properties are in private ownership. We have got to think about their interests too. I commend the bill to the House.