Dalziel Lianne: Christ’s College (Canterbury) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Dalziel Lianne: Christ’s College (Canterbury) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:661;Page:9582] 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL (Labour—Christchurch East) 
: 
 It is always a pleasure to follow on from Aaron Gilmore. It is quite interesting that he has referred to the transfer of property because a young friend of mine contacted me on my Facebook page a couple of days ago. He said he was talking to Aaron Gilmore at an event here in Wellington recently and Aaron Gilmore had told him that I had sold my property and was moving out of the electorate. That is really bizarre. So it is very strange to stand in the House and have a debate about the transfer of property when in fact that is the sort of nonsense that that person has succumbed to in his desperate attempts to win a position as an electorate member of Parliament. But of course he cannot manage to get to the point where he is standing in Christchurch East. 
It is my honour and privilege to have been the union organiser for Christ’s College’s boarding house. Everyone is looking for a personal connection to Christ’s College and that is my connection. I used to be the Canterbury Hotel and Hospital Workers Union organiser. I helped to organise the boarding school workers— 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: The kitchen workers. 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL 
: Yes the kitchen workers and those who cleaned the dorms. I helped them to organise a campaign that saw their wages and conditions of employment improve dramatically in the mid-1980s. I am very proud of the time that I spent representing those workers at Christ’s College. I always had a very good working relationship with all of the schools that operated under the boarding schools award. They were I think quite genuinely supportive of improving the wages and conditions of employment for a group workers largely women who had seen themselves as being in a situation where increasing the minimum wage was the only mechanism by which they would improve their pay and conditions. 
I have visited Christ’s College on many many occasions. I was there again last year in my role as the Opposition spokesperson on justice to talk to young people about the changes that were being proposed in terms of the Law Commission report on the sale of liquor. I took the discussion document along with me. I gave a briefing to the students and we had a very very lively debate on the issue of the sale of liquor. This school is actively engaged. I come from Christchurch and have found that my old school that I went to is now a drug and alcohol rehab centre. This makes things a little difficult because the first question someone who comes from Christchurch is asked is which school he or she went to and in those circumstances I am left with the embarrassment of having to confess that the Catholic girls’ school that I went to is now probably appropriately a drug and alcohol rehab centre. 
The point that I want to make is that there is a divide in Christchurch. The Catholic schools produce the lawyers for the Catholic law firms; the private Anglican schools produce them for others. It has always been that way. Of course that has changed a lot since the early years and we have seen much less emphasis on where one went to school. But there is no question that the old school tie is important in Christchurch. I think that there are three members of Parliament here at this time who are old boys of the school where all my brothers went which was St Bede’s College. Of course in terms of the old school tie as far as St Bede’s College goes the House has Gerry Brownlee Peter Dunne Clayton Cosgrove and Damien O’Connor. Four members attended that school. 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: David Carter. 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL 
: And David Carter. So there are five old boys from St Bede’s College in the House and Christ’s College has really has missed out on that benefit. But there is no question that the old school tie is still alive and well. 
We are happy to support anything that we can do to assist Christ’s College with regard to any difficulties that it has in administering its properties. I think that a select committee will have a bit of work to do to make sure that the technical detail of the bill is right. I know that several of my colleagues have mentioned how lucky the private sector—the independent schools—is in not having national standards imposed on it by the National Government. But that is OK; on this occasion the issue is about whether the administration of the property vested in the college is such that it is able to meet the originally intended purpose. That is why we will support this bill being referred to a select committee. We look forward to working on it.