Tizard Judith: Bishop Suter Art Gallery Governance Restructuring Bill — First Reading 
Tizard Judith: Bishop Suter Art Gallery Governance Restructuring Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:646;Page:15777] 
Hon JUDITH TIZARD (Associate Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to see the Bishop Suter Art Gallery Governance Restructuring Bill come before the House and I join my colleague the Hon Maryan Street in supporting this bill. 
I think that an interesting debate has been conducted through Nelson and the wider area about the future of the Bishop Suter Art Gallery and I am of course interested to look at the provisions of this bill. I particularly note that we are told that this legislation is required to relieve the future managers and kaitiaki of the Bishop Suter Art Gallery and its collection from the obligations that may have arisen under the assumptions made around money that was contributed some time ago for the renovation of the gallery and its evolution into a more modern gallery. The House has to take that issue fairly seriously. We should not allow trustees to escape lightly from obligations they have entered into. I assume the member sponsoring the bill Nick Smith will be able to convince the select committee that the new arrangement is not in any way avoiding obligations under which that money was given. 
In general to a large extent this legislation comes forward because of the extraordinarily popular Regional Museums Fund that this Government has developed over the last 8 years. I am very proud to be one of the people who argued strongly for this fund. We had seen the extraordinary change that Te Papa had made not only to the way in which New Zealand perceived our national museum and art gallery but also to the economic and social culture of Wellington. I think many people would agree with me that if more than 10 years ago we had said to friends within New Zealand or indeed to visitors from overseas “You must go to Wellington. It is the home of extraordinary facilities like Te Papa the national museum.” they would have asked what on earth we were talking about. Te Papa has changed not only the way in which Wellington sees itself but also the way in which the rest of New Zealand and much of the world sees it. 
We have seen other major museum developments like the Eastern Southland Gallery in Gore and the wonderful new museum in Masterton which have been supported by the Labour Government’s Regional Museums Fund. The major museums that have been transformed are the Christchurch Art Gallery and the Auckland War Memorial Museum. More recently we have announced a contribution of $30 million to the Auckland City Art Gallery which without question has the pre-eminent visual arts collection of New Zealand. 
I am delighted to see that councils are recognising this responsibility not only to look after the physical and functional infrastructure but also to acknowledge the responsibility given to them in the Local Government Act 2002 to consider the social environmental cultural and economic well-being of their communities now and into the future. 
I congratulate the Nelson City Council on promoting this local bill. I congratulate the member of Parliament for Nelson on sponsoring the bill. As my colleague has indicated this is an interesting and refreshing departure for a National member so I genuinely congratulate him. The Suter is an important gallery for New Zealand. It has as the leader of the Maori Party said been an important source of interesting ideas both about Nelson and about the wider region and New Zealand. 
I think Nelson is a fascinating town. The early settlers there along with Maori saw the importance of music and they set up their wonderful Nelson School of Music which has been the source of important musical training in the church as well as in secular music. The Bishop Suter Art Gallery has been acknowledged as one of the earliest art galleries and it has made an enormous difference to the way in which Nelson conducts itself. I think the Nelson Arts Festival and the wearable arts festival that have come out of Nelson are an indication of what a community can do to describe its own culture to its citizens and to the rest of the country to the benefit of everyone. 
I look forward to this legislation coming through and of course we undertake to examine it with great care in relation to the roles of the trustees now and going forward.