Willis NicolaNICOLA WILLIS (National): I rise to speak on Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 224 and in doing so I think I'm going to change the tone of the debate in this House for a few minutes because this is an SOP that National agrees with the Government on. This is an SOP that represents a step forward for New Zealand and it reflects some recent events in our history particularly here in Wellington that I want to reflect on because this SOP seeks to change the process by which a university can change its name. It ensures that in future if any university is to change its name it will require a resolution in support from this Parliament. What's in a name? Why do names matter? Why does this SOP matter? Well we've come to reflect on that here in Wellington in recent months as Victoria University of Wellington has sought to change its name. The identity and brand of Victoria University of Wellington has been 120 years in the making. It is contained in the name printed on tens of thousands of degree certificates and on CVs of graduates around the world and around this city. People have a relationship with their former university and that relationship is held in its name and in the case of Victoria University of Wellington the idea of changing that name to something else entirely represented for many many people a step backwards and a dangerous step. However the university council proposed to change the name regardless of the views of its community. It became clear that community members did not support that change. Students graduates staff took the opportunity to have their voices heard. More than 10000 people signed a petition opposing it 92 percent of student submitters opposed it 81 percent of alumni submitters opposed it staff members were divided on it and online polls showed opposition running nine to one. And we in this House many of us asked how could the council possibly proceed with a name change that so clearly lacked the backing of its community? Yet that proposal came forward to the Minister. I have previously commended the Minister for his decision to reject that name change and I commend him again in this House this afternoon.But what it showed us was that the process is potentially flawed if a university can potentially threaten to take a Minister to court in these circumstances can potentially threaten to judicially review a decision because of a lack of clarity in the law. What this SOP does then is make it abundantly clear that the process requires the support of Parliament. The history here I think will remember the petition of Hugh Rennie QC who detailed the challenges in the current law and we as a select committee heard that petition. We will remember the submissions of Sir Kenneth Keith of Sir Geoffrey Palmer and I also want to pay tribute to Gwynn Compton who put together the petition on this matter.So what this SOP does I think is it says that actually names do matter because we as representatives in this House—in future if a university wishes to change its name—will have to satisfy ourselves that we think that's the right thing to happen. And I would venture that members of this House will feel similarly to how I did when my university sought to change its name that that was something I felt should not proceed unless it had the support of the community unless it could be demonstrated that it would bring significant benefit to that community. And I believe that members of this House are well placed to make those judgments in the future and therefore I think that the Supplementary Order Paper is a good step forward for this Parliament. We have had over the course of the debate about the name of Victoria University of Wellington debate about all sorts of things but I want to finally in closing this contribution say that yes names matter but what also matters is the community of a university. Victoria University of Wellington is a great institution and I commend all of those who've been involved in this debate to come together in support of that institution so we can move forward. I call all of us to come together so that we can support that university and its future and that we can be clear that in future no other university will be able to change its name in this way. We have all learnt from this debate and good things have come of it. Thank you Madam Chair.