Hughes Darren: New Zealand Geographic Board (Nga Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa) Bill — Third Reading 
Hughes Darren: New Zealand Geographic Board (Nga Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa) Bill — Third Reading 
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Hon DARREN HUGHES (Deputy Leader of the House) 
 on behalf of the  
Minister for Land Information 
: I move  
That the New Zealand Geographic Board (Nga Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa) Bill be now read a third time 
. It is with great pleasure that I move that this bill be read a third time. This bill repeals and replaces the New Zealand Geographic Board Act of 1946. 
Hon George Hawkins 
: A good year! 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: I am told that that was a very good year by the member for Manurewa and I will take his word on that for an Act that is 62 years old. Clearly that Act needed to be modernised and that is what the bill before the House does. It is the result of a comprehensive review and of consultation involving the public iwi central and local government and sectoral groups across our economy community and society. The bill will ensure that New Zealand’s sovereign right to officially name our places and our geographic features is given modern legislative backing here in 2008. 
A case concerning New Zealand’s continental shelf boundaries has been submitted to the United Nations to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. If that is approved our country’s legal continental shelf area will be the fourth-largest in the world and 24 times the land area of our country. Having the fourth-largest continental shelf in the world is something for us to pause and reflect on when we normally consider ourselves to be a small country at the bottom of the earth with only 4.27 million people. This will give us an area that is quite a size in comparison with the territorial limits of other countries. An official undersea feature naming process will be coordinated by the New Zealand Geographic Board under this bill which if it receives its third reading will become an Act. That will fit with New Zealand’s responsible stewardship of the continental shelf. 
New Zealand extends beyond the land we see every day on the maps or on the weather forecasts we see on the television news at night. The undersea part of New Zealand is our legal continental shelf and as I have already said and members have commented on during this bill’s passage through the House an area that is 24 times the size of New Zealand’s land area sits below the sea and the ocean. That area is now the subject of increasing research and exploration activity. The Associate Minister of Energy the Hon Harry Duynhoven would no doubt be able to expand on that. Naturally that area is of high strategic importance for New Zealand and is a new area in terms of our thinking. 
The extent of the board’s jurisdiction under the existing Act is only to the 12 nautical mile territorial limit. The bill increases the board’s jurisdiction to include the naming of undersea features within New Zealand’s continental shelf. That is quite an exciting development that I know the House has been debating throughout the passage of the bill. New Zealand Aotearoa has sovereign rights over its continental shelf as one would expect. In some places it extends to over 200 nautical miles from our coastline. So the bill not only modernises the 1946 Act but also extends the board’s jurisdiction from just 12 nautical miles which it has been since 1946 to a 2008 version of 200 nautical miles. That will enable us to protect that area and also to ensure that its naming is consistent with the values and principles that we uphold. Exercising those naming rights over the areas under discussion with regard to this bill demonstrates our sovereign right as a country to those areas. 
The Government knows that the official naming of geographic places and features is very important to communities. That was evident just last night in the Committee stage of the bill when members of Parliament took the opportunity to reflect on names from their own areas that they come from across our country. Members reflected on not only the naming of towns but also the naming of geographic features and waterways that are very important to us for our sense of identity—our sense of where we are from and who we are. We are connected with the names of settlements localities mountains rivers and lakes because they reflect our culture and our heritage as New Zealanders. From the Minister for Land Information’s involvement in some of the place names that the board deals with he has been able to gauge the intensity of feeling that names can generate—sometimes far beyond what it might appear on a first look. These are place names with history and memories for people. Sometimes the memories are of the immediate period—the 40 50 or 60 years that people’s own lifetime might cover. In other areas particularly from a Te Ao Maori perspective the memories go back hundreds or thousands of years—certainly hundreds of years. 
Hone Harawira 
: Thousands; you were right. 
Hon DARREN HUGHES 
: I can correct the  
Hansard 
 later. There is certainly a much longer point of view in terms of the memories and shared history that goes on. So getting this bill right is very very important. 
Knowing the correct names for places and their location is also important from a practical point of view for the emergency services to be able to respond quickly to incidents. That is very very important particularly in rural areas where it is not always apparent when services are being dispatched exactly where they have to go. We are reminded of that a lot in our own constituencies. It is also important for business in their transactions to know the correct place names and that is also important for all of us as Kiwis generally in all manner of everyday communications and activities. 
This bill provides for the ongoing work of the board in a modern context and provides for public input. We believe that has been very important through the passage of this bill through the Government Administration Committee—which I know was chaired very ably by Mr Ardern the member for Taranaki - King Country—and will also be very important for members of the public who are dealing with the board going forward after today. People in our country want to express their opinion over their place names and place naming and this bill allows for public involvement to a degree that is heavily expanded from what they have normally been used to. Although there are more opportunities for people to be involved the bill also streamlines parts of the public consultation processes on proposed names by enabling any person or organisation to submit a proposal. The bill provides increased flexibility in the board’s arrangements for conducting its consultations for public input. 
Land Information New Zealand the Government agency charged with responsibility for administering this legislation will be required to provide public access to a record of official geographic names by publishing and maintaining an online gazette of official geographic names. The record will contain locational and historical information for those names which will be of enormous benefit to people who are researching areas and also to people who are trying to establish in a more formal sense for their community its identity and history. An easily accessible online gazette is needed for both official and public purposes—the work we do as a Government and the work that communities will want to do together and with each other. 
The bill gives the board a concurrent role in determining names for protected areas that are managed by the Department of Conservation which is responsible for a very large area of New Zealand’s land mass. The bill does that by formally involving the board in the naming process for places on conservation land. 
Under the bill the addition of two new positions on the board will ensure that it better represents a wide range of constituents and fulfils additional responsibilities. One new position is an ex officio position for the official who has prime responsibility for hydrographic standards in New Zealand. That is an important step given the vast area of ocean that New Zealand has sovereign jurisdiction over. This new board member is required because of the significant extension of the board’s functions to include undersea feature naming over the continental shelf. The other new board member is from local government and will be nominated by Local Government New Zealand. This member is required because of the proposal to devolve responsibility for official suburb and locality naming to local authorities. However at the same time it is necessary to ensure that that naming is consistent with the need for standardised but not duplicated address information systems across the country. 
The bill improves the accountability provisions relating to the board by the requirement to submit an annual report to the Minister on its activities and performance. The board will also now be subject to the Ombudsmen Act 1975. It is already subject of course to the Official Information Act and that will continue. 
The Minister Mr Parker would again like to thank the select committee and the members thereof for their work in examining this bill and in considering public submissions. The Government is pleased and proud to commend the New Zealand Geographic Board (Nga Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa) Bill to the House. 
Debate interrupted.