Auckland War Memorial Museum Site Empowering Bill

I move, That the Auckland War Memorial Museum Site Empowering Bill be now read a first time. As MP for Auckland Central I have been asked by the Auckland Museum Trust Board to promote this bill, which will enable the Auckland War Memorial Museum to expand and redevelop to meet the needs of the people of Auckland and of all New Zealanders, and of the over 70,000 schoolchildren and over 250,000 international tourists who visit the museum each year. This bill will repeal the Auckland Institute and Museum Site Empowering Act 1918, and will replace it with this new legislation allowing the leasing of land within the Auckland Domain, for the purposes of the Auckland War Memorial Museum, and for extensions to the museum. It validates the lease granted by the mayor, the councillors, and citizens of Auckland to the Auckland Museum Trust Board in 1920, and allows extensions and redevelopment of the museum.

This is only the second expansion since the museum moved to the Auckland Domain site in 1929. This project follows the extensive restoration of the fabric of the existing building done in the mid-1990s, which cost more than $45 million, of which the Government contributed $15.8 million. That ensured that the museum building is structurally sound and adequately serviced for its present functions. The proposed redevelopment of the museum is possible only if legislation allows an extension to the present lease area.

The area of land to be used has already been set aside by the Auckland City Council district plan for the museum, and resource consent under the Resource Management Act has also been granted. The passage of this bill is the final step to ensure the project can proceed. The new bill will also correct lease provisions covering the existing building, as it has been determined that the north-east and north-west corners of the building were built outside the existing lease area. This bill will correct that earlier mistake.

This project has two major elements. The first is the construction of a new southern public entrance and an eastern goods entrance, and the excavation below and filling in of the present open central courtyard. This will allow construction of new onsite collections, storage areas, conservation servicing and workshop areas, a new special exhibitions area, and an education suite with classrooms, new studio and tutorial spaces, a theatre, curatorial and staff areas, an events centre, and various supporting amenities. This part of the project will add approximately 60 percent to the existing area of the museum.

The second element of the project is to provide an underground car-park alongside and to the south-east of the existing buildings. There is currently a serious shortage of parking, in spite of the good public transport that serves the museum, and this lack is inhibiting the use by all Aucklanders of the Auckland War Memorial Museum. It is proposed that the additional car-parking will be underground, and this will enable better use of the surrounding parkland. It will also provide level weather-protected access for the elderly and for people with disabilities, which is not currently available. The Government announced earlier last year that it would make a contribution of $26.5 million over 5 years from the Regional Museums Fund towards the redevelopment of the Auckland War Memorial Museum. The total cost of the project will be double that, and the expansion project is scheduled to commence on 1 October 2003.

The Auckland War Memorial Museum is one of the biggest museum collections in New Zealand. It is one of the major cultural institutions in New Zealand that provide us with access to our heritage. It is a vital part of our cultural tourism circuit, which is important for the economic well-being of the country, as well as being a vital link in New Zealand’s growing information network.

More fundamentally, the Auckland War Memorial Museum is the keeping of our treasures, our taonga, of our art and technology, our heritage and our stories, our scientific and cultural knowledge. It is a major and respected repository of Māori taonga, of artefacts and information. It is Auckland’s major war memorial, recognising the service and sacrifice of New Zealanders overseas, from the New Zealand wars to the Boer War, to the recent peacekeeping work with which our armed forces are now involved. It recalls the names of all those servicemen and servicewomen who died in service of our country in war. It reminds us of where we have come from and how we came to be what and who we are. The Auckland War Memorial Museum provides a foundation for our sense of identity in an increasingly globalising world. It epitomises that foundation. The proposed extension to the museum’s building will enable it to fulfil all of these roles better for the future.

The Auckland War Memorial Museum is an exceptional resource for the Auckland region and for New Zealand. It is widely supported, and this has been further demonstrated by the very strong community backing for the project, with funding for 80 percent of the total project already having been pledged.

As this is a local bill, it would normally be referred to the Local Government and Environment Committee. However, because we need to have this bill reported back to the House by 15 August so that it can be passed by 1 October, I propose to ask the House’s leave to refer it to the Government Administration Committee. I thank the whips and parties in the House for giving me an assurance that they will support that. I regret that this relatively short timeframe is being forced upon us; however, the project and the bill have had wide notification and consultation already, and the time is necessary to get the project under way.

The Auckland Museum Trust Board, which is appointed by the electoral college representing local councils from across the Auckland region, has satisfied the Clerk’s Office that it has followed the Standing Orders in the preparation of this bill, and has given notices required to constituency MPs representing parts of the Auckland region. I recognise that other MPs, including list MPs, have interests in this bill, and I would urge all of those MPs to take the opportunity of the bill’s referral to the select committee to satisfy themselves that this important project will add significantly to one of the most important cultural institutions in New Zealand. I want to congratulate everybody who has been involved in this huge redevelopment project, and in the bill. I urge the select committee to give it thorough and speedy consideration and return it to the House by 15 August.

It is with pleasure that on behalf of the National Party I support this bill. The Auckland War Memorial Museum is what a war memorial should really be. It is a substantial building. It is a very, very powerful building to visit, and it is a building that my family and I love to visit—and particularly my young son loves the treasures in the museum. I would like to commend this bill to the House and to commend the work of the management and staff of the Auckland War Memorial Museum.

I am pleased to stand on behalf of New Zealand First to give support to this bill. The Auckland War Memorial Museum in earlier years was funded by all of the former local bodies in the Auckland province. While the modern funding base is provided by the seven local authorities in Auckland, there is, among the people in the Northland district, a feeling that that museum, the old museum, is part of their heritage. So, as one who hails from the north, I am pleased on our behalf to give support to this bill, as well.

The second thing that the Auckland Museum has is not just the unique collections on its three floors but also a unique library. Because of its earlier provincial origins, the library houses records and books that are not found anywhere else in New Zealand. If anyone is interested in education, it records, interestingly enough, all of the school records of every closed school in the old Auckland province. For those interested in social history it is a mine of information, which is available only there, and, for family histories, is unique. I understand that that old library, which used to be upstairs at the back, will, in the modern set-up, be much more readily accessible to all. So its stage 2 extension will make a unique difference to the memorial.

As already mentioned by the Minister, this museum was a memorial to those who died in the First World War. Subsequently the records were added to after the Second World War and other conflicts. Every name recorded there is cherished, because the names are of those who left and who did not return. People go there frequently to look at the records of those years.

The building is well sited. It is dominant. As a former teacher, I spent some time there—probably the best time in my teaching life—in taking classes. So the third thing I want to mention about the Auckland War Memorial Museum is the unique service it has given over the years to the schools of the district. In early years it had an interesting association with the teachers college; today, the funding, I believe, for teachers is from the Ministry of Education. About 65,000 students and teachers go through the museum annually. The actual work and quality of resources are unique. Anyone who has been there and seen the display of Auckland in 1866, or seen the exhibit of the “Scars of the Heart”, which I understand is about to be updated, will have seen very modern resources. In 1997 I was in Boston, went to the Boston Museum of Modern Art, and saw its unique educational set-up; today’s museum set-up in Auckland does not lose anything by comparison. Those 65,000 students and teachers are uniquely able to see something of our heritage in a presentable, modern way, which was not so in my day.

For Māori, the museum is unique. It houses the best collection, in this country, of our treasures—for those members across the House, of our taonga. It also does that as well for our people from the Pacific Islands. There is something of our maritime history in the waka there, which is interesting in view of comments here in previous days. I know that Sir Peter Buck is no longer held in high esteem, but the “Vikings of the Sunrise” was an adequate term for Māori in the past. The waka is a very visible and symbolic expression of that in the heart of the museum.

So, in conclusion, we are very pleased to support this legislation that enables stage 2 of the extension plan. The car-park, by the way, will be very much to the advantage of someone of elderly years. It will have an all-weather entrance, I understand. We will be able to go in, take the lift, and go upstairs, and that is a really big addition for the future. I was pleased to see in the drawings that the essential form of the buildings had been preserved, and the Auckland City Council, to its credit, made very certain in its consent that that was so. I wish the sponsors of the bill well, and I hope that it will be passed quickly.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: I have been advised by the Green Party that it wishes to split its call.

The Greens will be supporting this bill. We are not without some misgivings, but the extension is an excellent project. The 60-plus percent increase in floor area for display and for teaching and workshop space is a commendable commitment to this country’s heritage by Auckland, by the museum, and by the Government. It is not just about displaying material; it is about educating, about exploring, and protecting that heritage. The thousands of youngsters a year do not merely wander around that place; they have an opportunity to go and explore it, and to create materials to take back to their own classrooms and schools. The museum staff teach at Auckland University. There are events and function centres at the museum. It houses a unique and interesting blend of cultures, and identifying what it is that makes us different and interesting as people has never been so important. Globalisation is not just a threat to our economy. Imported products, imported practices, and imported programmes have long since made our kids, our shopping baskets, and our television programmes look less distinctly “us”, or ours. Learning to take delight and pride in our culture is strengthened by this museum and this project.

My concern is about the additional car-parking that the redrawn boundaries provide for. In a city crippled by cars, in a city that refuses to acknowledge that too many cars and too many car-parks are the problem, this is just 290 more car-parks. So why am I picking on the museum? Well, I am not only picking on the museum. I pick on anybody who builds car-parks these days; I do not discriminate at all, but someone has to give a lead. I have been told that the elderly and infirm have to be carried into the museum on occasions. I say that working on the problems of mobility is admirable, but it is not necessary to deprive everybody else of the pleasure of using their legs sometimes, in order to make sure those people who do have difficulty in getting around can get to the front door. I think that is great, and I hope that buses make it to the front door as well, because currently it is a bit of a drive—or a bit of a walk, shall I say.

The issues of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease are issues of people climbing into their cars all too easily. The motorcar is likely to kill vastly more people through our sedentary lifestyles than through fumes or crashes. Simply providing another car-park says: “Yes, the buses are there.”, and “Yes, you can walk there more easily now.”—and the museum is to be commended for that—but the message it gives is that one is still better off climbing into one’s car.

To its credit, the museum has done well to preserve the integrity of its reserve by putting the car-parks underground. The museum is also to be commended for improving pedestrian access. The museum has a frequent and regular bus service, but it is a little bit too far off. Perhaps sometime in the future the museum is likely to be accessible by train, and that is a great move as well. The message given by making the museum more accessible by car, however, is that the buses are for the poor. I believe it is a great museum, with a great car-park. I am glad that it will be underground, but there are still too many car-parks. We have signed up to the Kyoto Protocol, and if we had not done that the oil was likely to run out fairly soon. Calculations show clearly that while demand is still climbing, supplies of oil are rapidly dwindling, and a transport future predicated on cheap oil has a limited future. Fortunately for the museum, it is well located, and when the motorcar finally outlives its welcome the museum will have space for displaying 290 of the 20th century’s dinosaurs.

As an Auckland Green member of Parliament I would like to congratulate the Auckland Museum’s director, Rodney Wilson, and his team on the wonderful new expansion project that this bill will allow. As the Minister has just said, there is Government provision for $26.5 million towards the project costs of about $49 million, and there is still a bit of fund-raising to be done. I think that we Parliamentarians should support that fund-raising to complete this project fully. But the money is there now to begin the construction of this essential development, which will expand the exhibition space by 60 percent and allow the proper display of what is the premier museum collection in New Zealand. The museum has gone forward in leaps and bounds under its present leadership. I went there recently to see two excellent exhibitions—one of Islamic art, and the other of the series of Magnum group photographs. That exhibition was packed, as the museum often is. A huge number of Aucklanders, and people from around the country and around the world, go to that museum.

This new space will enable the museum’s collection to be displayed properly. About 3 years ago, along with the Minister, I saw a presentation by Rodney Wilson on the project, and thought it looked impressive. As my colleague has just said—and Jim Peters referred to it, too—the museum also has an important teaching mission, with 65,000 curricular students a year going through it. The museum has been so cramped that it has not even had classrooms. This new project will enable it to have two classrooms and to do its teaching work in a proper way. That teaching figure does not even include the non-curricular students. The museum has a very interactive approach, as my colleague just mentioned. Already the “Weird and Wonderful” exhibition for kids is very interactive. I have taken many kids along there, and they really enjoy it. Building on that participatory, interactive model is very important.

But the museum is not only for the public and for teaching. It is a very important research facility, and is really part of our tertiary sector in that regard. The researchers at the museum exchange with tertiary institutes, and some of its people go and teach in tertiary institutions. Its library matches the Hocken and Alexander Turnbull libraries as one of our major research libraries.

The Green Party fully supports this development. My colleague has discussed some of the questions of parking, but I hope the underground park will enable the museum and Auckland Domain’s main management, Auckland City, to tidy up the parking issue on the domain as a whole. It is rather dangerous at the present time on the northern and eastern sides of the museum, with cars everywhere, and it would be a step forward if the parking could be rationalised into an underground car park.

Of course, as my colleague has said, we want to see an improvement in public transport in Auckland that will help people to get to the museum. Already, as the Minister said, there is public transport. The Link bus goes past it at two points—at the hospital and in Parnell Road—and a very good development is taking place with a local Parnell resident, Richard Simpson, leading the way in trying to establish a footbridge from Birdwood Crescent into the domain, close to the museum. That is important, not just for pedestrian access. There is a proposal associated with it to have a museum railway station there, so that people can go by train, get off, go across the footbridge, and get up to the museum. There are other proposals associated with the big regional rail development plan for Auckland—to have either an underground or a rapid rail service up through Auckland City with a stop at the hospital, close by the museum. Hopefully, with that big regional rail development, we can get people into the centre of the city from the outskirts quickly, so that they can travel to the museum by public transport, and by rail, in particular.

The Auckland Museum is a jewel in Auckland’s crown. As Jim Peters said, it is wonderfully located in the midst of a domain that is very much used by Aucklanders.

I rise as an Auckland list MP to support this bill. As the last speaker was saying, Auckland War Memorial Museum is an icon in the city. Not only are New Zealanders sufficiently satisfied with it—and Aucklanders, in particular—but many overseas people take home with them both the view and the interest they have gained from that place. This bill, as we have been told, allows the Auckland War Memorial Museum to lease land from the Auckland Domain. The land has been ceded to the museum by the Auckland City Council as if that has always been the case since 1920. We support that transaction, and I think the extension to the museum will be greatly used by future generations. It is there to create opportunities for more people to see what the museum can offer, and that can only be a good thing, in my understanding.

In terms of visitor numbers, I am told that the Auckland War Memorial Museum is the second-largest museum in the country. The museum has a very large collection but, as my family and I have known in the past, it has struggled to have sufficient space to display the material. If I am right, there will be about a 60 percent increase in display space, and that alone will interest my grandchildren, if not my great-grandchildren, immensely. They love being in that place. The museum holds items of national significance, as we all know, and it challenges the notion, dare I say it from Auckland, that Te Papa is our only national museum. I believe we need to recognise that some of the collections in Auckland are of national importance and value to the whole nation.

Having said that, the Auckland War Memorial Museum has not been without its controversies. The Minister will remember that a certain Mr Harry Corrin, a veteran from World War II, has for several years fought to stop the plans to build a restaurant on top of the museum, claiming that that would commercialise the institution when, in his mind—and in many minds—the whole thing is a war memorial. So it must be remembered that this is not just another museum, since it has very special connections for those who have served the country in the armed forces in many clashes over the years, beginning, I am told, from World War I. That means that major decisions relating to the museum must be handled with a degree of sensitivity towards those who also see it as a monument to the fallen. My uncle’s name is there, as a result of his falling in the Second World War. I have been there many, many times for Anzac Day parades in the morning—and I wish they would change Anzac Day to a nice warm day, rather than having it in winter when it always rains. I take my children and my grandchildren there to benefit from some hot soup afterwards. I am sure the Minister and others are aware that as the generations pass on, the museum becomes even more important for remembering the sacrifices of those who have gone before us.

Clearly, this bill needs to be taken seriously and passed quickly, because of the time lines. We in United Future look to the select committee to identify any potential difficulties that its enactment may create.

I want to thank all parties in the House, and all the members who have spoken, for their unanimous support for the institution that is the Auckland War Memorial Museum and for its redevelopment plans. I recognise that the museum is both architecturally and spiritually important to all Aucklanders and to all New Zealanders. I agree that it is also of deep significance to people further north and to many people around the country, and that it has a particular role as a treasure house and a house of learning for Māori. The role of the Auckland Museum Institute over many years has meant that it is also a research institution of great respect and width, and I thank Keith Locke and Mike Ward for their comments about that research and education role. I assure them that transport planning is a major aspect of the new redevelopment project and that all the comments they have raised have been taken into account, and will be considered by the select committee and the Auckland Museum Trust Board as the redevelopment is planned.

I particularly want to thank Bernie Ogilvy and United Future. I agree with them that there has never been an important project that did not have controversy. However, I believe the trust board has done a good job of balancing all those concerns—of recognising the spiritual and sacred value of this museum as a war memorial, as well as providing for all the other needs a museum must provide for. I thank all members of the House, and I look forward to the speedy consideration of this bill in the Government Administration Committee.

Bill read a first time.

I seek leave for the Auckland War Memorial Museum Site Empowering Bill to be referred to the Government Administration Committee, notwithstanding Standing Order 282, and that it be an instruction to the committee that it report the bill by 15 August 2003.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Leave is sought to move that motion. Is there any disagreement. There is not. The motion is considered moved.

By leave, Auckland War Memorial Museum Site Empowering Bill referred to the Government Administration Committee.