Historic Places Amendment Act 2006

Updated on 5 July 2006

The Historic Places Amendment Act amends the Historic Places Act 1993. The Amendment Act comes into effect on 1 August 2006.

The Purpose of the Act

The purpose of the Historic Places Amendment Act is:

• To strengthen the NZHPT's governance arrangements
• To provide consistency in the notifications and submissions processes for registration of historic places, historic areas, wahi tapu and wahi tapu areas
• To clarify some sections of the Historic Places Act 1993.

Changes to the NZHPT Board

The Historic Places Amendment Act reduces the size of the current NZHPT Board from eleven to nine members, and increases the number of government appointees from three to six, while retaining three elected members.

The current Board composition is:

• 3 persons (the chairperson and 2 Maori members) appointed by the Minister;
• 3 persons elected by the NZHPT's subscribing members; and
• 5 persons (including at least 1 Maori member) appointed by the Board.

The amended Board provided for in the Amendment Act is:

• 6 persons appointed by the Minister including at least 3 appointed in regard to their knowledge of te ao Maori (Maori world view) and tikanga Maori (Mari protocol and culture); and
• 3 persons elected by the NZHPT's subscribing members.

A smaller board is considered more consistent with current practice in the wider state sector in New Zealand and with Crown Entity status of the NZHPT provided for in the Crown Entities Act 2004.An increased proportion of Crown appointees on the Board recognises that the government provides the majority of the NZHPT's funding;

The consequences of the changes to the Board, together with autonomous Crown Entity status are to enhance the NZHPT's accountability to Parliament and the public in relation to the use of public funds and the carrying out of public functions. It is of great importance to the NZHPT to have governance and accountability arrangeent consistent with current best practice and to implement them effectively.

The changes to the composition of the Board will not affect the NZHPT's functions or independence.

• The NZHPT's purpose, principles, functions and powers will remain unchanged
• The NZHPT will retain its statutory independence through a provision in the Crown Entities Act 2004 that the Minister may not direct the NZHPT in relation to heritage matters
• The Board membership will continue to include three members elected by the NZHPT's subscribing membership. The three-yearly elections took place in June 2006, and the candidates declared elected in July 2006 will serve on the Board for the next three years.
• The NZHPT's branch committees and public membership will continue.

Changes to registration processes

The Historic Places Amendment Act contains amendments to the registration provisions deriving from recommendations made by Professor Peter Skelton in his review of registration.

The main change is to provide for consistency in the notifications and submissions processes for registration of historic places, historic areas, wahi tapu and wahi tapu areas. Many of the changes have been included in the NZHPT's registration policy and standard operating procedures in recent years.

In summary, the main changes relating to registration include:

• Clarification of the definition of "historic place" to include all combinations of land, buildings, structures, and parts of buildings and/or structures (as is current policy)
• The requirement to notify historic area and wahi tapu area registration proposals (as is current policy)
• Clarification that the NZHPT is not required to give notification of historic area or wahi tapu area proposals to an owner of the area or part of the area if the person or the address is unidentifiable from publicly available records
• The requirement to notify regional councils of registration proposals, registration decisions, and also specific historic area and wahi tapu conservation and protection recommendations
• Clarification that submissions can be made for all types of registration proposals (previously implemented as a matter of policy)
• Providing that the maximum submission period will be 40 days (previously this was unlimited at the NZHPT's discretion)
• The requirement to have registration proposals for historic places and historic areas of interest to Maori considered by the Maori Heritage Council (previously implemented as a matter of policy)
• Providing a consistent process for review of registrations across types of registration, and that applications for reviews of registration must be considered by NZHPT within one year of receipt of the application (rather than two).
  
• Providing that interim protection will be optional (previously compulsory) when proposing as part of a review of registration to change the category of a registered historic place to Category I
• A new shorter process to remove from the Register a historic place, historic area, wahi tapu or wahi tapu area that has been destroyed or demolished.
  

Other amendments

The Amendment Act includes a range of other technical amendments to provide clarification. These include:

• Provision that an archaeological authority may not commence before the relevant rights to appeal have expired or before any appeals are resolved (previously implemented as a matter of policy)
• Clarification for the grounds for defence against prosecution under the Historic Places Act relating to an event beyond the control of the defendant. A defendent must demonstrate that an action or event to which a prosecution relates could not be reasonably foreseen and that its effects were adequately mitigated or remedied after it occurred.
• Clarification of the Board's power to establish or disestablish branch committees and to make rules providing for the election and removal of branch committee members. These amendments are consistent with current practice.

Further information

You may obtain a copy of the Historic Places Amendment Act, in the form of the Historic Places Amendment Bill as reported from the committee of the whole House (No. 162-3) from

• www.legislation.govt.nz (go to "Bills from the Knowledge Basket", and then go to "Historic Places Amendment Bill No. 162-3")
• the Interim website of New Zealand Legislation (Public Access to Legislation Project) - here (txt file only)

A source of information about the Historic Places Amendment Act is the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives website - here (pdf file, 178kb)

For further information about the Historic Places Amendment Act, please contact

Aidan Challis
National Heritage Policy Manager
New Zealand Historic Places Trust
PO Box 2629
Wellington
Telephone 04 494 8033
Email achallis@historic.org.nz

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