Brownlee appeals for Heritage NZ inquiry
Speaker Gerry Brownlee has taken a swipe at an “out of control” Heritage NZ as Parliament redraws its plans for a earthquake-prone building.
But Heritage NZ has criticised what is calls an “inaccurate representation” of its work in response, defending its assessment that part of the Beehive complex should not be destroyed due quake risk.
Brownlee appeared in front of Parliament’s Governance and Administration committee yesterday morning for a hearing about Parliament’s operations.
Asked about the Beehive’s quake-stricken “annex”, a small building at its rear that formerly housed the press gallery, Brownlee said the situation was an “absurdity”.
“You can’t really strengthen it because that would require breaching the heritage contents of it. So is Heritage [NZ] actually saying let’s leave some of these buildings unoccupied, unused until they fall down because that’s effectively what the position is,” Brownlee said. “And I think that’s a philosophical misunderstanding of the value of protecting heritage and buildings.
“The legislation they work under has allowed them to get quite out of control.”
The annex was vacated in 2016 when it was deemed earthquake prone.
Parliamentary Service had planned to demolish and replace it with a building for ministers at the same time as constructing a building behind Parliament for MPs, which is now under way.
But, because the annex is part of the broader Beehive “executive wing”, listed as a category-one historic place and scheduled as a heritage building on the Wellington City Council district plan, Parliamentary Service received advice that a rebuild would not receive resource consent.
Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero told the committee the design of the new building was “pretty much done” but now having to rework the plans it would not be complete until 2029. “Obviously that will add some costs.” Brownlee encouraged the committee to launch an inquiry into how Heritage NZ applied their designations to buildings, and how quake-prone buildings were assessed.
Heritage NZ communications manager Adrienne Hannan said the organisation’s chief executive, Andrew Coleman, was “disappointed” in the comments.
“He believes they are an inaccurate representation of the organisation and its roles and functions, and Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga are committed to providing advice to the proposal with a view to achieving the best outcomes for heritage and all parties involved.”
Heritage NZ had worked “closely and successfully” with Parliamentary Service in recent years on a range of projects, Hannan said.
The organisation had provided advice to balance the need of the functional workplace and public safety with heritage values for what “most New Zealanders would see as one of the most important places in the country”.