Rt Hon Winston Peters

New Zealand First Leader

Member of Parliament for Northland
18 NOVEMBER 2016

Time to Take More Government Jobs to Provinces

Government building closures in Wellington has proved excessive centralisation of government departments in earthquake prone Wellington has been a mistake and more should be located in regional areas, says New Zealand First Leader and Northland Member of Parliament Rt Hon Winston Peters.

“Some of New Zealand’s most important documents such as the Treaty of Waitangi and historic constitutional records are housed at Archives NZ in Mulgrave St. This building was evacuated on Thursday.

“Radio New Zealand Sound Archives were originally based in Timaru because this town was deemed less likely to be struck by an earthquake but all this has been forgotten.

“Our national film, television and sound archive, Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision, is based in Wellington, not far from buildings that have been shut due to this week’s earthquake. It also has a base at Avalon and Christchurch.

“The wisdom of basing so much of our national heritage in Wellington needs to be examined.

“Lives could easily have been lost in the Statistics NZ building had the earthquake struck in daylight hours.

“There is no need for departments such as the Department of Conservation to be based in Wellington and this week’s earthquake should initiate a major rethink.

“It surely is becoming clear that the height, location, and construction of buildings in New Zealand requires a serious rethink, and now.

“We are an earthquake prone country and some of the urban structures being planned in the light of first Christchurch and now the latest earthquakes have made this clear.

“The onslaught of neo-liberal policies in the 1980s under Labour and its continuation by National governments drained provincial New Zealand of its jobs and services as government departments were centralised, downsized or sold off to private enterprise,” Mr Peters says.

ENDS

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