Implementation of the New 2008 Act

The New Zealand Geographic Board (Ngā Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa) Act 2008 was passed on 22 May 2008 and came into force on 1 November 2008.

The Board engaged in the following activities to meet its responsibilities under the new Act:

Legislative compliance action plan

A departmental legislative compliance action plan was signed off in August 2008. This plan documents the obligations of both LINZ and the Board.

Comparison between the 1946 and 2008 Acts

A schedule identifying the significant and minor changes between the old and new Acts was compiled. This was posted on the LINZ website for those interested in New Zealand’s formal place naming processes.

Transitional 1946 Act processing

All place name decisions processed under the 1946 Act were required to be completed by 1 November 2008:

• seven ‘intentions to assign place names’ were notified on 15 May 2008
• objections were received on two of these ‘intentions’
• a final Gazette of Board and Ministerial decisions was notified on 16 October 2008, along with a media release.

Secretary and secretariat

On 3 November 2008, the Board appointed Wendy Shaw, nominated by LINZ’s Chief Executive, as Secretary of the Board. In addition, two fulltime staff have been appointed for the increased work of the Secretariat. Two students also joined the Secretariat for three months over summer as part of a State Services Commission internship programme.

Interim Gazetteer

The Board is required to establish and maintain a publicly available record known as the New Zealand Gazetteer of Official Geographic Names. The Gazetteer must record all official geographic names, and the relevant Gazette or statutory reference for each official name, including the type of feature or area and its positional reference.

Five separate spreadsheets have been created to meet the requirements of the new 2008 Act as at 1 November 2008: New Zealand, Offshore Islands, Railway, Antarctic and Crown protected areas. These are publicly available on LINZ’s website. They have been updated as place name changes occur, on an‘as needed’ basis.

The geographic coverage and background/descriptive information, as well as a comprehensive listing of recorded names will be covered under a more comprehensive and integrated Gazetteer, for which further work is currently being done by LINZ (see page 13).

The former place names database, that includes recorded names, remains available online, but was archived as at 31 October 2008 – just before the new Gazetteer(s) became available.

Recorded names policy – discretion not to give public notice

The new Act allows for the Board to decide whether recorded names should be put through the full public submission process before becoming official. At its meeting on 3 November 2008, the Board agreed to establish a recorded names committee, comprising three Board members. Terms of reference and a set of policy guidelines will be developed to determine when recorded names should use a more costeffective and streamlined process and how the public can participate in any name alterations or additions, which is an important aspect of the naming process.

Communications

Comprehensive web pages about the Board’s role under the new Act were developed, which went live on 1 November 2008. A brochure entitled Place Naming in New Zealand, together with the factsheet New Act for Geographic Board, were also published on 1 November 2008. Both are available on the LINZ website and in hard copy.

Validated Antarctic and Crown protected area names

There were 1193 Antarctic names and 899 Crown protected area names that had not been gazetted as official under the 1946 Act but were deemed to be validated as official under section 35 of the 2008 Act. These were gazetted in May 2009.

Adoption of undersea feature names Section 26 of the 2008 Act provides for the Board to review and adopt as official any existing undersea feature names. The Board has contracted NIWA to compile a listing of all known and recorded undersea feature names. On completion of the contract the Board will review and adopt, then publicly notify as official geographic names.

Sections 32 and 33 – compliance

Section 32 of the 2008 Act requires official geographic names to be used in all official documents (as defined in the Act), and section 33 provides the High Court with the power to grant an injunction to prevent a breach of section 32. Section 32 provides for nonofficial names to be used if identified as such. These sections will come into force on 1 November 2009.

Suburb and locality names

The original intention to devolve the naming of suburbs and localities to territorial authorities did not occur under the new 2008 Act. This will happen when proposed national integrated addressing legislation is enacted, which will amend the 2008 Act and provide for devolved suburb and locality naming.

Other implementation tasks

Funding was allocated for a number of one-off tasks that must be completed before the end of 2010/11.

Progress was made in the following areas:

Undersea feature names

The review and research components of the following tasks commenced:

• a review of the International Hydrographic Organisation’s gazetteer of undersea feature names for names within New Zealand’s continental shelf
• research into existing undersea feature names recorded on official documents, including maps and charts, for the Board to review and adopt under section 26 of the 2008 Act.

Crown protected area names

Work began on investigating additional names to be validated under section 35.

Antarctic names

Work began on investigating additional names to be validated under section 35.

Suburb/locality names

Research has begun into identifying existing suburb and locality names, both official and recorded, for input by the relevant territorial authorities, with a view to defining their boundaries and making them official.

Initial work began on developing a code of practice for suburb and locality naming to be developed in consultation with territorial authorities.

Gazetteer

• Research into the status of New Zealand names has begun.
• Research into the status of offshore island names has begun.
• Technical design of a fully integrated and web capable Gazetteer database project from concept through to implementation has begun.

Dialogue with Iwi

• To assist with meeting the purpose of the 2008 Act under section 3(e) for appropriate recognition to be accorded to cultural and heritage values associated with geographic features, the Board is developing a document on how it will engage with iwi to research those values.

Miscellaneous

• To assist with education on the place naming processes, general guidelines, brochures, and webpages have been completed.
• Further communication/education is to be scheduled as needed.