MP in limbo over Vogel House venue
A request to hold a suffrage event in the Crown-owned Vogel House fell on deaf ears for five months.
Hutt City Council wants to use the Lower Hutt home for its Women Suffragists In The Hutt event in September and asked Hutt South MP Chris Bishop to help get government permission.
Bishop has been sending requests since March but has been ‘‘bounced around’’ between Government departments and not given an answer. However, after questions from
yesterday, Land Information New Zealand (Linz) Crown property deputy chief executive Jerome Sheppard confirmed Vogel House had not been placed on the market yet and was available for this group to use but neither Bishop nor the council had been informed.
Vogel House, which at various times has been home to the Australian high commissioner, New Zealand’s prime minister and the governor-general, was gifted to the Crown by its owners, James and Jocelyn Vogel, in 1965.
In 2013, the Government decided it didn’t need the property and it would be sold. Since then it has been the subject of protracted litigation between the Crown and the Vogel family.
Bishop said that while the house in Woburn Rd was still a Crown asset, the Government should be making the most of it.
His first request for permission was made to the internal affairs minister on March 22 but on March 27, he was told the request had been transferred to the minister of ministerial services.
He followed up on June 15 and then again on July 4. He received confirmation of his request on July 13, and on July 17, he was told the house was in a state to be used, provided Linz had not disposed of it.
On July 19, he asked Linz for its disposal timeline. The last communication he got was on July 26, when Linz said it would work with Internal Affairs on an update.
Hutt City archivist Jennie Henton said hosting the suffrage event in the historic house was significant because the Vogel family supported women’s suffrage.