te Heuheu Georgina: Maori Trustee and Maori Development Amendment Bill — First Reading 
te Heuheu Georgina: Maori Trustee and Maori Development Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:645;Page:14570] 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (National) 
: 
 The Maori Trustee and Maori Development Amendment Bill will be a good test of the position of the Maori Party the Greens and New Zealand First because they need to reflect pretty clearly on what this Labour-led Government is doing in misappropriating $35 million of identifiable Maori moneys. Therefore the consultation should have been with those identifiable persons and land trusts. So this bill will be a very good test of where the Maori Party the Greens Metiria Turei and New Zealand First stand in relation to a Government that seeks to misappropriate Maori moneys. That is exactly what is being done with this bill. 
Dr Cullen who hurriedly took a call because the Minister in charge of this bill was not ready to take the call gave two reasons for it. Firstly he said there was a lot of dead money or poorly used money sitting around. Secondly he said the Maori Trustee needed to be reorganised or reformed to face the challenges of the future. So what is the Government’s answer? Its answer is basically to set the Maori Trustee up on a funding agreement with the Government to make the Maori Trustee dependent now on the Government and also to set up a new corporation to be funded by and large by Maori moneys—$35 million—taken from the Maori Trustee and put into a new corporation that will be there for the development of all Maori. I ask the House whether the same thing would happen in the general environment. For instance would New Zealanders agree to the Public Trust’s funds being taken misappropriated put into another corporation and used for the development of all New Zealanders? I do not think so but that is exactly the same as what is happening under this bill. 
However much the Government wants to dress the situation up and say there is a general purposes fund that is available for development there is no getting past the point that the Government is misappropriating Maori moneys. The Government actually tried to do that recently with regard to the Crown Forestry Rental Trust. That trust’s moneys are not necessarily all Maori moneys but it is likely that a fair proportion is. Last November to the Government’s discredit again through not understanding the responsibilities of trusteeship the Government tried to take to itself in the settlement with Te Pumautanga o Te Arawa Trust moneys from that fund to put into this new corporation. But that was stopped by Maori through a court action. I hope that Maori do the same here. I hope that those who are discernible Maori beneficiaries will take court action—litigation—to stop the thievery or statutory theft that is about to take place. That is what is happening here. 
The Minister raved on about his so-called consultation hui. He wrote out to all Maori all over the country and he says he obtained approval for what he is doing. But nothing in the reports of the consultation says that the identifiable beneficiaries approve of what he is now doing—nothing whatsoever. The Minister should be ashamed to come into this House and take funds that largely come from Ngati Porou to Waiariki—Te Arawa mainly and some from the north I think; largely from three or four identifiable areas—and stand up as though he is doing something great for Maori. He is doing something that Pakeha would never condone. They would never condone the Labour-led Government taking funds out of the Public Trust and using them for all New Zealanders. But that is the same as what the Minister is doing. It is no wonder he was not ready to take his call earlier. He knows that he is doing the wrong thing. 
The other thing about this measure is the Government’s patronising attitude or condescension. It says poor Maori do not know how to use their money properly so it is going to take it from them. The Government is setting up a whole new corporation and says it will distribute that largesse as though it is the Minister’s to all and sundry because Maori do not know how to handle their money. That essentially is what the Government and the Minister are saying. We say the Maori Trustee cannot do his job; actually he has not done it. Although he has travelled a hang of a lot overseas in the last year he has not done the basic tasks that are required of that trustee. But if the Maori Trustee cannot do his job rather than this Government misappropriating these funds I say they should be handed back to where they belong. The Minister should consider doing that. 
The Minister should reconsider what he is doing in distributing largesse to all and sundry. First of all that is not right and secondly it is condescending to treat Maori as if they are of no wit and cannot handle their own affairs. But that is typical of a Labour Government is it not—absolutely typical of a Labour Government. Labour Governments have been like that since mai rano. They say: “Bring everything back to the centre; we know best.” 
That Minister actually runs a department. It is called Te Puni Kokiri. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: He doesn’t run it; Leith does. 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU 
: Well right—OK it has a chief executive but this Minister is in charge of it. A colleague of mine Gerry Brownlee still does not know what that Minister does with his department. Actually some days we do not know that either. Sometimes we do not know either—OK? And the Minister has the cheek to set up a new corporation in order to progress development. His department cannot even use the funds it has properly. Te Puni Kokiri cannot even use the funds it has to do development properly anyway. 
As I say this is typical though of a Labour-led Government. This is a good test— 
Hon Parekura Horomia 
: And that is how good you were. You made him the spokesperson on Maori Affairs. Shame on the National Party—when you were there and Tau was there putting down the spokesperson for Maori— 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Of course that member is bringing you into the argument and you held me up for doing that. So I wish you would do the same to him. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I was actually calling the member to order. But please will the member now continue. 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU 
: As I said earlier this Minister ought to be ashamed of himself. He is bringing in a bill in the last throes of a Labour-led Government—thank goodness for that—that in other circumstances and if he had reorganised the trustee office properly might have been acceptable. But in this case it is not. It is not acceptable because the Minister is stealing money from Peter and giving it to Paul Matthew and everybody and he has no right to do that. He is setting up a Maori corporation and we have done that before I tell the Minister. We have done that before and it did not work—it did not work OK? The Government can use its own moneys. Where else do we take money from identified people and give it to somebody else? 
I say to the Minister that he should concentrate on running Te Puni Kokiri properly because that department is pretty hopeless. It is pretty hopeless. And the other thing I say is that I will be very interested to see where the Maori Party puts its vote tonight because there is no doubt that this measure is absolutely wrong. What this Government is doing is absolutely wrong. It is tantamount to another “foreshore and seabed” and as I say I will be very interested to see where the Maori Party puts its vote. 
Ron Mark 
: Its coalition partner. 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU 
: And as for the New Zealand First members I tell them that they need to read the report my colleague referred to arising from the inquiry that Winston Peters set up in 1991. There was no doubt in the minds of those reviewers as to whom these funds belonged to. They do not belong to all Maori and why New Zealand First should be supporting this Government—who knows? 
In closing I ask the Minister seriously to withdraw this bill. 
Dianne Yates 
: No! 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU 
: Well of course it is only natural that some of his colleagues there would say “No!” because they do not bother about who owns property. They are not worried about who owns property. These assets are identifiable. They are owned by certain people and families these land blocks and this Minister has no right—absolutely no right—to misappropriate these funds.