Goudie Sandra: Maori Fisheries Bill — In Committee 
Goudie Sandra: Maori Fisheries Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:620;Page:15645] 
SANDRA GOUDIE (National—Coromandel) 
: 
 Points have been raised in the Chamber and the Minister has not responded to those questions. I reiterate the concerns expressed by my learned colleague Dr Wayne Mapp that we are incredibly disappointed that those serious matters raised by the Hon Bill English and others have not been addressed. One of those was in relation to the 19.5c tax rate for Maori authorities. It is unclear in the bill exactly what will be happening with regard to all those entities identified in the bill. 
One newspaper clipping stated that changes to the bill meant “allowing quota to be sold to other mandated iwi organisations and ensuring that the new Aotearoa Fisheries Limited would have the low 19.5 tax rate of other Maori authorities.” So it would appear that Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd is identified in the bill as a Maori organisation and as such also has the 19.5c tax rate advantage of other Maori authorities. That is alluded to in the document that I tried to table earlier but my request was denied by the current Government. It did not want me to table that document which clearly identified that the entities that were named in the bill are subject only to the 19.5c tax rate for charitable organisations and other Maori authorities and organisations as referred to in the Taxation (Maori Organisations Taxpayer Compliance and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act. Those are identified in that document and those parameters around Maori organisations are also identified. Although Te Ohu Kai Moana Te Wai Maori Trust Te PuteaWhakatupu Trust and their respective corporate trustees and Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd are all exempt from the general taxation provisions that the rest of the charitable organisations are constrained by those particular trusts identified in this bill all have that advantage of having the 19.5c tax rate. 
That is certainly an unfair advantage accorded to just one sector of the community and that is totally unacceptable in our view. That has been clarified in these documents and the Minister was asked to take a call to further clarify the position of the tax rates for all the entities but he failed to do that. He did not respond and nor did he respond to the other calls to explain some of the other provisions within this bill. Those calls were about some of the other provisions regarding dispute resolution. 
There are 12 iwi of Hauraki identified in Schedule 3 under the Tainui iwi. They are NgatiHako Ngati Hei Ngati Maru NgatiPaoa Patukirikiri and a range of others. I put it to members that Ngati Maru may seek to clarify their ownership with regard to coastline and settlement quota within this bill. I am sure they will be seeking some clarification and will wish to have their own matters addressed through the dispute resolution process. Maori Land Court judges need to have knowledge of tikanga Maori for this dispute resolution process so will they understand the tikanga for Ngati Maru? 
 I put it to members that they will not so how can they judge what the position will be for Ngati Maru in accordance with Ngati Maru tikanga? As the Minister is no doubt aware the tikanga for one individual iwi group or hapu is quite different from the tikanga for another and they each have their own sense of what tikanga means for them. So how will that matter be able to be judged within the Maori Land Court without the relevant tikanga Maori being known for that individual hapu—for example Ngati Maru?