Logie JanJAN LOGIE (Green): Thank you Madam Speaker and I think I'll be the fourth person in a row to say it's a pleasure to stand and speak to Te Ture Whenua Maori (Succession Dispute Resolution and Related Matters) Amendment Bill. I do want to start by acknowledging the Minister Hon Nanaia Mahuta for this piece of legislation and for progressing it through to the House which seems at this point to have unanimous support. I really acknowledge the significance of that. I remember the debates in the last term of Parliament over the previous Government's attempt to make these reforms. Those debates were long and heartfelt because there was a huge amount of confusion and fear within the communities that the legislation that had been put up by the previous Government was actually going to undermine the protection and tikanga processes for Māori. This piece of legislation has not had that response and while I heard from a previous member from the National Party that they would have liked to have seen a comprehensive bill I actually think the smoothness of the progress of this bill shows the wisdom of taking a more constrained process and stepping through this work because it is so complex and so contentious and the link between the people and the land is so essential to being that taking it in its whole I think was proven to not be a smart strategy. I think this approach has shown its value. The Greens are very happy to be supporting it. The heart of this piece of legislation is trying to ensure that Māori land is retained in Māori ownership and that the law is fit for purpose for managing Māori land. Part of doing that is ensuring that a tikanga approach applies to succession of land interests by anyone other than direct descendants while protecting life interests of a surviving spouse. It's also introducing a new mediation process for disputes as a voluntary alternative to court processes. It's about enabling those difficult conversations to be supported and to happen early and with less cost which surely is to the benefit of everyone?It modernises the powers and jurisdictions of the Māori Land Court and gives new powers to court registrars to handle minor non-contested administrative matters. It makes it simpler for the Māori Land Court to turn Māori land into Māori customary land where the land was Māori customary land before it was called Crown land and that being on the request of the Minister responsible for the land in question. It clarifies the process for notifying people with the right of first refusal where Māori freehold land is alienated and some other changes. I will note that this for the Green Party sits alongside the noting that there is more work to be done in this area. For us we have long campaigned around reforms to the Public Works Act in support of the cry for not one acre more and ensuring that we strengthen the protections for Māori land from compulsory State acquisition. That is work that flows on and supports these changes today that we look forward to seeing realised as well as the growing of the funding—which has started—for papakāinga and Māori development of the land and as we've heard about from other speakers the unlocking of the potential and the productivity of Māori land to support the people. Though I do just have to say as a Green that I think the way that that idea has been presented in this House has missed the sense of the inherent productivity of the land in itself in its untouched state. Our environment when it is well supported keeps us all alive and able to function even without physical or economic development. That is the ground that we need for everything. It's on that note the Greens are very happy to be supporting this bill.