Ririnui Mita: Maori Purposes Bill — First Reading 
Ririnui Mita: Maori Purposes Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:668;Page:15367] 
Hon MITA RIRINUI (Labour) 
: 
 A kati kia ora tatou kei roto i te Whare. Tu tautoko ana i nga mihi mo tera ake o nga kuia a Nan Bartlett te uri o Te Akonga Mohi nana i kawe mai tenei take ki mua i nga mema Paremata i te wa i a Reipa te Kawanatanga. Me te mihi ano ki te Minita mo tona kaha ki te whakapouahia ra i tenei kaupapa kia oti ai nga poraruraruhanga i waenganui i nga uri o te kuia ra. 
[ 
So greetings to us in the House. I stand to endorse the acknowledgments made in respect of Nan Bartlett among the elderly womenfolk and descendant of Te Akonga Mohi. She brought this matter before members of Parliament when Labour was in Government. I also acknowledge the Minister and his diligence in advancing this matter and settling the problems that the descendants of that matriarch had among themselves 
.] 
May I first congratulate the Minister of Maori Affairs who boldly brought this bill to the House particularly as it refers to the estate of Pukepuke Tangiora. I am aware that the Minister has a relationship with this particular whanau. I am familiar with them myself and during my time as Associate Minister in charge of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations and also as a member of the Maori Affairs Committee I met with kuia Bartlett on a number of occasions to talk about “how this injustice could be rectified” as she put it in her own words. The whanau of Pukepuke Tangiora considered this an injustice because the Crown had intervened in a way that it should not have. Regardless of the reasons the uri of this particular kuia who were responsible for the inheritance and her estate were quite capable at that time—the 1940s—of representing and taking care of the estate to the best of their ability and for the benefit of future beneficiaries. I warmly remember the old kuia whom I visited at her home in Hawke’s Bay on the sunny coastline of Ocean Beach. We had a nice conversation and a nice afternoon tea. She was a beautiful old lady who had a lot to talk about. She shared her life stories with me. 
I congratulate the Minister on his bold move. Labour during its term in Government tried to alleviate the concerns of the old lady by driving this matter to a similar stage that the Minister has come to today but unsuccessfully. However that is of no importance at this stage because the bill is here now. Future generations of the descendants of Pukepuke Tangiora will make their own decisions based on their strong concern for the well-being of their future generations. Therefore I congratulate the Minister. 
The Labour Opposition will be supporting the bill. There are some very very good amendments to the four Acts in question. But I have to say to the Minister that this is an opportunity where for example he could have freed up the land management requirements of Te Ture Whenua Maori Act and the Maori Land Court to the point where we could have addressed the issues around Maori land utilisation rather than retention because the two collide with each other and some issues need to be discussed around some particular parts of that Act. But I will come to that later. 
In terms of the Maori Trust Boards Act I had a discussion earlier this afternoon with the general manager of one of our local Bay of Plenty trust boards. The same concerns were expressed by that general manager as have been expressed by a number of managers and trustees on trust boards around the country—that the Minister of Maori Affairs had far too much control over the day-to-day business of trust boards. They had wished that a more commercial model had been put in place for them to be guided by but instead the Crown decided in its wisdom some years back in 1955 that perhaps Maori were not in the right frame of mind to have total responsibility over their lives so it introduced an Act that had very very long paternal apron strings attached to it. 
Once again this is a very very bold move. But I have to say as I said earlier that this is an opportunity lost. Maori unemployment now is at 16 percent and rising. Maori land all around the country is hugely underutilised and much of the blame for that can be attributed to Te Ture Whenua Maori Act. The Act looks more at land retention rather than at land utilisation. As I said before the two collide with each other. This would have been a great opportunity for the Minister of Maori Affairs to have made a thorough examination of those barriers within Te Ture Whenua Maori Act with a view to freeing up the Act to the degree whereby landowners land trustees incorporations and societies were in a position to make more bold decisions and were able to negotiate with banks and lending institutions a way forward on mortgages and what have you. 
The other opportunity lost in this particular case relates to Maori housing. The Minister may be aware that under the former Department of Maori Affairs many Maori land blocks were developed to accommodate Maori housing in urban and rural areas. That is no longer the case. The provisions within the Maori Land Act were tightened to the point where a consensus of 75 percent must be reached before any major decisions can be made and that in itself is a very very difficult barrier to overcome. 
This bill was an opportunity. I had some discussions with Te Puni Kokiri staff a while back and I put to them the proposal that land could be freed up for Maori housing. I gave the Tauranga - Western Bay of Plenty examples of where land was available but could not be developed properly for housing because of the limitations within Te Tura Whenua Maori Act 1993. Although the current amendments to the Act deal with minor issues in terms of administration they do absolutely nothing to alleviate the strain on Maori housing. 
As the Minister would know throughout the 1960s 1970s and part of the 1980s Maori housing projects also alleviated Maori unemployment and accommodated to a very high degree Maori trade training. This was an opportunity for the Minister to revisit that arrangement and to look at a complete package that would include not only Maori land development but also Maori employment and that would alleviate the strain on Maori housing. As I have said this was an opportunity lost. But hopefully the Minister will consider this very issue in the next 12 months and put in some appropriate policies that may satisfy Maori landowners and do something constructive to alleviate the very high unemployment rate amongst the Maori population. I wait in anticipation. 
I will revisit some of the points mentioned earlier on particularly with regard to Maori trust boards. The Hon Georgina te Heuheu said that this bill is very timely; I say that it is well overdue. In fact Maori trust boards around the country are looking at reconstructing themselves. They want to repeal the current legislation with the support of the current Minister with a view toward severing those apron strings so that they can have total responsibility over their daily business activities. The Minister touched on the fact that it is ridiculous that a trust board has to notify the Minister of Maori Affairs before it can undertake major expenditure—well I would not consider it major expenditure; I cannot remember what the limit is. The Minister may be able to enlighten me on that but I know that it is not a great deal. If a private company had to operate along the same grounds and was expected to make a sound investment that would benefit its beneficiaries on a wider scale then this would not be the way to go about it. I look forward to the Minister acknowledging that and introducing more changes in the months to come. 
A good example that the Minister might like to refer to is the disestablishment of Te Arawa Maori Trust Board and the repeal of the Te Arawa Maori Trust Board legislation and its replacement with the Te Arawa Lakes Settlement Act which was driven through this House by the former Minister of Maori Affairs. It essentially freed up the activities of the Te Arawa Lakes Trust to perform its undertakings and responsibilities in a more commercial way. By all accounts it is doing very well and projected returns in the future are looking very very good. 
Although I congratulate the Minister on bringing this omnibus bill to the House—it amends a lot of Acts—I still think it is an opportunity lost. But there is still time to recover that ground.