SpeechHon NICKY WAGNER (National): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. As we've heard today National does support this bill but as we've also heard we are very disappointed about the limited scope of its provisions. We know that most Māori land is in regions that are crying out for new opportunities more jobs and a reason for Māori to be able to return to the land. Reform of the Act has the potential to make a real difference in land use in those regions and a real difference for future prosperity for people and communities. We want Māori land owners to have greater autonomy over their land while ensuring that whenua Māori is protected for future generations. This bill is the first step in much-needed reform to make sure laws that govern Māori land work better for whānau to make sure that the complexity and compliance requirements are reduced and particularly when Māori have to go to court about their land. But it's only a first step and we believe that much more work is needed to unlock the potential of Māori land for economic development. This bill is basically tinkering around the edges and it's a real missed opportunity.As we've also heard the whole issue of Māori land is complex and the 1993 Act has been amended a significant number of times but this is another minor amendment. Back in 2014 the Ministry for Primary Industries had a study that showed that 85 percent of Māori land was either undeveloped or underdeveloped and that increasing the productivity of that land would lead to billions of dollars for Māori and the regions. Māori need those jobs Māori need that productivity and Māori need that financial return. National believes that the present act stymies development and it needs to be rethought and revisited. Following that Ministry for Primary Industries' work National and the Māori Party rewrote that Act with the aim of providing opportunity for Māori if they choose and to release the potential of the land. That was the Hon Chris Finlayson and he worked with the Hon Te Ururoa Flavell and they went back to fundamental principles and brought comprehensive reform to the House and that went through all the process of select committee and it was being debated in the committee of the whole House when the Government changed.I believe that was another wasted opportunity but this bill does incorporate the work that Chris Finlayson and Te Ururoa Flavell did at the time. The new rules on succession were basically taken out of National bills and the new Part 3A which provides a mechanism for alternate dispute resolution has also been extracted from that bill. So we're pleased about that but we're deeply disappointed that other issues have not been attempted to be attached particularly things like landlocked lands. We've heard about them today. That's a major problem and it hasn't been tackled comprehensively here.I'd just like to go through a few of the things that the select committee did in terms of changes. We made quite a lot that were minor and technical but there were some important changes. For example the bill will allow simple and uncontested application for the transfer of Māori land to descendants to be processed through a Māori Land Court registrar rather than a full hearing. Now in the original bill when it came through applicants needed to request the use of a registrar to go through the process but the select committee made changes so that applicants no longer need to request a registrar; they get one by default unless they request to be heard by a judge. So that's going to make it an easier process.We also clarified the meaning of simple and uncontested" just to make that very clear. We also made changes so that there was more flexibility over the succession between whakapapa biological descendants and whāngai—people adopted in Māori customary practice—on land succession matters. We extended the Māori Land Court jurisdiction to hear certain matters related to Māori land which were generally handled in other courts and I think this is a good initiative because it will mean that Māori Land Court judges will be able to have a better use of their understanding of Te Ao Māori with these cases when it affects Māori land. We also introduced an obligation for owners of Māori freehold land who wish to sell it to make reasonable efforts to locate the addresses of the classes of people who had been given the right of first refusal to buy that land.And finally we've given the court the power to order a survey of Māori land however—and this is significant. Unlike on previous occasions the cost will not fall on the Māori land and could no longer lead to owners losing their land because they couldn't afford the cost of a survey. This has been a terrible thing that's happened a lot in the past. Māori families whānau have lost their land under these circumstances and it's caused enormous pain and disruption over the years.This bill is useful. It's useful because Māori land and the regions are crying out for opportunities more jobs and the reason for Māori to return to their land and these reforms will make a difference. But National still believes that significant reform of Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993 is well overdue. Significant reform would make a real difference to the use of Māori land especially in the regions and to the future prosperity of people and communities. So as a first step forward in this reform of Māori land National supports the bill."