Turia Tariana: New Zealand Guardian Trust Company Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Turia Tariana: New Zealand Guardian Trust Company Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:642;Page:12467] 
TARIANA TURIA (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 Tena koe Madam Assistant Speaker. Tena tatou katoa. First of all I would like to thank Doug Woolerton for giving me the opportunity to speak before him. 
Three weeks ago on the summit of Tangi te keo 4000 native shrubs and grasses were planted from the legacies of gifts administered by the New Zealand Guardian Trust Co. Tangi te keo also known as Mount Victoria was named after the soul of Whataitai who flew up to the top of this hill in the shape of a bird and proceeded to tangi—to weep to mourn. It is a site of great significance to Te Atiawa so the grant of $36500 from the Guardian Trust towards the cost of landscaping this area is one way of supporting the ongoing cultural heritage of this place. 
From the coastal flaxes of Tangi te keo to the Nikau Centre in Napier the Guardian Trust plays an important role in maintaining and supporting people and places across Aotearoa. The Nikau Centre is a programme to support young people who have found the prospect of mainstream education daunting and require individualised and specialised relearning programmes. The programme offers a second chance an early intervention to guide young people into a future based on hope rather than their being caught in a situation of injury of neglect or of helplessness. It provides an opportunity for success for young people to thrive. 
Back here in Wellington another field of work that upholds a commitment to health and well-being is being pioneered by the Wellington asthma research group. This group has identified major differences in prevalence and severity between Maori and non-Maori regarding asthma prevalence and management. Its research activities have led the way for developing long-term strategies for prevention and intervention. 
Coastal flaxes alternative education and asthma research are but a few of the outcomes and opportunities provided by the Guardian Trust. I believe that it is really important when we look at legislation such as this that we know the substance of the role and responsibilities the Guardian Trust undertakes. In effect this bill is but a paper exercise to amend the 1982 Act in order to authorise the company to transact business with its new parent company Suncorp-Metway Ltd. But in order to comment on whether this is a useful exercise it is critical that we understand the context of the banking insurance and financial services undertaken by this company. 
The company has been around for a long time. It was first formed in 1882 and this year is its 125th anniversary. It is still doing pretty much the same line of business: taking care of the growth and protection of assets for its clients. They are fairly significant assets too. In excess of $30 billion of assets and investments are managed by the company’s corporate trust team. Inevitably the Guardian Trust works alongside Te Kooti Whenua Maori in the administration and care of titles and investments related to Maori land. In order to do so the trust must work in such a way as to respect the profound spiritual and emotional importance that land has to Maori. In the Court of Appeal case  
Re Ham 
—in relation to 
Mahu and the Guardian Trust—the court affirmed: “when dealing with Maori families the Court must pay regard to the strong attachment of the Maori to the land and to closely held deeply felt feelings within the family in that respect.” 
The bill we are debating today therefore cuts to the heart of so many issues of importance to Maori: education health land conservation and the ethic of kaitiakitanga. The Resource Management Act specifies that kaitiakitanga means “the exercise of guardianship by the tangata whenua of an area in accordance with tikanga Maori in relation to natural and physical resources; and includes the ethic of stewardship”. I have taken the initiative to explore the meaning of guardianship of kaitiakitanga and of stewardship as they relate to this bill because I believe they are concepts worthy of supporting. 
The focus for this bill is very much about the basis for business transactions. The 1982 Act in its simplest form authorised the Guardian Trust to transact business with its parent company Promina Group Ltd and with that company’s subsidiaries. Twenty-five years later the Promina Group merged with Suncorp-Metway and as a result the Guardian Trust has a new parent body Suncorp-Metway. Of course this is not a new scenario. Over the century and more there have been many previous mergers including with the South British Guardian Trust Co. the New Zealand Insurance Trust Department and this latest one. 
There are two key issues that I want to raise about such a merger. The first is to do with the work of Parliament. The Guardian Trust most recently came before the House in 2004 and 2005. I remember at that point there being debate around the value of this company basically having to come before Parliament every time it entered into change of ownership arrangements. The object of this bill is basically to rubber-stamp a commercial transaction and one has to ask whether it is a useful exercise for Parliament to undertake when a simple change by Order in Council might suffice. As such we welcome the fact that the effect of this bill is now to authorise the Governor-General by Order in Council to amend new schedule 2 of the principal Act by changing the name listed there without the need for legislative amendment whenever it has a new parent company. 
The other point of interest I would raise is simply to point out again the continuing trend towards closer economic relations between Aotearoa and Australia. The Promina Group is a major enterprise listed on the New Zealand and Australian stock exchanges and it hosts over 200 offices in Australia and New Zealand. It has joined hands with Suncorp-Metway. Suncorp-Metway is Autralia’s sixth-largest bank and has some 450 branches throughout Aotearoa and Australia. These are two big companies and we note the new combinations of risk and profitability that are being extended outside our own domestic shores making us move further towards a single economic market. Inevitably we wonder how the indigenous people of Australia are involved in such a merger and whether there is an opportunity for recognising these relationships in the discussion of this bill. 
We support this bill going forward and recognise the importance of doing so in order that the legislation will most accurately reflect the current ownership structure of the Guardian Trust. We support the bill also in the hope that 2 years from now if Suncorp-Metway seeks to branch off into other arrangements or if the Guardian Trust considers that other options may assist it in enhancing the financial stability of its business we know that they will not have to come back here for approval to do so. Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker.