Davis KelvinKELVIN DAVIS (Labour—Te Tai Tokerau): Tēnā koe Mr Chair tēnei ahau tū ake nei hei mihi ki a tātau katoa i te tīmatanga o tēnei pire tino nui tino mātotoru tino hōhonu tino whānui tautoko ana ahau i ngā mihi o Te Minita ki Te Komiti Take Māori me ngā āpiha o Te Komiti ēngari i runga i wēna kōrero horekau Te Rōpū Reipa e tautokongia ana i tēnei pire. [Thank you Mr Chair. I rise specifically to acknowledge us all at the start of this really important dense profound and extensive bill. I endorse the accolades of the Minister to the Māori Affairs Committee and its officials but on those sentiments the Labour Party will not be supporting this bill.]I would just like to acknowledge everybody and in particular the Māori Affairs Committee. We have put a lot of effort into this bill. I would also like to acknowledge the officials who have also put a lot of work into this bill and actually I would like to acknowledge my colleague Meka Whaitiri who knows this bill back to front despite not being a permanent member of the Māori Affairs Committee.All that said the Labour Party does not support the bill. There are a number of reasons why we do not support it. We will go through those reasons clause by clause part by part. I just want to start off by rebutting I guess some of the Minister's comments. He said there has been widespread consultation and I guess there have been a number of hui but let us just remind everybody of those 20 consultation hui for the exposure draft. Of those 20 hui Labour members of Parliament attended 14 and in not one of those 14 hui did the people support the bill. In fact the two hui that I attended in Tai Tokerau—in Kaikohe and Whangarei—there was almost outright anarchy with people moving motions left right and centre to have the bill chucked out. OK admittedly that was Peeni Henare's whanaunga and we have got to make allowances—they are not mine of course. Ha ha!Admittedly that was to an exposure draft. I do not believe the changes that have been made since—and there have been many—have actually been absorbed by the people. They do not understand them. I do not think they have had time to understand them. This thick Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 279 that I have here in front of me—the Minister rang me up about a month ago and said that it was coming out and that is fair enough. But even up until last week there were more SOPs coming out. Our people certainly would not have time to look at them absorb them and understand what they mean. There is a deep-seated mistrust of this process.I would like to just start at clause 3(3). It says—this is the very first clause that we are debating here—The purpose of Parts 1 to 9 is to recognise and provide for the mana and tino rangatiratanga that since time immemorial Māori have exercised and continue to exercise over their lands …". I just want to repeat the part there that I believe is relevant to what I am going to say: "for the mana and tino rangatiratanga that since time immemorial Māori have exercised and continue to exercise over their lands …". What that clause is saying—the very first three lines that we are debating—is that Māori have mana and tino rangatiratanga over their lands. If that is the case why then this bill? If we already have mana if we already have tino rangatiratanga and if we already have the ability to have the final word on our land and we have got that under the current Te Ture Whenua Māori Act why is it that this bill is indeed necessary?It goes on to say—this is still clause 3(3)—that it is "to protect the right of owners of Māori land to retain control occupy and develop their land as a taonga tuku iho for the benefit of present and future generations of owners their whānau and their hapū." You know we agree that that is what we want from any bill—for Māori to retain and control and occupy and develop their land for the benefit of present and future generations. We believe that that already exists and respectfully we dispute that this bill goes any way to actually improving the outcomes for Māori.The principles that the Minister has mentioned are these and there are six of them. I agree—and this is in clause 3(4)—with the first three. The next three I have questions about. The first principle is: "(a) Māori land endures as a taonga tuku iho by virtue of whakapapa:". I have got no problems with that.The second principle is: "(b) tikanga Māori is central to matters involving Māori land:". I have no problems with that although tikanga—further on in the bill it talks about "the tikanga of the whānau hapū … [should] prevail". I have real concerns not so much about the use of tikanga; it is just that I know that in many whānau tikanga does not exist. In many hapū tikanga does not exist. We live in a bit of a fluffy world where tikanga is now observed by everybody and it is solid and we can fall back on it and lean back on it. But the reality is that tikanga these days in many whānau and in many hapū is just a floating beast and it does not exist in the ideal world that probably our tūpuna lived in.In the third principle clause (4)(c) it says: "Te Tiriti o Waitangi is central to the application of laws affecting Māori land:"—actually sorry I do support that. The comment I wanted to make is that I am glad it says "Te Tiriti o Waitangi" even though this is the English version that I am reading out. The Māori version of the bill is the version that takes precedence over the English version. People may wonder: "Well why then in the English version does it say 'Te Tiriti o Waitangi' and not 'the Treaty of Waitangi'?". The reason is basically this: do not ever dare go into Ngāpuhi and say that our tūpuna signed "the Treaty of Waitangi". They signed "Te Tiriti o Waitangi" and there are differences between the two versions of the Treaty Te Tiriti—sorry I just fell into the trap myself. There are subtle differences to "Te Tiriti o Waitangi" and "the Treaty of Waitangi" and under the Māori version Ngāpuhi will affirm that we did not cede sovereignty.Then we come to the three principles that I have concerns about and the fourth principle clause 3(4)(d) says: "owners of Māori land have the right to decide how their land is used:". On the outside that sounds really good but it is the issue of owners and which owners? In this bill—and we will go through this in some detail over the course of the debate—there are some owners who have more nous more clout more resources and more understanding than other owners. When we go through things and we see participation thresholds we will see and we will debate the fact that not all owners have an equal say. So if somebody is not a participating owner or for whatever reason somebody cannot attend a hui to participate or give their proxy the chances are that they may miss out on actually being involved in having the right to decide how their land is used.One of the big concerns about this bill is that it is actually going to pit whanaunga against whanaunga. Despite all the intentions—and you know things look OK on the outside—when we get down to it when there are a thousand owners who own a piece of land and there are say 20 who want to make changes and those 20 are articulate and know the law and know this bill back to front they will have the ability to laud it for want of a better word over those whanaunga who are disengaged who may live overseas who may not hear about the meeting. There are just too many variables there for me to accept that we can say "owners" meaning all owners of Māori land have the right to decide how their land is used.The next principle is "owners of Māori land have the right to take advantage of opportunities to develop their land for the benefit of present and future generations of owners their whānau and their hapū:"—again future generations of which of the owners? If there are some owners who do not have the opportunity to participate in the decision making for whatever reason and there could be a million reasons how is it that their descendants will not then have their tūpuna actually speaking for them when it comes down to that principle? The next principle and the last principle—"