Waititi RawiriRAWIRI WAITITI (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori): Tēnā tātou tēnā tātou e te Whare. Kei te tangi tonu ki ngā mate o te wā. I takoto poto nei a Georgina ki runga ki tā tātou marae mō tētahi wā poto nō reira tangi atu ki a ia tangi atu ki te nui o rātou kua riro atu ki te pō.[Greetings everyone greetings to the House. I continue to grieve the dead of this time. Georgina lay for a short time at our marae and so I grieve for her and the many others who have passed away.]I just want to acknowledge the Māoris" in the gallery today and Te Ohu Kai Moana and the hard work that they've been doing to be the custodians of this particular kaupapa. We stand in support of the Māori Fisheries Amendment Bill. This bill makes changes to the Maori Fisheries Act 2004 to give effect to the recommendations of Te Ohu Kai Moana which conducted a review of the settlement entities the changes intended to give iwi a greater degree of rangatiratanga over their assets and prove benefits to all Māori reduce costs and improve efficiency.Nō reira e te Heamana koutou te poari koutou ngā kaimahi o Te Ohu Kai Moana tēnā koutou tēnā koutou. Ka aroha nei tātou e ruku nei ki roto i tēnei kaupapa. Mai te wā i ngā mātua tīpuna kāore i konei i tēnei kei te hoki atu ngā mahara.[And so to the chairman to the board and to the workers of Te Ohu Kai Moana greetings to you all. I have sympathy for us all diving into this issue. My thoughts are taken back to the time of our predecessors who are not with us at this time.]So we absolutely strongly support this bill. We acknowledge the support of Te Ohu Kai Moana for this legislation and thank them for participating in this Crown review to restore rights to iwi. Giving individual iwi greater say over their quota will recognise kaitiaki relationships and help restore fisheries and the moana. The current quota system pits our people against each other unfortunately and it fails to protect our fisheries from commercial exploitation by those who are not part of our kaupapa. You know for a long time—and I know from an iwi that has been handcuffed by the recognised iwi organisation to get acknowledgment for the mandated iwi organisation and to access the funding for smaller iwi. You know we found it very difficult in the space of the calculations with the inshore coastline and also the deep sea which is based on population. And you've got some disparities between iwi who have a big coastline but have a smaller population. And so I hope that in the select committee process we're able to find some equal processes where those with huge coastlines and little population get greater access to the resource because we know there are many iwi who have no coastline but have huge populations that will benefit out of the changes in this particular bill. And so that's the big thing for the Te Paati Māori tēnei wā. Other than that we are totally supportive. We're not going to go through and read line by line through the legislation but we will just say that this will allow us to remove the democracy of the way we deal with things and move things to a more tikanga-based process a more mana-enhancing process and hopefully for those smaller iwi a greater say in regards to their moana. I just want to say I sat for a brief time on Te Pūtea Whakatupu Trust and I'm really proud of the mahi we did at that particular time. I think we were the catalyst for a great committee. We went over to Iceland. We looked over a few kaupapa there that really helped look at how we could increase productivity with our catch by ensuring that we used all of the fish in terms of the bycatch and we also looked at initiatives with the new netting which allowed smaller fish to escape and to hold on to the big fish. But the biggest thing I'm proud of in terms of the Te Pūtea Whakatupu Trust [Bell rings]—oh there's that bell—was the education grants and the education access that we gave to many of our rangatahi who are interested in this particular space. So kei te mihi atu rā ki a koutou. [So I acknowledge you all.]I look forward to the discussions and the submissions in the Māori Affairs Committee and I'll look at a greater I think equality in regards to some of those smaller iwi who for a long time have been aggrieved by the actual process of the onshore and the deep-sea measures that we use in terms of the way we distribute that resource. Nō reira e hika mā [Therefore friends] we support this bill and thank you for the opportunity to speak to it tonight. Kia ora tātou.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Members with thanks for the constructive debate which we've had particularly in this evening session since dinner the House stands adjourned until 2 p.m. tomorrow.Debate interrupted.The House adjourned at 10 p.m."