Shearer David: Whanganui Iwi (Whanganui (Kaitoke) Prison and Northern Part of Whanganui Forest) On-account Settlement Bill — In Committee 
Shearer David: Whanganui Iwi (Whanganui (Kaitoke) Prison and Northern Part of Whanganui Forest) On-account Settlement Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:670;Page:16932] 
DAVID SHEARER (Labour—Mt Albert) 
: 
 I was not going to take a call on the 
Whanganui Iwi (Whanganui (Kaitoke) Prison and Northern Part of Whanganui Forest) On-account Settlement Bill but I am drawn to it because this is the first time since I have been in Parliament that I have had the opportunity to speak on the settlement of a Treaty of Waitangi claim. In some ways— 
Paul Quinn 
: You have broad experience. 
DAVID SHEARER 
: It is quite pertinent I tell the member. For a couple of years I worked for the Tainui Maori Trust Board alongside Nanaia Mahuta’s father Sir Robert Mahuta collecting the evidence on the Tainui claim which was settled many years ago. The settlement has meant that Tainui now has the financial and economic basis Sir Robert always dreamt of to give Tainui the mana and the economic strength to go on and be not only a stronger tribe but also an economic force amongst Maori and within New Zealand. It is interesting that settlements resulting in Maori ownership of their lands mean that the economic base of Maori is now in excess of $16 billion. 
Turning to Part 2 with regard to forestry I am reminded that just a few weeks ago I was visiting Scion in Rotorua in the middle of the North Island. That institution does research in relation to forestry. We were looking at the potential for forestry to drive many economic advantages for New Zealand. Interestingly Scion said that because many of our major forest enterprises are now sold to foreign interests and as those foreign interests are more interested in chopping down trees and sending them off to Russia and to China in particular we are not able to take advantage of the many developments Scion is making within the area of biofuels and organic plastics. One of Scion’s key developments was to look at the way Maori-owned forests were being utilised so that they could get behind many of those economic opportunities. 
The reason I bring that up is that under Part 2 which relates more particularly to the forestry assets that Ngati Apa will accumulate as a result of this settlement the benefits will in fact fall within the ambit of what Scion was trying to do—that is the forestry interests will be owned by Maori interests. Maori interests will not sell them as we have done with much of our forestry interests throughout the North Island and also in part in the South Island. It gives me personally a great amount of pleasure to stand up and speak to this bill. As my colleagues have pointed out the bill is hugely significant for the Whanganui area. This issue has been a source of huge grievance over many many years and finally some of that grievance can be put to rest. 
I want also to touch upon the change made in Part 2 to the spelling of “Wanganui” which is quite significant in many ways. To include the “h” in references within this bill is a bold way of expressing the changes that have taken place in Whanganui—or as people from the area call it “Wanganui”. I know that Minister Williamson at the time kind of had a buck both ways on that issue and said the Crown and Crown entities could do what they liked but that he hoped they would put the “h” into Wanganui which they are doing now. I think that slowly over time we will see the general pick-up of that spelling throughout the Whanganui area despite the best efforts of Michael Laws and the various people in the Whanganui area who have some sort of aversion towards it just as many people in Taranaki had problems with the renaming of Egmont. But in Part 2 “Wanganui” is replaced by “Whanganui”.