Finlayson ChristopherHon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National): Thank you sir. I was going to say something about the report on the Ministry for Culture and Heritage but the cultural sector is in such an excellent condition after nine years of a National Government—six of which I was the Minister—I didn't want to spend five minutes simply praising myself. So what I thought I would do is focus instead on Te Puni Kōkiri and this unbelievably missed opportunity of the development of the Māori Land Service. Of the many things this Government has done since they assumed office toward the end of October the most stupid the most wasteful the most disappointing thing they have done was ditch the reforms of Te Ture Whenua Maori Act.This was a massive project and they were opposing it for purely political reasons even though the Labour Party in their manifesto over a number of elections promised to reform Te Ture Whenua Maori Act. The 1993 Act is not fit for purpose and the development of a new piece of legislation and within it the development of the Māori Land Service was so pro whānau hapū and iwi and that opportunity has been lost.This National Opposition—and I'm sure I speak on behalf of the temporarily absent Māori Party—would say that the work done on the Māori Land Service was an important concomitant of the reform of Te Ture Whenua Maori Act. As envisaged by the architects of the legislation the Māori Land Service would serve three functions. First it would provide top-quality registration services for Māori land and why shouldn't Māori have exactly the same 21st century registration system that general land has? Why should they have to put up with this antediluvian nonsense that happens under the 1993 legislation? So that was the first point.The second point was a dispute resolution service so that whānau who had difficulties could get speedy and inexpensive justice through a system governed by the Māori Land Service that would facilitate mediation and as I say the inexpensive and expeditious resolution of disputes because the current system is simply not working. It takes months to get before the court and many people just can't be bothered going to court because the system is so run down. The kinds of reforms that we were proposing for the Māori Land Court were introduced in the general court system in 1984. So it's simply unbelievable that these sorts of reforms which were overdue couldn't proceed.The third aspect of the Māori Land Service was the development of a land advisory system so that people were able to get advice to develop their land. It's one of the tragedies of New Zealand that 11 percent of the North Island is governed by Te Ture Whenua Maori Act and 80 percent of that land is undeveloped or underdeveloped. There are massive problems with landlocked land. I recall a fellow from Mōkai Pātea who came and saw me and said he tried to get access to his land which is landlocked and the farmer said You're more than welcome to walk in any time you want." and he said "Well actually I need vehicular access." and he was told to go and see a taxidermist.These are the kinds of issues that need to be grappled with. Treaty settlements at the end of the day will probably be worth about $3 billion to $4 billion in 2018 dollars but if the nettle had been grasped on this particular issue it is worth billions and billions of dollars to Māori. So it's a massive disappointment that all the good work that was done on Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill all the thinking the hard work and policy thinking that had been done on the Māori Land Service has gone up in smoke. I'm very fond of the Minister in the chair Nanaia Mahuta but I have to say she made an egregious error and I largely blame the Minister of Customs Meka Whaitiri who I think had some rather unsavoury people who were persuading her to this point of view. But at the end of the day the opposition to Te Ture Whenua Maori Act reforms was largely political."