Paraone Pita: Waitangi National Trust Board Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParaone Pita: Waitangi National Trust Board Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 19 November 2015. Volume:710;Page:8341. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PITA PARAONE (NZ First):Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker ēngari i mua i te haere tonu o aku kōrero kai te tautoko au i ngā mihi i mihingia e taku tuakana ki ngā whānau o Lomu a Whaitiri. E tika ana kia mihi kau ki a rāua nā te mea i tata ake nei i ngaro atu rātau ki te tirohanga kanohi nā reira haere haere hoki atu! Hoki mai ki a tātau e te hunga ora tātau i roto i Te Whare nei i tēnei wā tēnā koutou.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker but before I continue with my assertions I endorse the tributes by my elder kin to the Lomu and Whaitiri families. It is apt that tributes are accorded to those two because they were lost from the sight of mankind just recently so depart journey on leave! I come back to us the living in this House at this moment of time; greetings to you collectively.]Before I continue I ought to declare a vested interest in this bill over and above being an ordinary citizen of this country. I have had the privilege of being a member of the trust board for some time now and an even greater privilege to be its chair for the last 5 years. Can I say on behalf of the board that we have certainly looked forward to this particular point in time when in a few minutes this bill will be passed by this House.Can I just make the comment that it has been a lengthy gestation for this bill given that it was introduced back in 2013. It has taken almost 3 years for it to get to this stage. I also want to comment on the speech made by the Minister who commenced the third reading of this bill the Hon Nicky Wagner and make reference to the comments that were also referred to by the member for Tāmaki Makaurau Peeni Henare.The Minister made reference to the knowledge of Waitangi being more known by people from outside New Zealand. She referred to that as being quite shameful. Can I suggest that there is something more shameful than that. At the time the Government of the day refused to accept or listen to the representations made by the member for the Bay of Islands Mr Vernon Reed who made several submissions to the then Government of the day for it to buy the estate. As a consequence of the Government declining that request he made submissions to Lord and Lady Bledisloe. In their benevolence they provided the funding to purchase the estate.This bill certainly makes amendments to the original Act in relation to the representation of the various families who are listed in the original Act and in particular the Māori families. For some time now I have represented the four Māori families. Although I feel that I may have done a good job I still felt that it seemed to be inequitable that the Māori families were represented by one person whereas the non-Māori families each had their own representation. This bill corrects that. But I must say that in terms of the length of the term that people can sit on the board which is limited to periods of 3 years with a maximum of 9 years up to this point in time the membership of the board was left to the individual members who sat on that board to determine when they would resign or it was when they departed this world. To think that my grand-uncle sat on that board for almost 49 years and there were other long-serving members.Never in the history of the board were there any untoward decisions made that would put the estate in jeopardy. In fact the only time that there was something that questioned the integrity of the board was when the Department of Conservation was responsible for the administration of the trust. But be that as it may the board certainly looks forward to the enactment of this bill.Can I say that the bill is not entirely what the board had requested from the beginning but we take solace in the knowledge that it is the intention of the Minister to conduct a review that will look at the possibilities of the board being able to enter into commercial activity. At the moment the trust deed restricts the board being able to do that. I certainly look forward to doing that.On Waitangi Day next year we will have the privilege of opening a museum that will allow for the trust board to exhibit a number of taonga that we have in our possession. The previous speaker Mr Clendon made reference to the hope that the Treaty might one day be displayed in Waitangi. I certainly hope that that can be achieved as does the board itself. However although we had hoped that the Treaty might be displayed during the opening of our museum next year unfortunately due to the fragility of the original Treaty document itself there is some difficulty about the possibility of that happening. However I have signalled to the Minister that it is certainly the ongoing desire of the board to see the Treaty displayed in Waitangi albeit for a brief time.There is not too much more to say other than to say that in terms of the representation of Parliament on the board—a member from each side of the House—although it is not exactly articulated in the bill it is intended that in terms of the representative from the Opposition the Leader of the Opposition will consult with all other parties who are not sitting in Government. I just wanted to make that point.In conclusion I want to acknowledge my colleagues on the Māori Affairs Committee and the time that they took to consider this bill. I also want to acknowledge the officials and in particular a former chief executive officer of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage Lewis Holden. He was certainly responsible for initiating this whole process from a ministerial point of view.Hon Trevor Mallard: He was the one who quit because Maggie Barry was so rude.PITA PARAONE: Be that as it may—I want to conclude by acknowledging my fellow board members. I know that a number of them will be watching this debate. They have waited for so long. But we are also waiting for the intended review that the Minister promised. Ā nā reira kei te tautoko au i te urunga mai o te mana hoki o tēnei ia pire arā ko Te Waitangi National Trust Board Amendment Bill kia ora rā.[And so I endorse the introduction of the particular power in this bill; in other words in the Waitangi National Trust Board Amendment Bill. Thank you very much.]