Ririnui Mita: Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Forestry Sector) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Ririnui Mita: Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Forestry Sector) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:655;Page:4735] 
Hon MITA RIRINUI (Labour) 
: 
 It is my intention to take only a brief call on the Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Forestry Sector) Amendment Bill and to reiterate the position of the Labour Opposition by saying that we will support this bill. I listened very carefully to the previous speakers and I heard the Minister for Climate Change Issues describe this bill as being a minor bill and one of his Government colleagues describe it as being a technical bill that deals with time frames. That is essentially the case. But it is also important to point out that although the Government is discussing issues around amendments and is describing the bill as being minor and technical in nature this bill has the potential to create considerable uncertainty for the forestry sector given that for a number of weeks there has been considerable to-ing and fro-ing on the future of the emissions trading scheme. I put that down perhaps to a lack of information being circulated throughout various communities. 
I want to talk about the issues for Maori foresters and particularly Maori landowners. Maori Party co-leader the Hon Tariana Turia highlighted a number of key concerns for Maori who are already involved in forestry or considering the utilisation of multiple-owned Maori land for forestry. As the Emissions Trading Scheme Review Committee works its way through the review and considers the wider issues on which I am sure the Minister will report back to the House it will be interesting to see just how much certainty there is around the emissions trading scheme. As the House is aware a number of Treaty settlements have included vast areas of forestry particularly in the central North Island and we will see the same in Northland on the East Coast and in other areas of the country. The issue for many of those settlement groups that are looking at forestry really is the balance between economic opportunity and environmental protection as they invest in forestry. 
As the House is aware Maori have assets of somewhere around $16.5 billion and about 52 percent of that is in the primary sector. I do not think it will take much of a calculation to determine the percentage of forestry in the primary sector that is under Maori control. So there are issues around certainty and whether Maori are satisfied that investment in forestry in the future will be a worthwhile investment particularly as there are issues around Maori land. I picked up on Tariana Turia’s comments around Te Ture Whenua Maori Act but there are issues around unlocking the potential of Maori land so that it could be developed in a number of ways whether it be for forestry farming horticulture or agriculture. There is a smorgasbord of options. 
This leads me to the point regarding the barriers to Maori land development. Although forestry might be one potential avenue for development in my view and in my experience most of the main barriers are in the Te Ture Whenua Maori Act itself: in attempting to comply with the Act’s requirements in terms of reaching consensus and agreements on investment in Maori land—in other words in unlocking that land. We have seen that in many parts of the Bay of Plenty of Northland and of the East Coast—and I am sure many of other areas—large areas of Maori land are underutilised. I look forward to the debate on the wider issue of unlocking Maori land for future development. 
As I said earlier on I really do not intend to take a long call on this particular matter. This bill described as being minor or technical in nature has created quite a high level of uncertainty as to where the Government is heading in terms of the emissions trading scheme. I have some questions that I would like to put to the Minister and I will do so during the Committee stage. His responses to those questions will be very important. 
I was in the Taranaki region on the weekend and I spoke to one particular group about Maori land development and suggested the issue of forestry. I was surprised at the quick response to my suggestion. The group said there is too much uncertainty around the future of forestry and the emissions trading scheme and that being the case there is too high a risk in terms of investing in forestry where Maori land is concerned. As the Minister said a wider review is taking place and in time there will be a report back to the House. I along with a lot of Maori landowners and forest owners will be looking forward to what the select committee reports back to the House. 
That is all I have to contribute to this particular part of the discussion but I will certainly put some questions to the Minister during the Committee stage of the bill. Thank you.