Mooney JosephTE TURE WHENUA MĀORI BILLFirst ReadingJOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland): I move That Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Māori Affairs Committee to consider the bill.E te Māngai o te Whare tēnā koe. E te Whare tēnā koutou katoa. Whatungarongaro he tangata toitū te whenua. [As man disappears from sight the land remains.]Whenua is of vital importance to Māori. It is essential for Māori that land is retained through generations. It is whakapapa. The vital relationship that Māori have with land is recognised as whanaungatanga and if Māori can act as guardians of the land's natural and physical resources that is kaitiakitanga. There are more than 27000 blocks of Māori land under the present Te Ture Whenua Maori Act comprising 1.4 million hectares about 5 percent of the total land mass of New Zealand. It has been estimated that up to 80 percent of Māori land is underperforming for its owners. In many cases this is because of structural issues which stem from the existing legislation. Under current legislation fragmentation is getting worse not better and there are thousands of owners who remain disconnected from their land.Even if whānau hapū or iwi have managed to hold on to some of their lands through confiscations war or have succeeded in having their ancestral whenua returned the odds are still stacked against them to build a single house upon it to develop papakāinga or to operate enterprises on that land. Picture this: in many parts of the country on one side of the road you can see farms where the title was granted by the Crown and is thus considered general land. The property on that side of the land is productively developed and farmed by its owners. In part this is because owners of general land have easy access to mortgage loans and other financial assistance. Owners of general land have easy access to finance because banks can call in the mortgage if they fail to service it and can sell the land to recover their costs. On the other side of the land Māori freehold land owners or land that is Māori customary land face big challenges in developing and building on their land. The problem for lenders is that it is a big risk to provide lending in respect of land with multiple owners. This is because banks cannot call in whenua Māori if the loan is not paid as the finance institutions cannot sell the land to recover their costs. I note the Kāinga Whenua loan scheme which is an initiative between Kāinga Ora and Kiwibank to help Māori achieve landownership on multiple-owned land. However that also has its limitations as it puts limits on the type of house that can be built purchased or relocated. It must be a one-storey house of at least 50 square metres. It must be on piles so it can be moved and it has to have reasonable road access. As a consequence far too often Māori freehold land tends to remain underdeveloped. It's not because Māori land owners don't want to live and work their whenua but it many ways Te Ture Whenua Maori Act in its current form does not empower them to make the decisions they need to improve the land or to build housing and papakāinga.This bill provides clearer governance structures such as trusts incorporations or external administrators to administer the land for the benefit of the participating owners. It also provides accountability mechanisms to ensure that those who are entrusted to govern the land for the benefit of iwi hapū and whānau do so competently and can be held to account for any breach of duty. This would be likely to give financial institutions greater confidence in lending to multiple-owned whenua Māori land for papakāinga intergenerational collective housing as well as agricultural and other enterprises on that land.There are two key aims at the heart of this bill. Firstly the bill will strengthen Te Ture Whenua Maori Act to keep Māori land in Māori hands. Secondly this bill will empower iwi hapū and whānau to make their own decisions about how they wish to maximise the potential of their whenua for their benefit and the benefit of future generations. This legislation supports the enhanced performance and productivity of Māori land which has the opportunity to provide billions of dollars of additional economic and cultural benefit for the owners. Māori land has the potential to produce up to $8 billion in additional value for the Māori economy. This bill reflects a policy shift to more clearly support land utilisation and productivity as determined by the owners themselves. National's objective with this bill is to keep Māori land in the undisturbed possession of its owners and its occupation use and administration by them for their benefit. Laws and policies must emphasise and consolidate Māori land ownership and use by the whānau or kin group. It is however important in determining where we need to go to examine more closely where we have come from.Over the years numerous reviews of Te Ture Whenua Maori Act have emphasised that the law for Māori land needs to be an enabling law so that the participating owners can make decisions without having to get court approval. Multiple reviews have repeatedly determined that the law is required to be a protective law too so that Māori land is retained by Māori. The law needs to give Māori land owners a clear and accountable governance framework within which to develop their land. Moreover the law must include a better dispute resolution support structure for Māori land owners and the law needs to have options to address fragmentation.This can only happen by replacing the current Act not just tinkering with it. There have been more than 180 statutes relating to Māori land over the last 168 years—180 statutes and 168 years and unfortunately that volume of legislation reflects the tendency of politicians to fiddle around the edges of this important issue rather than deal with comprehensive reform of it. This bill is based on the fundamental principle that Māori land endures as a taonga tuku iho by virtue of whakapapa that tikanga Māori is fundamental to matters involving Māori land and that the Treaty of Waitangi is central to the application of laws affecting Māori land. The bill is also grounded in the idea that Māori land owners have the right to decide for themselves how their land is governed and how it is used to take advantage of opportunities to develop their land for the benefit of present and future generations and to have disputes managed in a way that maintains and enhances relationships among the owners and members of the whānau and hapū. As of 2018 the Māori economy was worth over $68 billion. Over the past decade the Māori asset base has been growing at 10 percent a year much faster than the overall economy. The Māori economy is on track to reach $100 billion by 2030. A PricewaterhouseCoopers study prepared for the Ministry for Primary Industries in 2013 suggested that the benefits of improving governance and management of Māori land could increase financial benefit to Māori by up to $8 billion and create up to 3600 jobs over a decade. The growth of the Māori economy is a great success story. This bill would support and accelerate the growth of that economy by improving the performance and productivity of Māori land by and for Māori. Unleashing the potential of Māori land is crucial to setting up Māori for success in their post - Treaty settlement future.National believes that when Māori succeed New Zealand succeeds. The New Zealand National Party has a proud tradition of supporting Māori to unleash the potential of their whenua their land. Sir Apirana Ngata the legendary National Party native affairs Minister during the early 20th century embarked on a programme of enabling Māori to develop their land. Sir Apirana Ngata pressed ahead with land development schemes and initiated schemes across New Zealand where he could find underdeveloped Māori land in local communities willing to work it. Through this legislation National is backing Māori aspirations and broadening opportunities by enabling Māori to unlock the strategic potential of their resources.National wants to boost the Māori economy and improve outcomes for Māori by supporting Māori in their self-development and self-determination. This bill reforms and restates Te Ture Whenua Maori Act into a modern fit-for-purpose law which strengthens the protections of whenua Māori and unleashes the productive potential can it can provide for iwi hapū and whānau. Whereas the current 1993 Act has the Māori Land Court as its central focus the reforms proposed in this bill will place the legislative focus on the land itself and the rights and authority of the owners. This bill reflects a policy shift to more clearly support land utilisation as determined by the owners themselves. This is done by providing a new framework within which owners of Māori land will themselves be able to determine design establish and operate effective governance arrangements for their land. The new framework establishes a clear and explicit governance environment providing certainty for those working within it flexible options for governance structures the ability to reflect tikanga Māori in governance arrangements baseline thresholds for certain decisions and appropriate measures for Government accountability. The bill would achieve the dual aims of protecting Māori land and supporting the productive utilisation of whenua Māori in several key ways. First it will allow engaged land owners of Māori land to make governance and utilisation decisions without needing approval by the Māori Land Court. The current regime is structured so that a number of decisions cannot be taken by Māori land owners themselves because they are subject to endorsement by the Māori Land Court. Currently this ranges from long-term lease decisions to the establishment of trusts and incorporations to ratify any decisions of assembled owners. This serves to disempower owners and makes decision-making processes unnecessarily complex for most of the decisions effected.The bill would also continue and strengthen safeguards to support the retention of Māori land in Māori ownership. Thirdly the bill would unlock access to landlocked land. Many Māori land owners particularly rural land owners are unable to maximise the potential of their land due to where their whenua is located. Approximately 27 percent of Māori whenua is landlocked. When whenua is landlocked land owners must have either really good neighbours who will let them drive over their whenua or they can't actually get to it other than by walking. The law as it currently is requires Māori land owners to approach surrounding neighbours and negotiate and formalise reasonable legal access. The lack of reasonable access to whenua is a huge legal and practical obstacle to the development and utilisation of whenua.This bill is a significant step forward and I would hope to see support from the Labour Party the Māori Party and the Green Party. I have written to all members of the House seeking their input on this and I hope they will at least support this bill through to select committee.Sitting suspended from 6.03 p.m. to 7.00 p.m.