Fox MaramaMARAMA FOX (Co-Leader—Māori Party): E Te Mana Whakawā kai te pīrangi au ki te mihi atu ki a koutou e hui nei i tēnei wā hei kawe i tēnei pire ki roto i te ture koutou e hāpai nei i ngā mahi a Wī Pere i te hītori o te whenua koutou e mau whenua tonu ana kia whiwhi pūtea kia mahi i ngā mahi kia tautoko i ngā uri o Wī Pere kai te mihi atu ki a koutou! Nā kia rapu au i te kōrero ka haere tōtika au ki tō koutou website ānei nā tā koutou e kī nei:[Mr Assistant Speaker I would like to acknowledge you assembled here at this point in time for the purposes of enacting this bill into law and supporting the work of Wī Pere in the history of the country and I acknowledge you who still own land that can accrue funding that will assist the work and support Wī Pere's descendants. I salute you. Now then to enable me to hunt for the discourse I will go directly to your website. Here it is and this is what you stated:]Wiremu Pere and his family were owners of the land in their own right and were owners of undivided interests of various land titles." And as you know as happened around the entire country land leases and the ability to earn money off the land for Māori—all of that was stopped when Governor Grey announced: "You can no longer pay your land leases to Māori landowners." So Wī Pere whānau found themselves with some accumulated debt and went to the bank to try to alleviate that to ensure that the land would not be sold.This is what happened: "The bank consented with the following conditions: I. That Wi Pere and his family transfer all their estates to a Trust formed under the provisions of the 'Native Land Laws Amendment Act 1897'."—the Native Land Laws Amendment Act; I guess that would have been the ancient iteration of what we are trying to do now with Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill—"II. That the Trustee appointed should be consented to by the Governor and that all restrictions should be removed from the land. III. That Walter George Foster of Wellington be appointed Trustee who should have exclusive control without the interference by any of the beneficiaries over the management and disposal of the land."Wī Pere fought this tooth and nail. He was not going to allow that to happen but seeing the land under threat of liability to be lost finally consented took the loan consented to the conditions under which that loan was got—that is not a flash word but under which they got the loan—and then set about trying to earn the money required to pay it off as quick as possible and retain the land for all future generations. And now we come today to this trust which has now a $65 million asset because it has ensured that it is doing the best for its beneficiaries.Here is a little something that you need to understand about Māori trusts and Māori land. In a normal company if you do not pay out dividends sufficient enough to your owners and your beneficiaries they sell your shares and the value of your company goes into the ground. That does not happen in Māori land because Māori land owners will never sell their shares. They want to keep that for ever and so a dividend is not often paid out; a dividend is reinvested and reinvested and reinvested in the whenua to ensure we can grow the asset which is a good thing. But what also happens then is you do get some contention and tension within the whānau who do not believe that the asset is being looked after or distributed fairly. And I think that is fair from the comments that came through from the submitters.So following the hearings that we had in Gisborne—very proud of the whānau who turned up well-versed in the issues that they may have had very proud of the trust who turned up well-versed in the running of the Wī Pere Trust and the efforts that they make on behalf of their beneficiaries—it was obvious that there were some communication things that needed to be settled. But I think of the tikanga that we all uphold to: mā te kōrero ka whakatika [change will occur through discussion].This bill I commend it to the House proud of the whānau for the efforts that you make. You all know what is needed or the whānau know what is needed in the future and we watch with interest as you continue to grow the asset for the benefit of all your descendants."