Macindoe Tim: New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMacindoe Tim: New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 07 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:17604. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West): Kia ora.Tēnātātou katoa e te Whare.Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. I have not been a member of the Māori Affairs Committee that has worked on the New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill but I do want to begin as others have done by acknowledging the very fine work of a very fine MP the member for Waiariki Te Ururoa Flavell. It is always significant to be the member who is sponsoring a bill and particularly as the local member. Given the historic significance of this particular measure I know that it will be a matter of some pride to him to have reached this point and I acknowledge his very fine effort in the area.I also want to acknowledge the members of the select committee—as others have done—who have worked tirelessly on this bill. They have considered the submissions that were made on it and they have referred the bill back to the House with the recommendation that it should be passed with certain amendments that reflect the submissions that they considered particularly up in Tauranga where they met with a number of the submitters or submissioners. I noticed that MPs in days gone by were always referred to inHansard as submissioners rather than submitters.Particularly I would like to acknowledge the Hon Tau Henare who has I think been a very fine member of this House. He has done a very good job as the chair of the Māori Affairs Committee which has worked on this bill and of course—Hon Trevor Mallard: He’s a statesman now he’s retiring.TIM MACINDOE: Yes. I think that is a wonderful acknowledgment from the Hon Trevor Mallard—that the Hon Tau Henare is indeed a statesman; one of the statesmen of his era. I am sure that the Hon Trevor Mallard will be happy to tweet that now so that the Hon Tau Henare canretweet it and it will go to a cast of thousands. I do agree with his acknowledgment.In all seriousness I think it is worth acknowledging that the Hon Tau Henare entered this House 21 years ago. He has served as both the Minister of Māori Affairs in a previous administration and as the chair of the Māori Affairs Committee under the administration of the Rt Hon John Key. He can be proud of what he has achieved. He can certainly be proud of what he has contributed to the excellent work of this Government on Treaty settlement issues and of course we will be back here in the morning doing further work on that. This bill is related very much to the sentiment of what is at the heart of the Treaty settlement.I do also want to acknowledge those groups and individuals from the iwi who made submissions on the bill. As I have mentioned the committee travelled to Tauranga and heard from eight of those submitters during the hearings in Tauranga. The committee took seriously what they had to say and a number of amendments which will be considered in more detail at the Committee stage of this debate have arisen as a result of those deliberations. When the bill carries on through its second reading today its Committee stage its third reading and its final enactment and when it receives the Royal assent that will be a very significant and mana-restoring achievement for theŌtamataha Trust and thehapū of Ngāti Tapu andNgāiTamarāwaho.There is also added significance to this particular development this year 2014 because just last week—as members in the House no doubt are aware and many who may be listening to or watching this debate at this moment will have seen on the television—there was the 150th anniversary of a very significant event: the Battle of GatePā was commemorated by iwi and the Crown. I was not able to attend that particular commemoration but I did have the privilege just a few weeks earlier of attending a similar event marking the Battle ofŌrākau nearKihikihi in the Waikato region.The significance of that event—and I think that most of the people I am about to mention were also at the commemoration of the Battle of GatePā last week—was underlined by the presence that day ofKīngiTuheitia; our Governor-General Sir JerryMateparae; the Prime Minister the Rt Hon John Key; Her Excellency the British High Commissioner; the Māori Affairs Minister the Hon Pita Sharples; many civic leaders; the sponsor of this bill of course; and other dignitaries. That was a very memorable dramatic and hot day. Waikato at that stage was still in the grip of the drought that we experienced over the summer and I have to say it was one of the most moving and intimidatingweros I have ever seen—there was a re-enactment of the challenge on that day. The dust was being kicked up everywhere it went on for a considerable period of time and as I say it was one of the things I will remember long after I have left this House.Back to Tauranga and to the New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill. It is an area for which I have a particular affection having resided there for a period back in 2002 and 2003. In fact our family lived very near Tauranga Hospital which is just a very short distance from the site of the Battle of GatePā and there is of course a historic monument there around which the commemorations last week took place. My younger daughter attended GatePā School before going on to join her sister at Tauranga Intermediate School.We all have very fond memories of our time in that city and the region although I have to say I do not have quite such fond memories of the reason why I was there. As you will well recall Mr Assistant Speaker it was when I was the National Party candidate for Tauranga in the 2002 election which was not a great time to be a candidate for National in any part of the country but in particular in Tauranga. I think there is a certain irony because I am effectively taking the New Zealand First call in this debate and I think that it is sort of payback because the New Zealand First candidate who won—W Peters—effectively took my votes in that election. So I do want to say well done to both Bob Clarkson and Simon Bridges for repaying my debt to society.To summarise this bill transfers land in Tauranga and other property from the New Zealand Mission Trust to theŌtamataha Trust so it can be used by the beneficiaries of that trust. It is not a charitable trust but the beneficiaries are effectively thehapū of Ngāti Tapu andNgāiTamarāwaho. It comes as I said at a significant time—the 150th anniversary of the Battle of GatePā. TheŌtamataha Trust has been established by thehapū of Ngāti Tapu andNgāiTamarāwaho to own and manage land and other property that was acquired through the historical common interests of thosehapū in Tauranga.The Church Missionary Society or CMS was established in Tauranga back in 1835—5 years before the Treaty of Waitangi so it has had a very significant role over a long of period of European settlement in this land. In 1838 the Church Missionary Society bought two blocks from tangata whenua on the site that is effectively where the city of Tauranga is today. But that was a transaction that was never accepted by tangata whenua as a sale of the land to the Church Missionary Society.In 1867 the Crown acquired as a gift from the Church Missionary Society fourth-fifths of the land that had been vested in the Church Missionary Society by a Crown grant in 1852 and military settlers were settled on it. The land was surrounded by confiscated Māori land which was also settled. So it is right that these historical grievances are now being recognised in this particular measure.In 1896 the remaining land was transferred from the Church Missionary Society to the New Zealand Mission Trust Board which “held the assets of the Board on trusts for the spiritual benefit and spiritual instruction of Maori people in the North Island of New Zealand or failing that the evangelisation of heathen races in any part of the world:”—extraordinary and just over a century ago. It was exactly a century later that the New Zealand Mission Trust Board handed back control of the land to the new trustees who were appointed by Ngāti Tapu andNgāiTamarāwaho. This was done in recognition of the manner and process by which the land was originally acquired from tangata whenua.The land itself is now the land on which those who are familiar with the area recognise the Trinity Wharf Tauranga hotel and the trust collects ground rent from that hotel. It has always been the intention of the two trusts that it be changed so that the twohapū can benefit from it. However the conditions cannot be changed in any way other than through this legislation.So that brings me back to the point where I started where I acknowledged the fact that it is the member for Waiariki Te Ururoa Flavell who has done that work who has liaised with local iwi who has liaised with the Crown and who has brought this bill ultimately to the point where today it looks as if finally this matter is going to be resolved. So it is a privilege for me to be able to speak on it and I have great pleasure in supporting this bill.Bill read a second time.