Henare PeeniHon PEENI HENARE (Labour): Kia ora Madam Speaker and thank you for the opportunity to speak on this particular bill. I'm excited as a former board member of the Ngarimu VC trust—Arena Williams: And recipient.Hon PEENI HENARE: —and recipient—and also sitting next to a recipient—and also the grandson of the final commander of the 28th Māori Battalion. It truly is an honour to be able to speak to this and while I endorse all of the words across the House about the need for the modernisation sadly the modernisation wasn't just brought about by the need to make sure that the trust can function in the modern environment but sadly it was brought about because of the passing of the vast majority of the survivors of the 28th Māori Battalion. In fact we only have one left—Sir Bom Gillies—and it was recognised a number of years ago under the leadership of Nolan Raihania that the Māori Battalion trust could no longer continue because there just weren't enough survivors of the war to be able to continue to administrate for the trust. Therefore there was a need to make sure that the function and the symbols and the songs and everything else that's held dear to the Māori Battalion can be cared for. And it was seen actually at the time under the leadership of the Hon Hekia Parata and then under the leadership of the Hon Kelvin Davis and then of course more recently of my colleague the Hon Jan Tinetti—to make sure that we can modernise the trust to make sure that it can one function in the new environment; two continue to protect much of the old taonga the treasure of the symbols that have already been mentioned and are in a schedule to this particular bill. Because what's happened—and Mr Speaker you and I we've seen this; we've been to the Ōtara market. While I appreciate what some of our very clever relations are doing in selling clothing that symbolises what's dear to Māori they've taken the Māori Battalion symbol and changed the words on it to be about te reo Māori. And while I don't begrudge them for doing that because of course our tupuna fought for te reo Māori when they went to World War II it was important to ensure that the honour and the tapu of that particular symbol was protected which is why it was important not only to shift the symbol into the Ngarimu VC trust but if the members want to dig a little bit deeper they'll find many of the songs that I know many of us know the words to are also protected by the trust—songs like Māori Battalion March to Victory"—Hon Members: Keep going!Hon PEENI HENARE: —so that the copyright for those songs actually belongs to the trust. Hey! You know seeing as we're name-dropping I can do a bit more. But it is important—we see cultural appropriation or misappropriation of cultural goods and taonga ever more prevalent in today's society. So protecting these is actually what we're doing in this particular bill and I'm really proud—as a former board member and a recipient and sitting next to my friend and colleague here a recipient as well—to continue to honour the fine men and women who serve in the defence force. Giving the opportunity for a current or past serving member to be able to be part of the board is really important to continue to bring the defence force element into the consideration. And I can say that as when I was a board member I was also the Minister of Defence at the time and the Defence Force holds the memory of the Māori Battalion dearly. In fact the evidence is being heard right now in claim Wai 2500 which recently sat on Mōtatau Marae four weeks ago to hear about the experience of veterans from the Māori Battalion.I don't want to continue to prolong this. There's agreement right across the House for a very important bill to bring the likes of the Ngarimu scholarship board into the future but also to remember and to protect the taonga of the past.I heard the member for Napier talk about perhaps the opportunity there might be for Willie Apiata VC to serve on the board. He's already a strong adviser and supporter of the board. And I just wanted to make clear to that member that Willie Apiata's great-grandmother and my great-grandfather are brother and sister so yeah name-dropping. But I think the purpose of that is just to show how rich this heritage is not just for this country but for this House. As we look around the names on the walls of this whare we remember the battles of the likes of Ngarimu VC who died in the Tunisia campaign and it's important that we continue to make sure that we protect this taonga into the future and I commend this bill to the House."