Leary Ingrid; McKelvie IanINGRID LEARY (Labour—Taieri): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's a real privilege as tangata Tiriti to take this last call for the Labour Party on this member's bill. Like others I want to congratulate the member Joseph Mooney for having the bill drawn from the ballot. I cannot support this bill not around so much the substance of the bill because I was not on the select committee but it's very apparent from listening to the contributions tonight that the process around the bill is not tika and it is not pono and that concerns me and it is evident in the lack of support for the original bill which occurred in 2016. There were heavyweights including Māori land owners trusts and incorporations Māori Land Court judges the Human Rights Commission and the New Zealand Law Society which all came out against it. We have heard tonight about the considerable work that has been done by this Government to address some of the issues that were in that original piece of legislation. It's a tribute to the Māori Affairs Committee that my colleague Arena Williams has written to Mr Mooney on 8 June 2022 to outline in great detail why she doesn't support his bill. It shows the collegiality of that committee which I've had the privilege of experiencing myself on the times that I've sat on it. But in summary the Government on 19 September 2019 introduced a bill comprising three targeted amendments including te ture whenua Māori succession dispute resolution and related matters.. On 12 April 2021—additional reforms. There's been ongoing legislative reform work in terms of a Māori Purposes Bill that is scheduled for introduction this year. Work has also resumed on the development of a Public Works (Whenua Māori) Amendment Bill to adjust the ways in which the Public Works Act 1981 relates to and impacts on whenua Māori. Other substantive reforms are being extracted from the 2016 bill and developed and implemented in the context of amendments to that 1993 Act. That's all a significant amount of work and we can see the level of ambition that the member's bill has sought to achieve with 393 pages of proposed legislation. That's really unusual for a member's bill and I would suggest ambitious and perhaps echoing the words of Elizabeth Kerekere wondering about whether it is a slightly paternalistic approach given that Māori are not at the centre of leading this charge. So I'd like to finish with the words of Minister Willie Jackson who spoke on this bill previously in the House and he said Māori have a deep spiritual connection to whenua which is a taonga tuku iho a treasure handed down from earlier generations to be nurtured and cared for by the next generation. Māori are the kaitiaki of this taonga which provides a source of unity and identity for tangata whenua." I respect those words. I respect that Minister and also actually the previous members from this side who spoke—and a special shout-out to Rino Tirikatene who has moved down into Ōtepoti. So just want to acknowledge how strong we feel having Rino there and the contributions he made earlier tonight with the Kāi Tahu legislation member's bill that he is getting through. But going back to the bill I respect that process around what is tika and what is pono for tangata whenua to sort out their own affairs in relation to land that directly concerns them. It is not for others to bring this forward without adequate consultation and draw the opposition of such heavyweights as the Māori Land Court judges the Human Rights Commission the New Zealand Law Society and the Māori Women's Welfare League as we heard from my colleague Shanan Halbert. So there is work to do. We've heard that from Paul Eagle tonight. There has also been a substantial amount of work that this Government has already done pursuant to the 2016 bill being withdrawn and there's been significant progress made. But a member's bill is not the way to do that and certainly not a member's bill that hasn't gone through the correct tikanga the correct process. I think being Dutch I'm perhaps a little bit more forthright in how I say that than my Māori colleagues on this side of the House. I again congratulate the member for having his bill drawn and echo the words of Shanan Halbert to say "Keep going. Well done." and fantastic work by the select committee and tautoko to their collegiality. I don't commend the bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ian McKelvie): I call that good man Joseph Mooney—five minutes in reply."