te Heuheu Georgina: Te Runanga o Ngati Awa Bill — Procedure In Committee 
te Heuheu Georgina: Te Runanga o Ngati Awa Bill — Procedure In Committee 
[Volume:623;Page:18912] 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (National) 
: 
 It may be that the Minister was contemplating replying to the previous speaker’s query. Since he has not I would like to hear his explanation of whether in the future the Maori Affairs Committee will continue to include commentaries in English and Maori in legislation. 
Te Runanga o Ngati Awa was constituted by the Te Runanga o Ngati Awa Act in 1988. That Act declared the runanga to be subject to the Maori Trust Boards Act. As we have all learnt since then the Maori Trust Boards Act under which a number of tribal authorities are constituted has proved not to be adequate to receive settlement assets. So it is no surprise that at some stage this Parliament will also be looking at dealing with the governance entity of Ngati Awa. The legislation that concludes the Ngati Awa settlement is about to go through the Parliament over the next week or so. Of course unless the iwi has an entity that satisfies certain requirements of the settlement framework that has been developed then assets cannot pass. That is why National supports this bill. I take note of what the previous speaker said—that it is a member’s bill and not necessarily something that the Parliament should be entertaining. Be that as it may Ngati Awa is entitled to receive its settlement and to do so this bill needs to pass. 
I will comment on a couple of issues. The first is the issue of the low turn-out for ratification of governance entities that has been a feature of recent settlements and on which the Opposition has expressed concern. It will probably continue to be a feature of settlements in the near future. I understand that the Government is looking at a generic format for future governance entities. If that is the case I hope the Government is doing it in consultation with iwi. We do not want the Government dreaming up a generic framework for future governance entities into which iwi have had no input. But this is probably a good development because it is of no credit to the Government that the Ngati Awa settlement has basically been in place for the last 5 years and the iwi has spent much of that time endeavouring to get the entity that it wanted. 
My understanding was that originally the Labour Government was opposed to Ngati Awa having a governance entity that needed to be legislated for. But here we are today and I think it behoves this Parliament given that the third reading of the settlement bill is nigh to ensure that this bill gets timely passage. 
The other issue I will speak of was brought up by one of the submitters—the issue of asset-holding entities. I guess that that submission arises out of the concern of beneficiaries whoever they might be about the security of assets that are held supposedly on behalf of the collective and whether they will be held in a way that they can be passed on to future generations. At the Hui Taumata which has been in progress for the last 2 days there has been some discussion on the issue of governance and on the appropriate mechanism by which assets should be held. There has also been some discussion about whether it is time for Maori people to consider whether assets should remain inalienable.