Scott Alastair: Papawai and Kaikokirikiri Trusts Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeScott Alastair: Papawai and Kaikokirikiri Trusts Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 02 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9331. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ALASTAIR SCOTT (National—Wairarapa): I move That the Papawai and Kaikokirikiri Trusts Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Māori Affairs Committee to consider this bill. I would like to thank and acknowledge the Papawai and Kaikōkirikiri Trusts Board for coming into Parliament today and welcome to you. I also acknowledge Māori Party member Marama Fox for her initiative and advice.The trust has played an important role in providing educational opportunities for young Māori in Wairarapa. It all began when Māori donated three blocks of land—the Papawai Kaikōkirikiri and Clareville land—to the Crown for a school to be established under the authority of George Selwyn the Lord Bishop of New Zealand. The land was vested in the trust board in 1853. The Papawai Native School was subsequently established and operated on that piece of land until 1932 when it was destroyed by a fire. The trust’s remaining funds were not enough to re-establish and maintain another school so the Papawai and Kaikokirikiri Trusts Act was enacted in 1943. This Act extended and varied the trust’s authority in order to make practical use of the available income and to establish a new board to administer the trust.Since that Act the trust has been distributing the income from the Papawai and Kaikōkirikiri land to support the education of post-primary Māori students. Under the Act two-thirds of the trust’s distributions must go to Ngāti Kahungunu children first then to children of Māori descent and finally to Māori descendants anywhere in New Zealand. The scholarships for these children must go to schools conducted by the Anglican Church in Aotearoa / New Zealand and Polynesia. The final one-third of funding must go towards the cost of boarding clothing and other school-related costs.The bill will remove these strict funding restrictions in the Act and give the trust more flexibility in how the funds are best distributed to the tangata whenua of Wairarapa. The trust will then be able to distribute funds to where they are most effective rather than where they are required to go under the Act. The board members are in the best position to decide where the money should be going. It should not be decided by legislation that is over 70 years old.The requirement for the scholarships to go towards Anglican schools is another part of the bill that is being updated. Schools nowadays are not normally run by Churches like they used to be and scholarship recipients should not be restricted as to the type of school they attend. The bill does this by repealing the definition of the Church of England as the purpose of the trust is to advance education for Māori and the strict requirements in the Act are not necessary to achieve that purpose.Another reason for the bill is to establish a more robust nomination process for the board members. Under the current law there are 10 board members five of whom are appointed on the recommendation of the Diocesan Trust Board four members on the recommendation of the Māori Land Court and one member on the recommendation of the Minister of Education. There are no provisions relating to their term of office. Members of the board can remain members until their death their resignation or their conviction for an imprisonable offence.This bill provides a better framework for board appointment. One of the major changes is that the board must have eight instead of 10 members: four appointed by the Bishop of Te Upoko o Te Ika and four members being tangata whenua of Wairarapa who are either appointed or elected in accordance with a process that is adopted by the board. Board members will serve a term set at 4 years. These changes to the appointment process give more authority to tangata whenua of Wairarapa to decide whom they would like to see manage the trust and to decide on an appointment process that can be used in future to suit their needs.Another important part of this bill is to better facilitate the long-term development of lands. Under the current Act the board may sell the lands with the consent of the Minister of Education but the Minister may not consent to the sale of any land that has been acquired from any Māori tribe or hapū unless the Māori Land Court has given its consent. That court must ascertain the wishes of the members of the tribe or hapū concerned—very complicated; this is another part of the Act that needs updating. The bill warrants the board to sell the Clareville land if it wishes but not the Papawai land or the Kaikōkirikiri land.The board can lease all three of the lands in whole or in part and on any terms and conditions it sees fit. This gives the board more flexibility and allows for better use of the land to increase the trust’s finances.This bill modernises the current Act to remove many unnecessary restrictions and to establish a more robust nomination process of trustees. We will also see a more fair and flexible distribution of funds by modernising the restrictive distribution provisions in the Act. The bill enables the board to enter into modern business transactions to enable better use of the land and updates the trust’s relationship with the bishop. This bill most importantly empowers the board and iwi to determine for themselves the utilisation and distribution of their assets. This can only be achieved through legislation. I commend this bill to the House.