SpeechNICOLE McKEE (ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. ACT likes this bill and we are supporting it. We commend Joseph Mooney for bringing it to the House and congratulate him for getting it pulled from the ballot box. It reflects a commitment to property rights in a Māori context and it's important for allowing Māori to realise their full potential and opportunities in the rights of land ownership.Currently large tracts of Māori-owned land are underperforming for their owners and this is largely due to the constraints stemming from current legislation. If we can improve the performance of productivity of Māori land it has the potential to provide hundreds of millions of dollars for the economic and cultural benefit of its owners their whānau and their hapu while at the same time ensuring that there is better guardianship of the land—better than letting it go to gorse and not being utilised at all.This bill would mean that Māori land owners will be able to make beneficial changes and still keep their taonga. But best of all they won't have to go through the Māori Land Court process if 75 percent of the owners are in agreement on progressing their land use.For those at home that are wondering why we need to legislate let me explain it this way. Māori land can be difficult to work with and much of the reason why is because there can be many owners with disagreeing views on how to utilise that land. Banks are often not tempted to award mortgages because they cannot use the land as security and those that do get standard home loans often have to put their homes on piles ensure that there's road access so that those homes can be uplifted for removal if the mortgagor defaults on their payments. Māori land passes from one generation to the next. That is its transfer is based on bloodlines not sale and purchase agreements nor marriage. This can become a problem when the parcels of shares to a block of land become smaller. Of course that happens as each generation grows.My sister and I will inherit my father's Māori land when he passes. He and his four brothers inherited their share from their father. So my grandfather's share was broken into five parts. The share that my grandfather inherited came to him after it was broken down into six parts for sharing with his brothers. That means that the share my great-grandfather had has been split amongst his six sons. Those shares are then split again amongst their children and then again amongst their children which is my generation. My share will then be split among my four children. This is our whakapapa.You can quickly see how a parcel of land can produce multiple owners over just a couple of generations. Once you get many owners it becomes harder to agree on what to do with the land and get financing for initiatives. The volume of land that we're talking about here is large. It's 5 percent of the total land mass of New Zealand comprising 1.4 million hectares—or 27000 blocks—that are held as Māori land and much of it is underutilised.The Māori economy contributes $68.7 billion to our GDP a figure and achievement that should be shouted from the rooftops. But Labour doesn't celebrate it at all and will hinder the growth of Māori by not supporting this bill. There is so much untapped potential here. Māori should be able to grow and realise that potential with their whenua asset. Where Māori can contribute $68 billion from their hard mahi and innovative ideas imagine how much more can be produced for their whānau hapu and iwi if they can actually use their land. Living costs might just be affordable for many including our elders. The bonus will be in the potential further contribution to the country's $68 billion GDP already being delivered: an estimated $8 billion and the creation of over 3000 jobs.This is a sort of boost to our economy that can contribute to making it healthy again a necessity in these trying and expensive times. There is so much innovative potential being lost when 80 percent of Māori land is not being utilised due to bureaucracy. This bill seeks to alleviate that bureaucracy and open up Māori land for whānau opportunities. We commend this bill to the House.