te Heuheu Georgina: Central North Island Forests Land Collective  Settlement Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
te Heuheu Georgina: Central North Island Forests Land Collective  Settlement Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
[Sitting date: 23 September 2008. Volume:650;Page:18951. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (National) 
: 
 My colleague Chris Finlayson is right of course: the preamble is reasonably straightforward. It is important for the fact that it lays the groundwork for the rest of the bill and sets out that “(1) The historical CNI forests land claims … are based on historical breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi by the Crown and the desire of [the iwi involved] to secure the return of that land”—basically the land lying beneath the Kaingaroa Forest—“and to achieve an enduring settlement of those claims:”. 
The iwi of the Central North Island Iwi Collective comprise over 100000 individuals and they have interests that span a major proportion of the central North Island. This settlement relates to 175000 hectares of central North Island forest land and has its genesis in that land and in the contention that has surrounded it for the last 20-odd years. Interestingly the Crown Forest Assets Act was passed in 1989 so that is a long time for something to be done about this matter. I remember that Richard Prebble sat on the Maori Affairs Committee during his last term in Parliament. He was one of the main movers behind the Crown Forest Assets Act and he shared with Maori Affairs Committee members at the time that the issues surrounding the sale of Crown forests in terms of Maori interests—that is the land—were meant to be settled within about 3 or 4 years. Here we are now in 2008 and next year it will be 20 years exactly since that Act was passed. 
It is important to remind ourselves of the Act that was passed then because it sits behind the bill and its opening statements. Basically Maori took an action to the courts and as a result of hard-fought and successful litigation on their part that Act was brought in. A big part of it protected Maori interests in the land that is now part of this settlement—but not substantially because the land interests still have to be dealt with and some of us have referred to that in our second reading speeches. This bill deals with the commercial side of the settlement; as for the land issues in terms of allocation to the various iwi interests that exercise is still to occur. The rentals from the licences were set aside upon the passing of the 1989 legislation until the claims over the forests could be resolved. As I have already said that has taken longer than anyone had ever dreamt possible. I guess we have to wonder about the development costs to Maori in terms of lost opportunities over the years but I am very pleased that we are here today discussing the bill and the settlement. 
Recital (2) of the preamble sets out that the two parties the Crown and the Central North Island Iwi Collective agreed to negotiate in good faith. That has been referred to in previous speeches as well. When a settlement of this type comes together in the way that this one has with a long gestation we may ask whether that says something about the slowness of the Crown or about the various iwi interests not seeing a way to work together. Fortunately those things have been worked through. 
I think the preamble is fairly clear. It sets out what comes later and we will refer to some of the issues that are raised behind the preamble as the Committee debate progresses.