Whaitiri MekaMEKA WHAITIRI (Labour—Ikaroa-Rāwhiti): E Te Māngai o Te Whare tēnā koe otirā ngā mema o Te Whare nei e huihui mai nei tēnā koutou tēnā koutou ā tēnā tātou katoa. [Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker but at the same time acknowledgments and accolades to you the members of this House assembled here. My appreciation to us all.]I am pleased to rise as the member of Parliament for Ikaroa-Rāwhiti and as an uri of Wī Pere. As the great-great-grandniece of Wī Pere I am proud to stand here in support of this bill. Can I please also offer my warm words of welcome to our trustees who are here in the House and commend them for their patience in getting to where we are in this third and final reading.Can I address the point that was raised by the member who just resumed his seat our very hard-working chair of the Māori Affairs Committee Nuk Korako. I want to use the time that I have to address the Supplementary Order Paper (SOP)—Supplementary Order Paper 205—that I put to the Committee and give it some context and I thank that member for acknowledging it.As my colleague Kelvin Davis expressed the Wī Pere Trust is a very modern organisation which we had the privilege to visit last year. We were very impressed with the operations that we were able to visit in terms of farming—in terms of the kiwifruit and the persimmons and all the other exciting ventures that are taking place on the trust's lands.I too want to acknowledge Wī Pere's vision going back so many years ago—a vision that is very much coming alive some 100-odd years later. What I also know about the man Wī Pere is his absolute love for his people and his work to ensure that the lands he was able to obtain were going to remain in their hands for ever and ever. Here as we pass this bill and we modernise the instruments available to the trust to take it through the next hundred years—that is what we are talking about here—I want to commend the members of the select committee and obviously the trust for modernising its organisation as we head into the 21st century.One thing I believe Wī Pere was about was ensuring that all his descendants—all his descendants—could participate in the wealth and the opportunities that come from his land. It is to that point that I want to reference one of the submissions that came in to ensure that the smallest voices of the shareholders who are linear descendants of Wī Pere are also heard as we modernise this trust.This is what they said: As a whānau we need to balance our values as a Māori whānau with fulfilling our potential in a modern-day global world. The bill in my opinion is a leaning towards the modern with less regard to what makes us as a Māori whānau or our hapū or our iwi. Our whānau instilled in me the need to look out for and support all of our whānau including the rawakore and those less privileged. I know she would want me to stand up for our whānau who would not be able to put the upfront costs to filling an application for judicial review in the High Court. More to the point I know my grandmother and many of my cousins who played an instrumental part in working and developing our ancestral lands will be shocked to know that the Māori Land Court is no longer a highly significant instrument for our people if this bill passes. It is my fear that this bill may be perceived to be the start of the end of the Māori Land Court and a signal of support for the reforms of Te Ture Whenua Act. I personally do not want this action with the Wī Pere name associated with it. I ask that the Māori Land Court retains jurisdiction in full with the administration governance of the Wī Pere Trust."That submission was taken by a lawyer based in Gisborne a linear descendant of Wī Pere who has worked her entire life in the Gisborne area and is currently a chief executive officer of one of the iwi organisations. There is a push from certain descendants of Wī Pere to ensure that we are not leaving behind those smaller shareholdings in the running of the trust so my SOP which rightly got voted down by the Committee was tabled in regard to ensuring the smaller shareholders' voices in the Wī Pere Trust are not lost.My Supplementary Order Paper was to amend clause 9 by deleting new sections 5(2) and (3) and by amending the heading to new section 5. The explanatory note says: "The provisions the removal of which is proposed seek to establish the jurisdiction of the High Court to determine any dispute relating to the administration and governance of the Wi Pere Trust and makes explicit that the Māori Land Court has no jurisdiction over any such dispute. The amendment would retain the status quo with the Māori Land Court having jurisdiction. The Māori Land Court has expertise in Māori customary law that the High Court does not. Also the costs associated [with] the High Court process are substantially greater than those of the Māori Land Court. This would disadvantage the ability of stakeholders to access justice."I want to thank the Committee for considering my Supplementary Order Paper in the manner in which it was given. I was told that in this bill the Māori Land Court will retain jurisdiction in relation to linear descendants and also in relation to the tribal lands. I am happy with that outcome.There were some assertions here that the High Court has more commercial expertise over the Māori Land Court. If it pleases the House I want to read a quote from Garrow and Kelly's Law of Trusts and Trustees 7th edition 2013 chapter 29 entitled "Maori Land Court's Trust Jurisdiction: Prudent Investment Directions of the Court".The quote goes like this: "Where the Maori Land Court has jurisdiction trustees may seek directions of the court in the same way that trustees may seek directions from the High Court under s 66 of the Trustee Act 1956. Failure to seek directions where risky or doubtful investments are proposed may constitute grounds for removal of trustees. While it has been noted that the assumption trustees can readily and inexpensively obtain High Court directions under s 66 is no longer realistic it is fair to say that the directions of the Maori Land Court can usually be obtained more easily and with less expense. In this respect the Maori Land Court is closer to the historic role of the Chancery Court in England as a protector available to supervise trustees when required."I want to table that and I want again to support the role of the Māori Land Court when it comes to commercial interests as stated in the quote that I just then gave you. That has been what this House has voted against—voting that the Māori Land Court does not have that ability to rule on commercial matters—so I wanted to explain the reason why I put up the SOP.I still believe that the Māori Land Court is the best place to look after the interests of all shareholders of the Wī Pere Trust and of all the future descendants. Having said that I stand with all members of the House to support this progressive bill so that the vision of the great man Wī Pere continues going forward. But it is important that I put the case to this House—and that it goes on record—as to why I put that SOP up and I stand by the ability of the Māori Land Court to deliver in a commercial way. Nō reira I commend this bill and I wish the trust all the very best. Kia ora."