Jackson WillieHon WILLIE JACKSON (Associate Minister for Māori Development): Thank you Mr Speaker. Tuatahi tautoko te kōrero a Shane Jones. Rawe ki te whakarongo ki tana kōrero tana whakamārama e pā ana ki tēnei pire and tika me mihi ki a koe Shane mō tō kōrero rawe. Nō reira tino tautoko tēnei kaupapa.[Firstly I support the speech of Shane Jones. It was excellent to listen to his speech to his explanation of this bill and it is only right that I thank you Shane for your excellent speech. So I strongly support this matter.]I just wanted to remind the previous speaker Dan Bidois who seems to be so surprised and shocked that there was some disagreement that the Māori community found the previous ideas from the National Party in terms of ture whenua as abhorrent. In fact it was actually called poisonous"—the bill in the previous form was called "poisonous" by the Mana Party leader Hone Harawira who was—Matt King: Ha ha!Hon WILLIE JACKSON: Well it's absolute fact. You can laugh all you like but that's an indisputable fact. Let me elaborate for you. The Māori Women's Welfare League also found the work that was done by the previous Government as abhorrent as well as the union movement as well as the—Matt King: Well we should support it then. They should support it.Hon WILLIE JACKSON: Well I'll carry on. The Waitangi Tribunal said it would be a breach of principles in terms of Te Ao Māori. The Human Rights Commission found the work from the previous Government and the Māori Party—they also said it was a total breach. So just to that previous speaker: that is why we have had to change things. So I just felt that there's an explanation. They seem to be stunned that we had to change things when you had the whole of the world saying how useless the previous Government were—and the Māori Party who were advocating for something. I think it was absolutely imperative that we change things. So I have to say as the Māori campaign chair during the 2017 campaign it worked a treat for us—it worked a treat for us.I want to mihi to my tuāhine here the Hon Meka Whaitiri for her work in exposing the previous Government and the tricks that they were getting up to in terms of this bill. Members here particularly within the Māori caucus—Kiritapu Allan and others who've worked in the legal fraternity—knew in their communities how abhorrent this bill was. It was one of the big kaupapas of the last election. As the Hon Shane Jones said it contributed mightily sadly to the demise of the Māori Party leader Te Ururoa Flavell who fell out of favour with his constituents and of course eventually to the Māori Party going out of Government. So I hope that I've explained that well to the previous member. Again I want to pay tribute to the Hon Meka Whaitiri for the work she did—just fantastic.I think as others have explained at the heart of this bill are small and targeted reforms which will reduce the compliance complexity for Māori land owners when they engage with the Māori Court. I think one of the best examples of this in terms of the reforms is the tikanga-focused resolution service that offers Māori land owners a way of settling issues outside of the formal court hearing. So I think that that is a great opportunity for us to be able to roll out a tikanga that we're used to and we're able to get innovative and creative in that area. I think it's vitally important for us—when you have 1.4 million hectares of whenua remaining in Māori freehold title it's crucial that this land becomes more economic in terms of the interest of not only Māori land owners but this country.As a Government I think we're absolutely committed to unleashing the potential that we have. And our people said—and again I refer to the Hon Shane Jones his story. His story is the story of hundreds literally thousands of Māori through the years who have been restricted and inhibited within this whole process. So I mihi to our people who have taken up the fight and to our Minister who has put forward this for our select committee. I have a sincere hope that we will have Māori land owners contributing—that's my sincere hope—throughout the whole process. Kia ora tātou."