Ririnui Mita: Māori Trustee Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRirinui Mita: Māori Trustee Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 05 May 2009. Volume:654;Page:2848. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon MITA RIRINUI (Labour):I thank the speaker who has just resumed his seat for that valuable contribution to the Committee stage of the Māori Trustee Amendment Bill and for reminding us that we are in fact discussing Part 1 of the bill. Having said that in the next breath he wandered off on to other matters totally unrelated to Part 1 of the bill but I will come back to him in a minute.My colleague the Hon Parekura Horomia the previous Minister of Māori Affairs who introduced this bill to the House raised some interesting matters about the difficulties the Māori Trustee has in terms of identifying beneficiaries of funds held within the Māori Trustee Office. One of the previous speakers from National Aaron Gilmore also made reference to that particular matter and to the difficulties around it. He mentioned a particular person—a Mr Richard Johnson—and quite a substantial amount of money being held in the Māori Trustee. There are many similar instances where the Māori Trustee has held funds on behalf of beneficiaries who have not stepped forward to claim those moneys and there are legitimate reasons for that. Apart from the fact that many beneficiaries are not aware that they have these funds sitting there waiting to be uplifted many of those beneficiaries no longer exist and it is difficult to deal with that particular matter—Paul Quinn: They are not with us.Hon MITA RIRINUI: I thank my whanaunga from Ngāti Awa for that elocution lesson. Many of those beneficiaries have passed on as we might say and no succession orders have been lodged on their behalf. As the previous Minister of Māori Affairs mentioned it is a major task to attempt to locate potential beneficiaries particularly as many of them no longer even take an interest in their family business or their family estates. Some of them like the member from Whakatāne said are no longer with us and that itself is a reason why the Māori Trustee has accumulated such a high level of funds that are being held in certain accounts.We have certainly debated a lot around what Part 1 of the bill essentially means in establishing a stand-alone Māori Trustee and the necessary legislative amendments to ensure that the responsibility of the Māori Trustee is clear and that strong and robust financial management systems are in place. There has been a lot of debate around clause 11 of Part 1 on when the funds are held in the common fund and invested. Any returns on that investment must come back into the common fund and not as has been the case in the past transferred into the general fund. I always find it an unusual practice when Peter pays the bill and Paul receives the benefits. It is certainly very unusual—Paul Quinn: Not me. I wish they would.Hon MITA RIRINUI: Yes something like that. I really found the contribution from my colleague Kelvin Davis to be very very valuable and I did not appreciate the attack on the quality of his contribution. I am reminded of a speaker who was previously on his feet. Before his return to Parliament he worked for an organisation that was established using funds from the Māori Trust Office. That is not the only case where that has happened in the past—where organisations have been set up using funds from either the general fund or the common fund of the Māori Trust Office. I do not know why people get so uptight at any suggestion that the funds held by the Māori Trustee should be directed to Māori economic development. It is a bold step but it is also a step that I believe will be taken responsibly. I could not say with my hand on my heart that it has been done so in the past. I am sure the Minister of Māori Affairs will have some views about that.