Lee Melissa: New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLee Melissa: New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 07 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:17602. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MELISSA LEE (National): It is a great pleasure to rise in the second reading of the New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill.Claudette Hauiti: Fabulous!MELISSA LEE: Thank you. Thank you. I am glad that my Te Reo actually passes muster today. I would like to congratulate my colleague Te Ururoa Flavell whose bill it is that is receiving its second reading today. This bill transfers land in Tauranga and other property from the New Zealand Mission Trust Board to the Ōtamataha Trust so that it can be used for the beneficiaries of the Ōtamataha Trust thehapū of Ngāti Tapu andNgāiTamarāwaho.Claudette Hauiti: Very nice.MELISSA LEE:Tēnā koe. Thank you very much.Hon Tau Henare: Ka pai “Kori”.MELISSA LEE: Let me just say he just called me “Kori”. That is a nickname that I actually recently acquired. “Kori” stands for “Koreanhori”. I do not know if it is actually derogatory or not but recently I travelled with the Māori business delegation to Malaysia to promote Māori business. I feel very honoured to be called something by my “brother” over there but I am not so sure if I should actually take offence at that.The return of the land is highly significant to thehapū of Ngāti Tapu andNgāiTamarāwaho. Thehapū say that it establishes their connection to the water and provides income to thehapū to finance other activities and all of that stuff. For me it is actually really important because to my culture in Korea the country where I was born the water the land and the blood ties are so significant. I guess it is sort of like the Māori community. So even though we do not actually have the name ofhapū or whakapapa genealogy is so important in Korean culture as well that we are divided into our distinct surnames. I am a Lee. In Korean it is “ee” often spelt as “Yi”. I belong to theGyeongju Lee.Gyeongju Lee are very different to theJeonju Lee. Often they are enemies because we come from the warring factions like in Māori history.Going back our history is about 5000 years old. There were three distincthapū who killed each other and eventually it became one country. To them land and water is so important and even to this day there is a major dispute with our neighbouring country about the water because for Koreans for more than 2000 years the Sea of Japan that we all know as the Sea of Japan was always the East Sea. For us it wasDonghae. So I can understand why the establishment of the connection to the water is so important to thishapū.I will talk just a little bit about the background. TheŌtamataha Trust has been established by thehapū of Ngāti Tapu. If I can understand this background—because I was not part of the Māori Affairs Committee—the Church Missionary Society was established in Tauranga in 1835 and it bought two blocks of tangata whenua land which is where the city of Tauranga is now today. However the transaction has never been accepted by tangata whenua as a sale of the land to the Church Missionary Society. I guess it is sort of like the South Koreans never accepting the fact that North Korea is now the owner of the land that actually belongs there now because we are still technically at war—the 38th parallel is just a demarcation that there are still disputes over what belongs to what part of which country. In 1867 the Crown acquired four-fifths of the land which had been invested in the Church Missionary Society by Crown grants in 1852 and military settlers were settled on it. This land was surrounded by confiscated Māori land which was also settled.In 1996 the New Zealand Mission Trust Board handed back control of the land to the new trustees appointed by Ngāti Tapu andNgāiTamarāwaho. This was done in recognition of the manner and process by which the land was originally acquired from tangata whenua. The land involved in this is 7863 square metres of the waterfront site that the Trinity Wharf Tauranga hotel now sits on. The trust collects the ground rent from that hotel.I believe the select committee considered 14 submissions. Knowing my colleagues who sit on the Māori Affairs Committee they would have given due process to this and I believe that they have done a good job. The thing that interests me is that although the new trustees have control of the land they are still obliged to use the money and investment derived from the land “for the spiritual benefit and spiritual instruction of Maori people in the North Island of New Zealand or failing that the evangelisation of heathen races in any part of the world:”. It has always been the intention that the trust would be changed so that the twohapū can benefit from it. However the conditions cannot actually be changed by any means other than through new legislation. I commend the work of the select committee and I commend this bill to the House.