Coffey TamatiTĀMATI COFFEY (Labour) (remote): Thank you Madam Speaker. I'm very pleased to take a call albeit a short call on the bill in front of the House at the moment. It did take a lot of conversations but I have to say there was big support for the objectives of the reform noting the 30 years difference between now and its inception with many learnings in the process. Speaking of the process there was also some support for the process too the consideration of a draft report which was going to be tossed around by different submitters to be able to understand exactly what they thought of the bill. Some were frustrated with it and earlier speakers said that obviously that was a frustration for some because there were quite a few gaps in there. It was prefaced on the Randerson report so there was a lot of information that was put into there.I took a specifically Māori lens to the submissions and I tuned into specifically those Māori submitters who came in the form of those iwi and those entities who have settled. There were marae there were hapū there were whānau trusts and pan-Māori organisations like the New Zealand Māori Council and the Federation of Māori Authorities. All contributed as collectives into this conversation and we also heard from Māori resource management practitioners who shared their experience too but by and large we had a huge range of Māori individuals who took the opportunity as well and I want to thank them all for their contributions.One of the things that we talked about was Te Oranga o te Taiao and this was raised by many both Māori and non-Māori—the concept being around the taiao the environment that we live in and the oranga of the taiao being the wellbeing of the environment being of the utmost importance. When you look after the oranga of the taiao then obviously we all benefit. But the thing that came through in some of those submissions for me which spoke really strongly was the concept expressing the intergenerational importance of environmental wellbeing to Māori and centralising that relationship around decision making over natural resources with the input of hapū and iwi. The draft legislation enables Te Oranga o te Taiao to support the wellbeing of present generations without compromising the wellbeing of future generations. As a committee we thought that more clarity was definitely needed and obviously for legal certainty as well. We needed to know what was required to be able to implement it which isn't such a bad thing but we recommended that the Government continue to work with national iwi and Māori groups to further develop the concept.Recommendations 10 and 11 centre around Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The Natural and Built Environments Bill will have a new Treaty clause which will be to give effect to the principles of both the Treaty of Waitangi and Te Tiriti of Waitangi. You see for the last 30 years Treaty clauses have come a long way and as it stands the current clause is about taking into account the principles of Te Tiriti of Waitangi the Treaty of Waitangi. Many Māori told us that they were sick of being consulted and they wanted some stronger recognition in there as well. We believe that that's a good thing so we have instructed the Government through our report to be able to do the same.There were big conversations around infrastructure and making sure Māori had input at whatever level and there are going to be planning committees. We heard strongly from Māori submitters that they wanted input into those planning committees either as iwi or as hapū but they definitely wanted representation and saw it as a right through our obligations as the Crown to honour our Treaty partnership.We also talked—and this came through in recommendation 36—about the significance of mātauranga Māori which is a new concept in our parliamentary House but is actually a very very old concept. Some submitters said that mātauranga Māori shouldn't be ignored and that we must have regard to it and we as the committee also agreed that as well to be able to help inform the technical advice that comes through making sure that mātauranga Māori where it exists is adhered to and used for full information.Any references to Māori terms do need to be clarified because we wanted to be able to make sure that when we put it into legislation it absolutely had certainty for those people that use this type of legislation day in and day out. Iwi hapū mana whenua mana whakahaere—all of those terms came before the committee and we believe that it's on the Government to be able to really define those terms and work in conjunction with Māori right across the county to be able to do that. Thank you Madam Speaker.