te Heuheu Georgina: Third Readings — 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
te Heuheu Georgina: Third Readings — 
[Sitting date: 15 May 2008. Volume:647;Page:16037. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (National) 
: 
 A tena koutou nga rangatira e huihui mai nei i tenei Whare i tenei ra. Tena koutou tena tatou katoa. 
[ 
And to you the leaders gathered here in this House today greetings to you and to us all 
.] 
I am pleased to stand and speak on the third readings of the four bills that the Minister has named. I am pleased to do so for the reason that the changes proposed in all the bills are sensible so there is agreement across the House I would imagine for all of them. They stand in stark contrast to another bill before this House which is currently before the Maori Affairs Committee—namely the Waka Umanga (Maori Corporations) Bill for which the committee can find no support whatsoever. So on this particular day in respect of these four bills I am happy to say that the National Party supports them and acknowledges the changes that have been brought forward in them as being sensible and especially regarding the Tuwharetoa iwi and Maniapoto as aiding the business of those tribes and the efficient administration of assets and so on. Yes it is good to stand and be in agreement with these measures and to not find a reason to be ticking the Minister off. As I said it will be a different story when we come to one or two other bills that are coming down the track.  
As has been mentioned several changes are proposed and I will mention only three or four of them. In terms of the changes to the Maniapoto Maori Trust Board Act I say that there is a name change which the Minister referred to for the Maniapoto council of elders and that of course is something it requested. The council felt that the name it has been using was inappropriate and it now wishes to be known as Te Kaumatua Kaunihera o Maniapoto. Of course we are very happy in the House to accede to that request if it makes sense to the council. The change appears to make sense for the efficient functioning of the council’s business so of course we support it.  
In terms of another change I want to mention which is the establishment of a new Maniapoto regional management committee I say that there was a line of inquiry that the Maori Affairs Committee requested Te Puni Kokiri to make in terms of an objection to what has been proposed here but that issue has been cleared up. I am also pleased to get the Minister’s confirmation that there is nothing that redefines the tribal boundaries for any Maniapoto interest in the area. This proposal deals with the request of five Kawhia Harbour marae to come together as a separate regional management committee that will represent them on the Maniapoto Maori Trust Board due to their close geographic proximity a shared concern for the Kawhia Harbour region and a desire to influence decisions pertaining to their area. It is a very sensible proposal and yes we are very pleased to transition that change in order to enable those desires to be given effect to.  
I turn to the changes that impact on the Tuwharetoa Maori Trust Board and I acknowledge that that board represents my own people. I do want to express a commendation to the Government for proposing and effecting the changes here because quite frankly it is nearly a decade now since an agreement with the Crown vested the lake in the tribe way back in the early 1990s and it is I think proper and satisfying for the trust board to see that matters that were left over from that vesting are now taken care of in the current legislation. The settlement that was signed in September 2007 gives effect to changes to the annual payment made by the Crown to the Tuwharetoa Maori Trust Board and takes care of various revenue-sharing agreements also reached between the Crown and the Tuwharetoa Maori Trust Board.  
I should state that there is a particular interest for me in this matter; some might say it is a conflict of interest. I am a beneficiary of that trust board but as I am a mature beneficiary I would hope that the board in relation to all the benefits that will flow to it now will look to focus those on the younger members of our tribe because that is what makes sense. But in any event as I said I still take my right to make some comments about this legislation because the fundamental importance of it is that it underpins a positive and robust relationship with the Crown. After all that is what a lot of these engagements these settlements these agreements with the Crown are all about which is where the relationship should have been way back when the Treaty was signed. The Treaty set down a blueprint for both the Crown and Maori going forward. It has had its hiccups. Fortunately in our time we have been given the opportunity to make amends for some of the things that happened then and to put the building blocks in place to put the various iwi of the motu on the right path.  
So this legislation is fundamentally about a relationship. It is a strong relationship. Like all of the iwi in their areas Tuwharetoa plays a major role in the community and its economy. The same goes for Maniapoto and other iwi as well. That role and the prominence of Maori issues as we go forward are real and significant. In my view it is a positive challenge for future Governments to properly manage the expectations and the prominence of iwi Maori as those perspectives reshape New Zealand society. That is the challenge before us as parliamentarians and it is why the kind of legislation we are seeing go through the House this afternoon is so important.  
Lastly I wish to comment on the changes to the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975. Yes the Minister is right to take credit for the fact that the Waitangi Tribunal’s membership is to increase. But as I have said in this House many many times before—and this comes from firsthand experience of sitting on that tribunal—unless the resources are available to support the increase in the membership of the tribunal then all that the Minister says is like hot air. There has been very little support for the tribunal in the last 9 years since this Government came into power. It is all very well for the Minister to talk about a 2020 conclusion date but the tribunal has to be resourced properly so that it can complete its part of the process to enable the Crown to negotiate settlements with the various iwi. A proper change needs to be made and if the Government does not resource it then National will when it comes into Government in a few months’ time.  
I commend the Minister for bringing this legislation to the House. He has had a flurry of activity in the last 2 years. I have been sitting on the Maori Affairs Committee as an Opposition member since 1999. We have waited patiently for the Minister to propose something new for Maori people. Finally in his eighth year he is bringing legislation to the House. Some of it is good and some of it is not so good. We will deal with the not so good legislation down the line but this afternoon we are very pleased to support these changes and to acknowledge the iwi who are sitting in the gallery.