Hereora Dave: Waka Umanga (Maori Corporations) Bill — First Reading 
Hereora Dave: Waka Umanga (Maori Corporations) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:644;Page:13861] 
DAVE HEREORA (Labour) 
: 
 I take this opportunity to rise in support of the Waka Umanga (Maori Corporations) Bill and I also take the opportunity to commend the Minister Parekura Horomia for bringing this bill to the House. It is not surprising that the Opposition is not supporting this bill. When in the past has the National Party supported a positive initiative to give enhancements for Maori? Never. So it is not surprising that National is not supporting the bill. It is not surprising at all. 
The Maori Affairs Committee heard from the Law Commission. It gave us a briefing in relation to the principles surrounding this bill and it pointed out quite a serious problem which was that existing legal identities did not provide adequately for the tribes. The commission’s report states that the “incorporated societies law prohibits the pursuit of pecuniary gain as an objective;”. It also states that “companies are designed for individual investors not communal investment;” and that “trusts manage assets for beneficiaries and not at the direction of beneficiaries; charitable trusts are ultimately responsible to the Attorney-General not to the people; Maori Trusts Boards are responsible to the Minister; Maori Incorporations serve individual shareholders; and statutory bodies depend on Government for their powers and for any amendment to those powers.” The report continues: “Maori have made creative use of existing legal structures but the Commission considered they should not have to work around structures but through structures designed for them. To overcome that problem the report proposes another option for Maori the use of a new form of entity … which would have corporate identity and perpetual succession hold assets for a general class and operate according to charters designed by the people to accommodate their circumstances.” 
The commission also claimed that the lack of legal framework for tribal restructuring was to ensure that entities are developed by people themselves against the background of their own culture. Almost all current legal institutions do not reflect the iwi structures in their governance models. Because of that Maori are prevented from access and overall participation within the economy. That is unfair; therefore it deserved to be addressed. So the Law Commission called for legislation to provide a legal governance model that could be adopted by Maori identities managing collectively owned assets that embraced some fundamental aspects reflective of their tribal structure capturing the cultural sensitivities necessary to enhance the service for Maori as a whole. The bill is reflective of those principles as outlined by the Law Commission. 
As the Minister stated earlier this legislation is underpinned by the Government’s Maori affairs policy of supporting the realisation of Maori potential and it comes as a result of the consideration by this Government of issues reflective of Maori governance and tribal representation. The bill recognises the rights of Maori collectives enabling development of processes in sync with iwi development—their own structures with their own administrative procedures—so as to enable iwi to make their own decisions about what was important to them; that is to provide iwi with the ability to ultimately become independent self-sustaining and self-reliant based on those terms. To achieve that we must accept the enduring traditional significance and importance of iwi by identifying the characteristics by which iwi are to be recognised. This bill captures the very essence of those principles. 
In taking this short call as chair of the Maori Affairs Committee I say that we look forward to receiving this bill and I intend on calling for submissions and welcoming the input of all affected parties as we analyse this bill and report those findings back to the House.