Davidson MaramaMARAMA DAVIDSON (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Kia ora koutou e Te Whare Pāremata. The Green Party fully supports the retention of Māori whenua and the mana motuhake of mana whenua over our whenua Māori. We absolutely support the mana motuhake of whānau hapū and iwi to be able to use their land and retain their land in a way that upholds their connection and whakapapa and that will provide for mokopuna for generations to come.We will not be supporting Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill in this second reading. Our simple premise is that this is incredible reform of Māori land law and as such needs to have broad support and deep understanding collectively from across Te Ao Māori from across iwi and hapū and from across Māori land owners around the motu. We cannot say that that is what is happening at the moment. It is not enough of a threshold for the Green Party to support this legislation which will have enormous implications for whenua Māori—whenua that we have tried so hard to hold on to after most of it was already stolen or confiscated by several different means. Surely we can then understand that in any major land legislation reform we want to be really careful. We want to ensure that we fully understand the implications of the legislation and that we broadly support it but that is not the situation in this particular legislation.I do want to take a short step back for a minute because I too echo the support for our Māori Affairs Committee and the tautoko to Nuk Korako for leading the discussion and deliberation that we had across the parties. During the select committee process after the submissions were received from around the country as a select committee we agreed to come back outside ordinary hours and expectations to make time to sit together and finish our clause by clause analysis and sit with the Crown specialists with expertise to try to meet the date for getting this legislation into the House at this point. I will state that it was raised as to why we wanted to rush the legislation into the House at this point. Absolutely that was raised and it is a valid concern not just for the Opposition politicians but also for Māori land owners. This is important and it should beg the respect of proper consultation.The measurement of effective consultation cannot surely rest with just numbers. It cannot be just about how many meetings were held around the country and at what time. The measurement of effective and genuine consultation and engagement has to arrive at a point where collectively Māori land owners understand and broadly support the reforms that are being proposed in Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill. That has not been achieved. The Green Party absolutely wants to see mana whenua iwi hapū and marae being able to decide our own destinies visions and dreams for the land in the way that we see fit. We absolutely support that.In fact one of the reasons that we will not be supporting Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill is that the bill actually fails to address some of those actual impediments—those barriers to utilising land". I say "utilising land" because I think we also have to understand as Tina Ngata in her oral submission on behalf of the Tikanga Marae Taiao programme in Gisborne stated very importantly: "the notion of economic development that this bill is based upon is counterintuitive to that which we stand for—that being the retention and wellbeing of our lands and food sources." I also do not want us to get completely stuck on fixed definitions of what is economic development and what is land utilisation. We also heard throughout the select committee process you know—who says when land is being well utilised and when it is not? That too has to be up to Māori.I also want to echo that I was visited—I want to acknowledge the Tauhara North No. 2 Trust which was one of the trusts that provided an example of where it felt it had been able to achieve what it needed to in the current status quo and that therefore this large reform and the large changes proposed in this legislation were unnecessary and the approach and process was being driven about the wrong way. We need to make sure that the agenda for large-scale land law transformation is driven by Māori and that needs to be the bottom line. I too want to add my commendations of John Grant and Tāria Tāhana as Crown specialists for deliberating with us and going through the clause by clause analysis. They were fantastic in being able to provide the Māori Affairs Committee with some sort of clarity on the specific points of the legislation—big thick piece of legislation. We cannot undermine the value that our specialists were able to provide us with and I really wanted to add my voice to those congratulations from all of us.Also through the submission process it was raised by submitters: will this ture whenua bill negate the current confiscation of Māori freehold land for the purpose of public works under the Public Works Act? If we are serious about the retention of whenua Māori—of Māori land—and if we are serious about making laws to make sure that we can hold on to the last bits of it then why are we also not amending the Public Works Act or at least considering—and I understand the difficulty of the legal crossovers between the two different pieces of legislation ture whenua and public works. However the principle remains. If we really want to retain Māori land then we should be looking at the current status quo—the fact that the Government can still confiscate it for the purposes of public works such as roads bridges and infrastructure.I want to acknowledge my colleague Catherine Delahunty for her member's bill—a simple member's bill that did not require going around the country for months and months but offered a clear solution to the very purpose that this large complex piece of legislation thinks it is trying to achieve. However the Minister has not been able to guarantee that we would see that sort of protection under these reforms.Again the threshold of support from Māori collectively is not enough for the Green Party to be able to support this legislation with dignity. We absolutely support in closing the notion—and actually one of our policy platforms is to provide Māori with the development finance which is something else that is not at all addressed in this bill. It is the barrier that is a longstanding identification of the lack of development finance which again is not addressed by this bill.We welcome the discussion. We welcome how we are going to do this better and how we are going to make sure that Māori land owners can properly use land for whatever it is that they want to but this bill is not getting there. The reforms are so huge and so complex that everybody needs to be on board. Kia ora."