Henare Peeni: Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHenare Peeni: Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 01 July 2015. Volume:706;Page:5009. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PEENI HENARE (Labour—Tāmaki Makaurau):Tēnā koe Mr Chair. Thank you very much and I rise to take a short call on this the Reserves and Other Lands Disposal Bill. I thought it only fair given my name had been called out several times in the previous speeches in the Chamber. It is no coincidence that this morning the House had the second reading of the Te Hiku Claims Settlement Bill and why I mention that bill is the place that has actually just been referred to Māhinepua Bay. The bay of Māhinepua is an absolutely fantastic place; I come from there and it is steeped in history and also in archaeological history. It is a site of significance and Māhinepua is a beautiful place.I want to talk directly about that in terms of this particular bill the reason being that this morning after having the second reading of the Te Hiku Claims Settlement Bill—and we know that Ngāti Kahu have some reserved rights within the Te Hiku Claims Settlement Bill—I just wondered about with regard to this particular bill as my colleague Meka Whaitiri has already mentioned clause 23(4) which says: “The setting apart of the Mahinepua Bay reserve land as a Māori reservation under subsection (1)(a) must be treated as if it had been made under Part 17 of the Te Ture Whenua Maori Act”. I have got some questions around that and the reason for that is that with regard to the Te Hiku Claims Settlement Bill and I guess the rights of Ngāti Kahu to this particular part of the land I wonder why the bill—and even Supplementary Order Paper 206—mentions about removing Māhinepua from the Reserves Act and puts it into invests the interest into a Māori trust for the benefit of all New Zealanders. I wonder what implication this will have for the rights of Ngāti Kahu in light of the recent debacle around the right of first refusal and I just wonder whether the Minister at some point in time or certainly the Committee can answer that question for me with regard to Māhinepua.Secondly and I speak about these issues because I know about them the other one is of course as mentioned by my colleague from the Green Party Eugenie Sage around the Ōpua esplanade reserve land. It has had a troubled past and it has trod along a very rough pathway to this point in time. There are still some questions about it. The questions that have certainly been raised already relating to the Ōpua esplanade are around the actual use of that place as a reserve for the public there. There are concerns that this particular legislation on that particular block of land in Auckland is actually extinguishing the rights of some of the people and indeed the public there in Ōpua. One of the reasons that is significant to me in particular is that it was my grandfather who placed a pouwhenua on the land there actually right next door to that particular esplanade stating the claim of mana whenua of the people of the Taumārere River to the place in Ōpua. So it is a site of significance and I wonder whether this bill is actually another cheap attempt—because this Ōpua issue has been debated for decades now—at shifting as the bill already mentions one of those hard blocks of lands or those hard areas to deal with. Sadly I do not believe that that actually deals with the issue and that is of great concern to myself and the people in and around Ōpua.I do want to mention my auntie Maiki Marks for her dedication to this particular cause. She has fought this all the way here into the Primary Production Committee into the Chamber and in the halls of the local council in the far north; she has dealt with many members of Parliament and this particular piece of the legislation like I say does not seem to deal with the issue but is just moving on with the responsibility. That is a concern as mentioned there around the Ōpua esplanade reserve land. Kia ora tēnā koe.