Korako NukNUK KORAKO (National): E mihi atu ki a koutou huri noa i Te Whare nei e mihi atu ki a koutou. Thank you to all of the previous speakers particularly the two Ministers and members of my Māori Affairs Committee. Thank you to the Hon Nanaia Mahuta the previous speaker also for really critiquing the incredible journey to date that this bill has actually been through. I understand that we have always tried to be principled and pragmatic so I think the real debate will come in the Committee stage. I just want to first of all acknowledge a lot of the consultation that has gone on around this bill. It has been extensive. I mean the whole process before reaching the House we have heard about in previous speeches. In fact it has been through 16 drafts. What we have here in this bill today is 495 clauses and 12 schedules as well. So looking at that and looking at the very comprehensive way that it has been done in fact I think it is probably the most consulted-on bill I have seen during my time in the House anyway which has been quite short. But it has been a long process. As a result of that preliminary work and consultation the decision was made to introduce a new stand-alone bill and I think this is one of the major milestones of the bill. Originally perhaps it was a review and amendments to Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993 but then it was decided that a stand-alone bill would be developed. However the bill does also need to repeal and amend some other Acts and it is entirely appropriate I think that these parts of the bill will become a separate piece of legislation alongside what will become two main Acts: Te Ture Whenua Māori Act and Te Kooti Whenua Māori Act. The select committee process for the bill has been a long one as we have heard. We have spent a great deal of time considering the bill in detail and consulting with officials and I want to acknowledge again the officials as has been done by previous speakers—particularly Tāria Tāhana and John Grant as well. When we look at the consulting we had over 150 submitters. Of those 47 were actually heard in person. But I think it is also worth pointing out that these submitters to our select committee actually represented the views of many more Māori with interests in Māori land as many of the submitters whom we heard from were actually making their submissions on behalf of very large groups of Māori. I think of the Federation of Māori Authorities which represents over 250 members and also the Māori Women's Welfare League etc. etc. Even though it was a small number of submitters it was how many people they actually represented as well. So as a result the Māori Affairs Committee recommended a number of amendments to the bill. There are a couple that I just want to—I know I have got only a very very short time but there are two parts of the bill that I have personal experience of and that is why I want to cover them. One of them is actually around the two main changes. The first one was to change how descent and relationships are determined and that descent factor is very very important. One of the core principles of this bill is that tikaka Māori should be used in determining matters related to Māori land and the bill as it came to us would not have done this in the case of determining descent relationships that involved adopted children. However we believed that it was more appropriate and more in line with the core principles of the bill to defer to the tikaka Māori and allow it to override anything to the contrary in the Adoption Act. The other part I wanted to cover was that we have also recommended that the relevant tikaka in the situation would be that of whānau or hapū with whānau taking precedence. This is important because in the original bill it was actually the tikaka of the iwi that was used. Another amendment that I think is a particularly good one is a change in how the bill deals with the owners of Māori freehold land who are minors. We recognise and respect that in our other property laws a minor does not have the ability to enter into contracts related to land. However we do not want to see situations where the interests of a minor who owns Māori freehold land are ignored even if they are a significant or majority owner. Our recommended amendment alleviates this by allowing a property manager who has been appointed under the Protection of Personal and Property Rights Act 1988 to vote on behalf of a minor. Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill represents a major change as was highlighted by the Minister for Māori Development. It is actually about the utilisation and the retention of Māori land. A huge amount of work and consultation has gone into the bill as we have heard and it is really my pleasure and honour as the chair of the Māori Affairs Committee to commend this bill to the House.