Parmar ParmjeetDr PARMJEET PARMAR (National): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker for the opportunity to take this call to support this very important bill Ngā Rohe Moana o Ngā Hapū o Ngāti Porou Bill (No 2). Before I get into the content of this bill I want to acknowledge everyone that has been involved in bringing this bill in this form before the House. I acknowledge the current Minister in charge the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations the Hon Andrew Little. I acknowledge the work done by the previous Minister the Hon Chris Finlayson. I also acknowledge members of Ngāti Porou. I notice that this iwi is our largest iwi. It has around 72000 members. So that's the kind of significance we have for this legislation.Going back we know that work on this bill started in the early 2000s and that is when the previous Labour Government started working on the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004. I would say that that was controversial legislation but that was the time when we started working on this bill. That's why this bill has No 2" inserted after its name because there was a bill that came after the first deed of agreement was signed which was based on the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004. Then the Government changed. Yes the National Government came in and we decided to repeal and replace the Foreshore and Seabed Act with the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011. Then yes there were no changes from Ngāti Porou but yes of course things changed from the Crown. So that agreement which was already signed—that agreement was signed in 2008 and that was signed here in Parliament. That was signed between the Crown and about 50 hapū representatives. So that was already done but because the basis that it was signed on the Foreshore and Seabed Act got repealed and replaced we had to update the deed of agreement.From that time since 2011 that work started. I can imagine that a huge amount of work has gone into this legislation to come here before the House. The bill was drafted last year in 2017 and the iwi has done a lot of hard work. They have not only negotiated agreed everything and then signed the deed which was signed in 2017 but done several huis and this was actually ratified last year. But there are a few components in the agreement which cannot be implemented without having legislation because there are several components which interlink or overlap with other Acts—for example the Fisheries Act Conservation Act Resource Management Act. So it's important that we have this legislation before the House. As everything in this legislation has been already negotiated and agreed upon I fully agree with some members—those who said before that there is no reason for any more delays to happen for this bill to go through the House. So this side of the House is fully supportive of this bill.It's important to note that this bill actually provides that Part 3 and Part 4 of the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011 are no longer applied because they are to be replaced with specific recognition of customary interests. There are eight main areas in this bill—I won't go through all those but just to give some examples one is about customary fishing practice. It is important that that mechanism is extended to allow for a proposal of by-laws to reduce or completely stop fishing for sustainable use or for cultural reasons where it is in relation to customary marine title areas. Also this bill extends the conservation process mechanisms. This will allow the iwi to have the right to give or the right to refuse to give consent to proposals that are related to the customary marine title areas. There are as I said eight main areas in this bill that are going to be addressed. So as I said before everything has been already agreed upon. This legislation is important for us to be able to implement what has been agreed upon. Thank you."