SpeechHon EUGENIE SAGE (Green): Tēnā koe. I'm pleased to take a short call on behalf of the Green Party who will be supporting the Māori Fisheries Amendment Bill. I am not going to do what Joseph Mooney did and read the departmental disclosure statement into the Hansard but that was a very comprehensive explanation of what was in the bill. This bill has been through a lot of debate and I note that the former chair of Te Ohu Kai Moana Jamie Tuuta when he wrote to the then Minister Nathan Guy in August 2017 and provided the second report which was part of the review process he said that Te Ohu Kai Moana wanted to ensure that the decisions made by iwi—because there had been a whole series of hui after the independent review by barrister Tim Castle—are reflected appropriately in the final legislation. He also said It is important that this legislation proceeds as quickly as possible within the Government's legislative mandate."Now I acknowledge that the Government has passed the Maori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement Amendment Bill and that bill took quite a lot of time. I think that was seen as really important by iwi and therefore took priority over this bill. But the Green Party is very pleased that this bill has now come to the House that it builds on the Fisheries Deed of Settlement which of course we celebrated its 30th anniversary last year that that whole fisheries settlement has provided for the development of fisheries interests to benefit Māori and that as the Minister noted Māori collectively own around 40 percent of commercial fishing quota and related commercial fishing assets.The principal Act provides for the fundamental building blocks of that settlement 30 years ago in terms of the way in which quota and settlement assets were to be allocated and the governance framework between iwi and the various fisheries settlement entities and it provides for some restrictions on the sale of settlement assets. This bill is amending the principal Act to improve the governance arrangements to give iwi rangatiratanga to redistribute the shares of Te Ohu Kai Moana in Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd which of course owns 50 percent of the shares in Sealord.One of the key things that the bill also does is provide for a levy to fund the work of Te Ohu Kai Moana. Increasingly because the settlement assets have been distributed directly to iwi the work of Te Ohu Kai Moana is around protecting the settlement and also doing advocacy and policy work on fisheries and marine management issues and it's had an increasing role here presenting submissions to Government including just this week on the Natural and Built Environment Bill and it's had quite a key role in issues such as the proposed Rangitāhua/Kermadecs Ocean Sanctuary. Te Ohu Kai Moana has in terms of its four pou one of them being tiaki—care—and its whole ethos of the concept of "te hā o Tangaroa kia ora ai tāua"—"the breath of Tangaroa sustains us". So that is a recognition of our connectedness to Tangaroa the importance of sustaining Tangaroa and that is at the base of a lot of the policy work that Te Ohu Kai Moana is doing.I noticed in a recent annual report that Te Ohu Kai Moana had talked about there being a significant meeting around the Rangitāhua/Kermadecs Ocean Sanctuary with iwi early in 2023. So I really look forward given the delays in work on the sanctuary to that meeting happening and to progress on something that has been before the House for quite a while.But this bill is also really important in terms of the strengthening of rangatiratanga the improvements in the governance relationships the ability to have Te Ohu Kai Moana funded on an ongoing basis through the levy if that funding is needed and because of the redistribution of shares. So I commend the bill to the House. The Green Party is only supporting it to select committee because of this debate around whether any surplus assets are distributed in proportion to an iwi's population or equally and recognise that the bill preserves the status quo of it being distributed proportionately but expect that there will be some submissions to select committee on this issue. But the Green Party is pleased to support the bill."