Henare Tau: Waitangi National Trust Board Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHenare Tau: Waitangi National Trust Board Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 09 April 2014. Volume:697;Page:17129. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TAU HENARE (National):Tēnā tātou katoa. It is with a sense of pride that I stand and speak on this bill the Waitangi National Trust Board Amendment Bill. It is about 10 days away from the 100th anniversary of the election of my great-grandfather to this House. From 1914 to 1938 he represented the Northern Maori electorate. When you read through his Hansard—it is not like the Hansard of these days—his was centred really on one thing and that was the Treaty of Waitangi. His time here 24 years was centred on making sure that Waitangi was the jewel in the crown. I stand here with a sense of pride that my great-grandfather was able to do so much for the nation in terms of actually getting the place running and being an inaugural member of the Waitangi National Trust Board as I have also served on it when I was the Minister of Māori Affairs.I just want to take a brief call to mention a few names and also to say that I am looking forward—actually it is a bit serendipitous that this may be my—Hone Harawira: Serendipitous? Woo hoo!Hon TAU HENARE: I see Mr Harawira has been out figuring out what “serendipitous” means. But anyway I think it will be one of the last things that I do as chairman of the Māori Affairs Committee. I am looking forward to going to Waitangi and listening to some of the kōrero there—the submissions about what we are doing. I am interested to see the proposal that there be a Government representative and a member of the Opposition. It is not new. I maybe think that those people should represent Parliament rather than the Government or the Opposition as we do in the Inter-Parliamentary Union. We are parliamentary representatives rather than representing the Opposition or representing the Government.Waitangi is the single most important geographical point in New Zealand absolutely. If you travel the world and see other countries and the respect and honour that they give their birthplaces I think that we tend to miss out on that emotional tie to the birth of the nation. There was a whole lot of stuff that happened prior to the Treaty of Waitangi and to Waitangi becoming the home of New Zealand but we should revel in the fact that as we go forward we do have a place that was established in 1840.Two names that I want to write into the records are George Waititi and Eramiha Te Kapua and also Mōtatau’s gift I suppose to the nation of the tōtara that was pulled out of the Ngāti Hine forest to build the whare rūnanga which were actually carved at Mōtatau. My great-grandfather’s son Sir James Hēnare spent years with the trust making sure that he carried on that mantel and his son Ērima Hēnare has done the same. I also want to congratulate the present board with Pita Paraone a former member of Parliament and also Sir Donald McKinnon a former Deputy Prime Minister as well.I think the trust has a rosy future and I think that we need to make sure that we do not change it just because we think it might need changing. I think we should definitely listen to those who come before the select committee with their views. On that note thank you very much.