Rurawhe AdrianADRIAN RURAWHE (Labour—Te Tai Hauāuru): Ā tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker otirā e pīrangi ana ahau ki te tautoko te mihi kua mihia e Te Minita ki a Kīngi Tuheitia me ōna tau tekau i runga i tōna tūranga. Nō reira ko te tūmanako kia uhia mai e Te Runga Rawa ōna manaakitanga ki runga ki a ia ā tihei mauri ora! Kei te mihi hoki au ki a rātou mā kua tae mai ngā uri o Wī Pere i tēnei rā nō reira tēnei te mihi ake ki a rātou. [Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker and at the same time I want to endorse the acknowledgments accorded by the Minister to King Tuheitia and his 10 years in his role. My hope therefore is that the Almighty Above places His protection upon him; behold the sneeze of life! I also acknowledge the offspring of Wī Pere who have arrived here today I commend them. ]It is a privilege to speak to the Māori Purposes Bill. I had the pleasure of sitting in on the hearing of evidence from submitters in Gisborne and I want to thank the chair of the Māori Affairs Committee Tutehounuku Korako and the members of the Māori Affairs Committee for the work that they have done on this bill. We have heard a number of speakers so far all supporting the bill and I stand to support this bill.In listening to the submitters in Gisborne one in particular struck me. She had brought to the select committee as part of her submission a portrait of Wī Pere. It was a very moving submission from her and I want to acknowledge all of those who made submissions. I think it is quite clear from the report of the Māori Affairs Committee that those issues were heard and not only heard but acted upon. We see within this second reading of the Māori Purposes Bill the changes that have been made to this bill.I want to first of all look at and acknowledge the change made in new section 12 inserted by clause 9 clarifying the function of the trust board. I think that adding a new provision in there to actually explicitly say what the function is is the sort of thing that acknowledges what the submitters were saying about the way that the new trust would operate—so do as other members have noted the changes introducing the explicit acknowledgment of the jurisdiction of the Māori Land Court and the High Court as they refer to the new trust in this bill. I think that the Māori Affairs Committee has got that absolutely right. I think again it addresses some of those submissions from beneficiaries of the Wī Pere Trust who had some concerns around their ability to access the courts and the prohibitive nature of having to go to the High Court.I want to also talk about the changes to the governance. As my colleague Kelvin Davis pointed out I was one of the ones who had the opportunity to visit some of the operations of the Wī Pere Trust and it is very impressive not only in the type of business and operations but also in the way that it has achieved to date great success in its farming operations in particular. That is done under the current governance arrangements. I look forward to the next decades coming under a new governance arrangement and look forward to further successes from having a changed governance arrangement.I would go so far as to say that the current arrangements are paternalistic in nature and this bill addresses that. It removes the Crown—the Government—involvement in the governance arrangements and I think that is a good thing. After 117 years there is no doubt that the Wī Pere Trust is able to govern its operations all by itself and after 117 years it does not need any input really from the Crown. So I want to acknowledge that.I also want to acknowledge that this bill in my opinion enhances the rights of the beneficiaries. It gives a lot more clarity around how they are able to participate in the ongoing management and governance of this organisation. In the first reading I spoke about concerns around papakāinga land. They were certainly discussed at the select committee and by the submitters. I am absolutely confident that concerns around the potential of having papakāinga lands within the trust sold will not happen. I absolutely acknowledge the current trustees for giving their feedback through that submission process.There are changes to what was once general-titled land. As the Minister pointed out the previous legislation in 1991 changed what was then general-titled land into Māori freehold land. This bill reverses that. I think giving the trust the opportunity to purchase other lands for the purpose of investment and then also trading that for other investments is OK as long as what is referred to as the corpus lands are not touched and that is guaranteed within this bill.I again acknowledge the trustees for the work that they have done. I do not want to take up any more of the House's time. I think that this is a very good bill. It sets out to do what it says it sets out to do and I commend this bill to the House. Tēnā tātou.