Tirikatene RinoCANTERBURY REGIONAL COUNCIL (NGĀI TAHU REPRESENTATION) BILLSecond ReadingRINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): I move That the Canterbury Regional Council (Ngāi Tahu Representation) Bill be now read a second time.Tuatahi e te Māngai o te Whare me mihi au ki aku whanaunga nō Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu me te Kaunihera Taiao o Waitaha. Nā tō kōrua mahi tahi i hautū nei i tēnei pire ki te Whare nei.[Firstly Mr Speaker I must acknowledge my relatives from the Rūnanga of Ngāi Tahu and Environment Canterbury. Your collaboration has guided this bill to this House.]I want to acknowledge the partners of this local bill Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu and the Canterbury Regional Council or Environment Canterbury whose mahi tahi has been reflected in this bill. I'm so pleased that it's come to the second reading. This is a momentous occasion. I want to acknowledge all the work that has been done thus far in respect of the examination of the bill. In particular I want to acknowledge the Māori Affairs Committee for their very thorough examination of the bill. In what were difficult COVID circumstances they were able to hear from submitters from representatives of iwi from the councils within the Canterbury region and I want to acknowledge them for their very thorough examination and thoughtful consideration of the issues that were raised. Now that we're at second reading I commend the committee for their amendments to the bill for which a lot of it was around greater precision with the drafting and clarification around certain provisions. I want to acknowledge the officials and all those that were involved in actually making what is a great bill even better. So I'm very proud to support it i tēnei pānuitanga tuarua [at the second reading.]If I can just recap. This bill is about reinstating mana whenua representation representatives from Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu on the Canterbury Regional Council Environment Canterbury. I want to acknowledge the National Government under Sir John Key and Bill English for I guess putting the circumstances in place whereby Ngāi Tahu representatives on the council were able to come into being. That happened in 2010 with the appointment of seven commissioners. There was a whanaunga o Ngāti Wheke—Donald Couch was the first Ngāi Tahu councillor appointed to that august group. Later there was another whanaunga: Elizabeth Cunningham nō Koukourarata. Further to that in 2016 there was some transitional legislation which made two appointees from Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu—put them into law put that into statute. So that arrangement worked. It worked for the Canterbury region. It worked and was very successful for nine years. There was an attempt to put it in place for the last local body elections—that unfortunately didn't transpire.But I'm so pleased that we are here at the second reading of this bill. Upon its passage this bill will ensure that those Ngāi Tahu representatives can be put in place by Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu to coincide with the upcoming local body elections that will take place later this year.There were a lot of submissions on this bill. Look it's fair to say that there are diverging views; there are opposing views. I'm sure we will hear more about those views from the other side's contributions today. But I want to focus on the themes that were in support of this bill and in particular the areas that were strongly advocated for not only by Ngāi Tahu but also by many councils within the Canterbury region such as the Selwyn District Council the Hurunui District Council and the Christchurch City Council—all supportive of this bill—and also many other interested members of Canterbury who were in support.As I said at the outset this bill works. It works for Canterbury. It works for a vast region of Aotearoa—the largest geographic area of any regional council in the country servicing the second-largest population area of all regional councils in Aotearoa. This arrangement works. The themes that were conveyed were that mana whenua should have a voice of their own at the table and to be able to work with Environment Canterbury as partners. That has been demonstrated in the nine years when it was in place and that can continue.I want to stress that this is a very bespoke bill. The arrangements that we are putting in place in this bill likely cannot be duplicated anywhere else particularly in the North Island especially because we are dealing with a discrete very large geographic regional council area and a single iwi which has vast connections as we all know to Te Wai Pounamu through the South and is a major player on their own in the South Island economy and in society in general.So having that mana whenua present at the council table is so important. The other areas which are so important is that having that knowledge and expertise can lead to better decision-making. That is what came through loud and clear from submissions. Also it has worked well in the past. Most importantly having mana whenua representation supports Te Tiriti o Waitangi that partnership which has now driven through so many aspects—whether it's executive Government whether it's through the courts and now we have this arrangement which has worked well in the past and which can be formalised through the passage of this legislation.This is a really great bill for the Canterbury Waitaha region. As I've mentioned it's an extremely large vast area and it requires a lot of expertise from the actual councillors that sit around that table to manage so many difficult and complex issues around fresh water land management and coastal management. These are very complex areas and having Ngāi Tahu representatives that have great expertise in te taha Māori and in terms of Ngāi Tahu connection to their ancestral landscape and to the greater Canterbury regional area leads to better decision-making and it's one of the aspects which has great support from the submitters.Now I know there were opposing views. I just want to pick up on a couple of points. One was in relation to the size of the council. I'm pleased that the Māori Affairs Committee has left the bill as it is in terms of the addition of two members to a 16-member regional council. As I mentioned the addition of those two Ngāi Tahu councillors will not decrease the workload of Environment Canterbury; as I mentioned it is a very vast area and there are some very big complex issues that they deal with every day. But having those additions to try and take away two other normally elected councillors would be a very complex process to try and undo—and in fact I believe it wouldn't really be possible under a local bill of this type to be able to do that. So I'm pleased that this will be an enlarged and enhanced council table with the addition of the Ngāi Tahu representatives.Just in conclusion I want to also commend the committee for ensuring that the remuneration of the councillors will stay as it is based on the method of calculation which is retained in the bill. I think it's very important that those good citizens who put themselves forward to be able to be councillors are fairy remunerated. I know that they will continue to do a great job for Waitaha Canterbury. I want to mihi to all of those who are supporting this bill and I commend it to the House. Kia ora tātou.