Mooney JosephJOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland): Thank you Madam Speaker. We acknowledge that collecting rates on Māori land has been a longstanding challenge for both councils and kaitiaki of whenua Māori. However this bill does not provide any new solutions for rating authorities; it sidesteps the fundamental issues of Māori land which require reforming Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993 and the Government has never assessed the economic impact of this legislation before during and after introducing the bill to the House.Any council can already remit rates for any land they want so long as they have a rates remission policy. The parts of this bill that relate to rates remissions are not easy. The bill ignores those councils that have already introduced respective rates reduction processes with the ability to write off historic rates and arrears. This effectively penalises councils who already have these systems in place.National is worried that this bill would establish a rates remission regime favouring one group over another. While National is supportive of the bill's intent of turning unproductive Māori land into productive land the communal ownership nature of Māori land remains an issue in itself that a rates remission regime may not remedy. National also has concerns over the discretionary powers introduced by the bill. These will allow council executives to write off historic rates and arrears without any built-in accountability mechanisms to report on the processes and procedures required to exercise those powers.On the matter of writing off unrecoverable rates I ask the Government for the benefit of their wisdom on this question: where a person has received an interest in the asset is it not only reasonable that they also receive any liabilities associated with that asset? Beneficiaries of non-Māori land may also find that their estates are inherited with debts owning. As a matter of basic fairness that is problematic. It also sidesteps the fundamental issues of Māori land which require reforming Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993.The bill does some things that don't need doing but doesn't do the hard things that redress the fundamentals of Māori land issues. The bill sidesteps those real issues. The Government needs to first settle Māori land tenure issues through Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993 before addressing appropriated rates issues. The policy intent of this bill would be best served through a comprehensive rewrite of Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993. This is because as drafted the bill fragments existing whenua Māori legislation.I note that Labour the Greens and New Zealand First opposed Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill in 2017. There has not been a case for change as to why the 1993 Act does not work because as Meka Whaitiri said there are any number of Māori trusts and incorporations that are doing perfectly fine. They are doing very well. We have got a $40 billion Māori economy under this Act"—those were the words of Kelvin Davis at the first reading of the bill. Labour opposed Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill because they felt that it did not help small Māori land owners but the new bill does not distinguish between small Māori land owners and large land owners. It gives a general rate exemption to all Māori land.The Government has never addressed the economic impact of this legislation before during and after introducing the bill to the House. The Cabinet papers on the bill fail to quantify the value that writing off rates would give to local economies. Crucially this bill falls short of creating effective initiatives for the development of Māori land. I find it troubling that the Government has not considered the economic impacts of this bill on local economies. It must also be remembered that it is not just Māori land owners who have unproductive land who own land collectively or who may benefit from rates remission. The present bill is a solution in search of a problem. National acknowledges and supports the policy goal of unleashing the productive potential of Māori land. Whenua Māori lies at the heart of Māori communities and the Māori economy and it has the potential to create much more value. Therefore I invite the Government to work with us on a bipartisan basis to amend Te Ture Whenua—Simon Court: Multi-part—multi-party.JOSEPH MOONEY: —multi-party thank you for that contribution from the ACT Party—because the multi-ownership nature of Māori land remains an issue that in itself a rates remission regime cannot remedy. Let us do the hard work in this House."