Ririnui Mita: Maori Trustee Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Ririnui Mita: Maori Trustee Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:654;Page:3029] 
Hon MITA RIRINUI (Labour) 
: 
 Otira kai te Minita tena koe. Kia piki te ora ki to hoa rangatira. Kai te tautoko ake i ena whakaaro ki tera o wa tatau kuia e takoto mai ra i tona marae tona atamira hoki. Me te mihi ano ra ki tona whanau ki a Hekia ma a Herewini ma otira tona whanau nui tonu. Tenei matau kai tenei taha o te Whare e tautoko ake ana i ena whakaaro. 
[ 
Greetings indeed to you the Minister. May your good lady’s health continue to improve. I endorse those tributes to that particular kuia of ours lying in state on her courtyard and her stage. Condolences to her family—Hekia Herewini and others—and indeed to her extended family at large. We on this side of the House endorse the tributes expressed. 
] 
I take this opportunity to acknowledge the passing of a very very dear lady from Ngati Porou the mother of Hekia Parata. She is currently lying in state at her marae in Ruatoria. I thank the previous speaker Paul Quinn for raising the matter. Certainly we on this side of the House acknowledge her passing. 
I also congratulate the Minister of Maori Affairs on supporting the Maori Trustee Amendment Bill and bringing it through the Committee stage to the third reading. The Committee stage was very interesting. Every speaker who stood in this House highlighted the need for change and identified particular benefits within the bill which will ensure that the Maori Trust Office is a stand-alone organisation headed by the Maori Trustee. The bill includes all the technical amendments that are required to ensure robust transparent and accountable financial management systems. Also Part 2 ensures that any staff of the Maori Trust Office do not undergo any negativity because of the change. In fact from what I can understand from the legislation the proposal and the staff of the Maori Trust Office there is no concern in that particular area. 
Also during the Committee stage interestingly enough the former Minister of Maori Affairs thrice removed raised a number of issues for the current Minister of Maori Affairs. Those issues were also put before the previous Minister of Maori Affairs my colleague the Hon Parekura Horomia who introduced this bill to the House. Amongst those challenges was one to go out and find who the undeclared beneficiaries of Maori Trustee assets are. It is not a simple straightforward undertaking. Tau Henare said we could get Bay Collection Agency to do it or we could borrow Inland Revenue Department staff who seem to be able to find anyone anywhere at any time. It does not work in this case because simply the issues of unidentified beneficiaries that the Maori Trust Office has to deal with are intergenerational. They have been around for decades. 
Unlike the Hon Tau Henare I do not have a grandfather father uncle or auntie who was a former employee of the Maori Trust Office or the Department of Maori Affairs. Like Paul Quinn over there my father uncles and aunties were farmers. They were people who toiled the land. They were out on the land every day. They entrusted their undeclared estates to the Maori Trustee Office with absolute comfort. Well that was about 100 years ago and times change. The needs of Maori people change. My colleague the Hon Nanaia Mahuta highlighted what those changes need to be in terms of our taking a huge step forward. As Tau Henare said this bill is not the panacea for Maori woes; in fact it is nothing more than a band-aid. It is a band-aid for a hakihaki that has been bleeding for a very very long time. It brings us into the 21st century. 
Maori around the country who were part of the consultation round acknowledged the need for change. They acknowledged the need for change and for a higher level of transparency in terms of their being able to monitor the use of these assets. Some of them are undeclared in terms of who the rightful beneficiaries are; some beneficiaries know that their assets are there but they choose to leave them there and I can name a number of people in that situation. Several members of my family are in that situation. 
My colleague the Hon Nanaia Mahuta alluded to the need to take a step forward from where we are now in terms of the Maori Trust Office. I know that my whanaunga from Ngati Awa—actually he is my tuakana—in his contribution to the House said that we did not want to set up a fund where everybody has his or her nose in the trough. Well what a sad way to feel about Maori development; it is a very sad way to feel about Maori development. That may have happened in the time that he recalls but I can tell him that under the previous Minister of Maori Affairs it did not happen and under the current Minister of Maori Affairs it does not happen. The worn-out track that certain people from certain communities trod over a number of years to the office of the Minister of Maori Affairs with their hands out and their briefcases open was shut long ago. Now when those people enter the office of the Minister of Maori Affairs the simple question is “What have you got?”. They are asked what their contribution is and what the benefits for Maori people across the country are. Those people did not get any time with the previous Minister of Maori Affairs and they do not get any time with the current Minister of Maori Affairs unless they are very clear about what their contributions are. I do not want to name those people; obviously some people here know who they are but let us not go down that track. 
I am glad to hear that the Minister of Maori Affairs is 100 percent in support of this bill. I am very glad to hear that and I hope that in the near future he will bring off the shelf and give priority to the proposal to establish a Maori economic development arm of the Maori Trustee Office. Equally important I hope he adopts the same attitude that he has adopted this afternoon in this House when it comes to Treaty settlements. The Minister of Maori Affairs is in a very strong position to make sure that all the hurdles and encumbrances currently affecting the passage of settlement legislation through this House are removed. He has the opportunity to make a valuable contribution by ensuring that years and years of negotiations and resource commitment are not wasted. As my colleague Nanaia Mahuta said this bill when enacted should complement a lot of positive activities that are currently in place for Maori. As a former Associate Minister in charge of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations I find that approach to be—and declare it to be—a very high priority. 
She also mentioned that over a number of years—and it had been mentioned by speakers during the Committee stage—very strong Maori organisations had been established using funds from the Maori Trust Office. That did not appear to be a concern at the time because Maori around the country knew that it was time to make a move and time to take a step forward. Our Maori language being used on our marae in our homes and kura kaupapa and right through the education system started there. Let us not forget that. Let us not call these funds a slush fund when our people—everybody—made such a sacrifice to make sure that the kohanga reo movement the Poutama Maori Business Trust and all the other initiatives were a huge success. But let us not stop there; let us keep going. 
As Tau Henare said we can see whether we can find out who these beneficiaries are and after a period of time maybe we can tell ourselves: “Well let us use the fund to promote Maori economic development.” The problem with Tau’s statement is that we have been trying to find these people for 100 years. When is enough enough? When can we sit down and say to ourselves: “Let us trust ourselves. Let us trust our people. Let us make the move. Let us take the risk and go forward—no more looking back no more putting down our people no more ngau tuara and all that stuff. Let us throw it out; we don’t need it.”? I say to the Minister of Maori Affairs that we on this side of the House have made a commitment to work with him on these particular matters in order to go forward. That commitment stands but I will say it again: we have very very high expectations and standards which is what our people out there expect from us. 
That is my contribution to the debate on the third reading of the bill. I must say that I do support it—I do not want anyone saying that I did not say that! Once again I thank the members of the 2008 Maori Affairs Committee: the then chairman of the Maori Affairs Committee David Hereora who is no longer in this House; the Hon Mahara Okeroa who is no longer in this House; Pita Paraone who is no longer in this House; the Hon Georgina Te Heuheu; and the Hon Tau Henare. I thank all the officials who guided us through this very difficult legislation. I also thank all of those who came to the committee with their submissions to express their views for and against certain aspects of the bill. In closing I say that there is no doubt that this bill has been thoroughly examined.