Rurawhe Adrian: Waitangi National Trust Board Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRurawhe Adrian: Waitangi National Trust Board Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 19 November 2015. Volume:710;Page:8338. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ADRIAN RURAWHE (Labour—Te Tai Hauāuru):Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare oti noa e tika ana kia tuku mi’i atu ki a tātau katoa otirā kia whakapiri taku mi’i atu ki te mi’i i tukuna mai e taku w’anaunga nei a Peeni ki te W’are otirā ki a rātau mā i te wāhi ngaro nō reira tēnā tātau katoa.[Greetings Mr Assistant Speaker but at the same time my acknowledgments to us all and to my colleague here Peeni. I add my tribute to those he accorded to the House and indeed to those who have gone to the place lost from the sight of mankind; so salutations to us all.]It is indeed a pleasure to stand and take a call on this really important bill for our nation. It is as important as Waitangi itself which is said to be the birthplace of our nation and I would quickly add that it is the birthplace of our modern nation. I think it is important that we recognise the importance of the place but also continually recognise the importance of the event that took place there and celebrate that. In doing that and in talking to this bill we need to ensure that we make it the best that it can be.I want to congratulate the Māori Affairs Committee which through its work actually made some really significant changes to the original bill—the bill that was first introduced into the House on 7 November 2013 so it has been a long time coming to this point—and in particular the change and the acknowledgment to the four w’ānau so that they may each have a representative on the trust. I think that was very very important and I mihi to the committee and to Nuk Korako the chair of the committee who has just resumed his seat. Ā nō reira e mihi ana ahau ki ngā w’ānau nei o Hone Heke ki te w ’ānau o Mai’i Kāwiti kite w’ānau o Tāmati Waka Nene ki te w’ānau anō o Pōmare. E tika ana kia tuku mi’i atu ki a rātau.[And therefore I commend these families of Hone Heke Mai’i Kāwiti Tāmati Waka Nene and Pōmare as well. It is only right that I recognise them.]I think it is important to do that because they take now their place as individual w’ānau rather than collectively together and I want to acknowledge that. I want to also acknowledge quite a significant change which I would characterise as enhancing the partnership between the Crown and ngā iwi o Tai Tokerau for this particular site. The removal of the Governor-General the Prime Minister and the other members who held those memberships in an ex officio capacity—removing them and establishing the Crown Representative Group—to me takes them out of the trust but also continues the relationship in a more partnership model and I think that is a good idea.I also want to acknowledge that there will be a member of Parliament appointed by the Prime Minister and a member of Parliament appointed by the Leader of the Opposition as trustees. So in that way Parliament still gives the recognition to that trust as being very important to Parliament but the relationship is between the trust and the Crown Representative Group. I think that is a very nice way of maintaining the representation of Parliament but also having the Crown-iwi relationship continuing in that capacity.I do want to touch on also the term of each trustee being changed to a 3-year term with a maximum of 9 years. During the Committee stage I did say that I agreed with it and I continue to agree with it but I do recognise the contribution of other members who spoke to that point. There has been a long tradition not only for this particular trust but for a number of Māori trusts and organisations where we do tend to have a long membership continuing on and I think that is more a reflection of rangatiratanga and leadership within our people. I want to still support the idea of having a 9-year term in this instance but I think it is really important that we put in place perhaps some measures within the trust to ensure that there is continuity and that we do not end up with after 3 years all of those representatives being changed at one time. I think that is something for the trust to work on at the appropriate time.Finally I just want to recognise that in September of this year Heritage New Zealand gave the status to Waitangi of being a wāhi tupuna. I think it is very important that that happened. I also want to suggest to the House to the Parliament and to the Government that we should surely be looking at this special place to us as New Zealanders going through the process of becoming a World Heritage site. I think that Waitangi is not only important to our country but actually really important to the whole world. I have had discussions on a personal level with indigenous peoples from around the world who quite often visit our country on the basis of quite a special Treaty between the Crown and Māori—the Treaty of Waitangi. I think this place is a representation of the Treaty and that is acknowledged by others around the world and so I thought I would finish on the point that this place is so important that it ought to be a World Heritage site.Nō reira e tika ana kia tuku mi’i atu ki ngā iwi katoa o te Tai Tokerau nō reira tēnā tātau.[Therefore it is appropriate that I congratulate all the tribes of North Auckland so well done to us.]