Smith StuartSTUART SMITH (National—Kaikōura): Well thank you Madam Speaker. It's a great privilege and quite a surprise to be able to speak on this bill this afternoon. Since I've been in Parliament I've sat on the Māori Affairs Committee quite a few times and it's actually a privilege and a wonderful pleasure to be welcomed on to that select committee as a temporary member and as a non-Māori to embrace and learn more about the culture and the issues facing Māori that come before that committee.But actually I want to talk about Lake Rotoaira as well because I think the trout fishery and the management of that by iwi is a perfect example of how the coming together of cultures—as everyone will be aware trout are an introduced species. In fact I would really support the ability for iwi to be able to farm trout it would be a wonderful opportunity for economic growth for iwi to be able to farm trout and it's really quite a gentrified sport trout fishing. It's the people on higher incomes that tend to fish for trout and yet they control it and they control the trout farming and actually Primary Production Committee—it should have gone to the Māori Affairs Committee but the Primary Production Committee accepted a petition from one of my constituents that would have allowed the farming of trout in New Zealand. Of course we do farm trout now and we farm them to replenish the fisheries but we're not allowed to farm them for food. And of course all the excuses are really about protecting the gentrified sport of trout fishing and it's all spurious as the grounds on which they make the arguments are so shaky it's unbelievable. These very same arguments were rolled out to stop salmon farming and actually it hasn't stopped the salmon fishery. The argument essentially was: Well salmon fishing is mostly in the South Island." and I sort of drew from that conclusion they kind of thought that South Islanders were more trustworthy than North Islanders.Hon Member: We are.Hon Member: Totally.STUART SMITH: Well it might be true but I just think that's a fairly spurious argument. I think it's quite outrageous because there's a beautiful and in fact magnificent opportunity for iwi to actually manage their own economic future. They've got the resources particularly in the North Island to be able to take advantage of that and so I think that this bill while it does amend the Māori Purposes Act 1959 to give the autonomy and flexibility to manage Rotoaira that lake and the fishery within there—and I note that iwi will not need to use fishing licences there too. And that brings up another really important point I think that is lost on many people in New Zealand: how when Māori are given the opportunity to manage fisheries how well they do it. They do it because it's ingrained in their DNA effectively and that's been from generations of starving practically if you got it wrong whereas today we have other food sources readily available but that was often the case I'm sure back in their history when they would have got it wrong. So they have learnt how to manage and live effectively in harmony with a particular fishing resource and fishing in particular because that would be their main source if they lived around the lakes and the seas.So I think that's very appropriate and goes a little deeper I think than my colleagues have spoken about. I guess we all bring our perspectives to these debates and that's the wonderful thing about Parliament in that we all have our own backgrounds. And being a non-Māori having that opportunity to be involved in decisions and work alongside Māori for the benefit of Māori is what it's all about after all. I think that's actually kind of what the Treaty of Waitangi was supposed to mean. I think sometimes we get all lost and start thinking about land and other things other than actually what the principles within that treaty are really rather than what the legalistic words are; what they are in emotional terms because that's quite a different perspective. We get too hung up on legal things. There are quite a few lawyers in this House and I see one across the across the way there Helen White who's sitting there very—we had a good session this morning on the Finance and Expenditure Committee mind you. So that was quite good. I think that having that legalistic view sometimes leads us down a path where we actually become confrontational because words really matter when you're talking about the law but actually emotions really matter when you're talking about something like the Treaty I think. If you go back the first principles of the Treaty—what was it there for what was it set to achieve? Then we will get far better outcomes rather than trying to focus on the law per se.Te Ture Whenua Maori Act which is also being amended by this omnibus bill is also an Act I think that needs a lot more amendment than is in this bill but at least it goes part the way there. The issue for te ture whenua because of the way Māori land ownership has worked down the ages if you like—it has quite disadvantaged groups with the difficulty of making decisions and ability to borrow money to actually capitalise on what that land is capable of producing—is that it has held iwi back. That has been a real issue. I remember the debates from my time actually on the Māori Affairs Committee about Te Ture Whenua Maori Act and I think that is something that we will all have to come to an agreement on to make it better than it is. This is one little amendment. I don't have the right answer but I know that the outcome that we have at the moment is not right. It's not delivering for the people it's supposed to and I think that's a bit of a black mark on this whole Parliament—that we can't actually figure that out. It actually goes down party lines in the end not for good reason other than just because we're different parties. I think there has to be a better way. So I appeal to everyone across the House to get your heads together and sort it out because I think the opportunities for iwi are being lost and we shouldn't allow that to happen just on party political grounds.The Māori Trust Boards Act is also being amended and it's going to allow for electronic voting. It is crazy the way when we write these laws that we have an Act passed in 1955 there'll be no such thing as electronic voting back in those days and we have to get to 2021 to allow for electronic voting to make these things run far more efficiently and bring them into the 21st century. It's great to see that in here. We can understand why it takes so long to do this because legislation is quite a laborious process and so we don't just simply bring a bill to Parliament to change it for electronic voting. But maybe there should have been a bill that went across all of those entities that didn't allow electronic voting and just did it overnight but there might be good reasons why that hasn't been done. There'll be other Acts that need amending to allow this I'm sure for other entities. What they do with their own rules is their business but it's good to see it being changed here.The Māori Community Development Act 1962 is also being amended and that requires the District Māori Councils to provide a copy of their audited financial statements directly to the New Zealand Māori Council rather than the chief executive of the Ministry of Māori Development and that's a real efficiency thing. Why the heck has it taken this long to do that? Again I don't know. But you know as I said at the beginning I think that every parliamentarian should take the opportunity to sit on the Māori Affairs Committee—if you get the opportunity please take it because you will come away with a different perspective on things from that experience. Actually I think I can say without fear of anyone challenging me that the Māori Affairs Committee has the best kai and that reason alone is a good one for taking the time to get involved. And so with that I commend the bill to the House."