Nash Stuart: Hawke’s Bay Regional Planning Committee Bill — In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNash Stuart: Hawke’s Bay Regional Planning Committee Bill — In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 11 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:5689. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]STUART NASH (Labour—Napier): Tēnā koutou katoa. I must admit that Meka Whaitiri’s words were saying—I very much enjoy working with Meka. We work very closely together. Labour in Hawke’s Bay has never been stronger—onwards and upwards.The Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations made a very good point actually and that is that we should never be scared of working in a co-governance model. This is my third speech on this bill and I have outlined the reasons why I support this but the main reason really is the kaitiakitanga model and philosophy that Māori have around land management. I have always believed and I have tested this a number of times with my good colleagues that Māori have more of a stewardship role than an ownership role when it comes to land and therefore have the ability to look to future generations. As opposed to saying “I own this now and I’ll do what’s best for myself.” they are saying: “This is here for future generations and we don’t own it. All we are is guardians for the future.” I love that model. I think it is absolutely fantastic and it is the way we should be managing all our native resources. But there is not a word in the English language that encompasses that philosophy and that is as beautiful as “kaitiakitanga”.I tell you I stand up here and I am fearful that one of the longest courtships is going to end in one of the shortest marriages. The Minister the Hon Chris Finlayson talked about how this had taken 5 years to get to where it is—extensive negotiations between affected parties. But the way that I read this piece of legislation is that once the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council is gone then this group falls over. What we are facing at the moment is an amalgamation referendum in Hawke’s Bay. On 15 September this year we will know what the governance arrangements for Hawke’s Bay will be. We will know whether there are still four local councils and one regional council or whether the Napier City Wairoa District Central Hawke’s Bay District Hastings District and the regional councils are to be dissolved and merged into one Hawke’s Bay council.The way I read the final proposal put out by the Local Government Commission is that what will be attached to this new amalgamated council is a Māori board and a natural resources committee. What it also says is that that Māori board will have a statutory limit of 6 years and then it will exist only due to the largesse of the council. So I do not know where this committee stands in respect of the local legislation. Does it mean that there could be possibly two Māori advisory boards? Because that is the way I read it.I talked to Wairoa District Council extensively about this and it has one of its advisory boards. The way it believes things is that its advisory board will once again disappear and be replaced by the advisory boards as outlined in the Local Government Commission’s final report. I might be wrong. I may be reading the legislation wrong and if I am then I am sure the Minister will correct me.Hon Christopher Finlayson: No I can’t.STUART NASH: No no personally—you will correct me personally and I will seek to address this in a newspaper article or something. But I do not understand how this fits in to the final proposal for Hawke’s Bay regional governance. The reason I say this is that I had a look through the final proposal put forward by the Local Government Commission before I came to speak on this bill and I saw no reference to this group at all. So I am unaware as to whether the Local Government Commission was even aware that this piece of legislation was going through the House which would surprise me because as we have acknowledged it has been in the winds now—or more than the winds; it has been on the table—for 5 years. So it is a very important piece of legislation and there are people who have put a lot of time and effort into it. As mentioned I completely support it. So let us see what will happen there. Let us have a talk afterwards Mr Finlayson and see where we end up on this.The other thing I would like to say is that these committees are fantastic in principle and they look really good on paper but the real test is whether we can really make these work and whether there is the relationship with the council—not just the council but the body itself—to make sure that people are working in partnership with good faith. The way people tend to work in Hawke’s Bay by and large is in good faith. There is no doubt about that. That is my experience from being a member of Parliament for 3 years—being outside and coming back. But I just hope that that same good faith is transferred from this board through to the regional council and that we can make decisions in the best interests of Hawke’s Bay.Obviously a big one that is coming up—a very very big decision—is the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme. This is one that I know my colleague Meka Whaitiri has major concerns about. I have no doubt—well I do know actually because I have been in a number of meetings where Meka has spoken about these concerns and this is something that we are going to need to work through as a community to get the right outcomes for Hawke’s Bay.I will leave it at that but let us hope this works in the best interests of the Bay because we are a province of immense potential. We are doing well in some areas. I must admit we did not get the boom times when the dairy sector was going hell for leather but as a consequence we are not getting some of the bust times when the dairy sector is in the doldrums. We have got the wine industry doing incredibly well we have got the apple industry doing incredibly well red meat is doing well and there are also a number of exceptionally innovative businesses from Hawke’s Bay that are taking on the world and winning. So all I can say is onwards and upwards. Meka and I are going to be here for as long as it takes to really drive meaningful change in Hawke’s Bay and I will look forward to the next few years. Thank you very much.