Tamihere John: Ngaa Rauru Kiitahi Claims Settlement Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Tamihere John: Ngaa Rauru Kiitahi Claims Settlement Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:627;Page:21884] 
JOHN TAMIHERE (Labour—Tamaki Makaurau) 
: 
 The member who has just resumed his seat Gerry Brownlee is not wrong; he is just confused. The issue with regard to whangai is very important to Maori. When Ben Couch initially tabled the first Maori Land Bill—which was a rewrite—in the House in 1978 a long process followed ending in the Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993. Maori people with great anxiety a huge amount of consultation and a great degree of angst thought very carefully about the process of whangai. Until 1955 whangai as a concept— 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I apologise for interrupting the honourable member but I do so because I actually want to hear him and I find that very difficult when Ministers come over here and speak in the aisle. I literally cannot hear Mr Tamihere because Mr Barker is holding his conversation so loudly. I wonder whether he would mind holding his conversation in the corridor so that I can hear the contribution being made by the honourable member. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: I thank the member for his contribution and I ask members to take that into consideration. Generally conversations are not to be held in the Chamber unless it is absolutely necessary. I suggest that members take them outside if that is not the case. 
JOHN TAMIHERE 
: Until 1955 customary arrangements for both marriage and adoption were determined as a matter of fact before the Maori Land Court. So until 1955 through the Maori Land Court adoption was allowed in terms of Maori cultural determinations by way of the concept of whangai—to feed and to look after the child. At that time the applicable whakapapa was that of the parents who had embraced the child and that child then took a beneficial interest in Maori freehold land interests. After 1955 Maori land law was amended to the extent that an adoption order was required. So a couple of dates have to be understood to get the status correct here. Between 1955 and 1993 unless one had an adoption order through the Department of Social Welfare clearly determining the parentage a child could not participate other than by way of will in Maori freehold land interests. That is the first point of clarification. 
The second point is that after 1993 Maori up and down the country determined that they would accept whangai within the hapu-whanau groupings that looked after a child who was taken in. That again is a matter of fact to be determined in the Maori Land Court. So the right of a whangai is now available without adoption order on Maori freehold title land only. If the land is general land then the law of the Administration Act applies in the event of an intestate estate. If there is a will then the law of the will applies. With regard to the application of the Matrimonial Property Act and the Property (Relationships) Act it is clear that those two Acts have not applied to Maori freehold land interests. 
 That brings me to the third point because—[ 
Interruption 
] National’s spokesperson on Maori affairs should read the bill or ask his colleague the Hon Georgina te Heuheu who is sitting on the back bench to fill him in on the reason. The House voted on these pieces of legislation. The member sat in the House on one of them. The reality is that there is an exclusion section with regard to both. Clarity is very important. The bill presently before us is not prescriptive with regard to Rauru Kitahi’s view of whangai. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. Is the member now telling us that the House has passed in recent times two very contentious pieces of legislation that will protect Maori assets but nobody else’s? 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: That is not a point of order. It is a debatable issue and the member has the opportunity to take a call. 
JOHN TAMIHERE 
: The member was around when those pieces of legislation were being discussed in the House and the fact that he was not awake is not my problem. The reality is that in respect of the application of the law under the present settlement legislation in the event that the land assets are deemed to be Maori freehold land or a status declaration to that extent is sought in the Maori Land Court matrimonial property law will not be applicable. However the right of a whangai will be applicable under the Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993. 
Undoubtedly the policy determined by Rauru Kitahi’s governance entity will be the right one so we should not be prescriptive in legislation such as this. The way in which the law presently operates in relation to this issue works well. However in the event that a group wants to be quite definitive about the way in which it treats adoption whangai and the like so be it—let them put it in an agreement to be concluded between the Minister on behalf of the Crown and the claimant group. But I would have thought that the matter was as clear as crystal.