Gilmore Aaron: Maori Trustee Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Gilmore Aaron: Maori Trustee Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:653;Page:2335] 
AARON GILMORE (National) 
: 
 I rise to support the Maori Trustee Amendment Bill. As previously mentioned by many speakers tonight this is a largely uncontroversial bill. It was introduced in the previous Parliament before my time. The key change to this bill from the Maori Affairs Committee is the removal of what the previous speaker Kelvin Davis was talking about—the splitting-off of anything to do with the $35 million of trust moneys into what essentially could have become a Labour Party Maori development slush fund. 
Paul Quinn 
: They’re thieves. 
AARON GILMORE 
: Yes. The bill separates the Maori Trustee as a formal separate body from Te Puni Kokiri and it provides associated governance administration methods for this to occur. I must admit to recently not knowing much about what the Maori Trustee does or its role. Upon further investigation I was surprised and I now consider the separation in a legal sense from Te Puni Kokiri to be a step in the right direction for the Maori Trustee and for Maoridom. 
The role of the Maori Trustee is broad. It can be seen as basically a body that bridges the gap between the Maori people and communities and the rights and assets that the Maori Trustee holds on their behalf. Over 111000 hectares of land is controlled by the Maori Trustee and there are over 186000 owners who have land across 2000 properties. That is about 50 hectares per owner per property. That makes the Maori Trustee effectively one of the largest landowners and land managers in New Zealand with land covering an area about the size of Banks Peninsula—where my family is from—but spread over the entire country. 
The land is on average mostly unproductive rural land. For that reason the Maori Trustee acts to obtain the economies of scale from a single office across large numbers of owners. The Maori Trustee also manages a number of scholarships and that is something that has not been mentioned much tonight and that I wish I had known about when I went to university. In particular the prestigious Sir Apirana Ngata Memorial Scholarship honours one of our truly greatest New Zealanders. If the work of the Maori Trustee can inspire more young New Zealanders through that scholarship to strive to achieve what he did then I think that as a nation we would be better for it. The Maori Trustee being separate from Te Puni Kokiri should allow that to happen more and it will not be cluttered up with the other issues that Te Puni Kokiri has to deal with such as similar Government agency scholarships. 
One of the more interesting issues I found over the past day in research on the Maori Trustee was that in Te Wai Pounamu there are over 300 people who have money owing to them including $67000 in one instance to one individual. Many thousands of others are owed money down to $200 or $300 in some instances. I was shocked by this and I recommend that every member of this House review that list to find family or friends who may have money owing to them. For myself I found one cousin who is owed some money and I intend to ring him tomorrow to make sure he follows up on it. 
It is interesting that we annually see ads from the Inland Revenue Department. We see “Get your tax refund now!” advertised in local shopping malls on TV and in newspaper ads but we do not see any similar type of thing for the Maori Trustee. Maybe this bill will allow the Maori Trustee to have more flexibility and freedom to make such innovations in order to get more funding to people who deserve it. Perhaps more creatively it will allow the Maori Trustee to think and to get out from under the skirts of Te Puni Kokiri so that many more people and Maori in particular who are entitled to this money and who are generally poor can efficiently and effectively get access to the money that they need. 
It is interesting that following the consultation on the Maori Trustee that was undertaken up and down the country many iwi wanted this Maori Trustee to be more independent of Te Puni Kokiri—for many reasons that Hone Harawira and others spoke about tonight. There is a distinct benefit in having more independent governance for the Maori Trustee especially in reporting and controls so that people can see where the money goes how it is spent and what it is used for in terms of administration. The bill appoints the Maori Trustee for an initial period of 5 years and allows the Minister of Maori Affairs to appoint a person to act as effectively the chief executive officer of the Maori Trustee. The bill also undertakes the associated tidy-up of a large number of administrative issues to enable the Maori Trustee to effectively and efficiently undertake its role on behalf of Maori. The bill also enables the Maori Trustee to have surety of income by making it clear how the Maori Trustee can get its costs recovered and what will eventually go through to those people who are beneficiaries. 
The other important aspect that has only been touched on by one speaker tonight is the removal of the debt that exists with the Maori Trustee. About $52 million dollars of debt exists and that is a massive debt. This allows the Maori Trustee to instead focus on value creation for the benefit of Maori rather than on the issues that exist around trying to resolve that debt issue. 
For those reasons I commend this bill to the House and I look forward to seeing the results of the Maori Trustee improve. Then people will be more comfortable with the role and results of the Maori Trustee and they can get the money that they deserve in an increasingly effective and efficient fashion. The Maori Trustee can deliver what it was set up to do in education in land management and in terms of getting money to those people who deserve it and are in need. Thank you. 
Bill read a second time.