Quinn Paul: Māori Trustee Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeQuinn Paul: Māori Trustee Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 05 May 2009. Volume:654;Page:2852. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PAUL QUINN (National):Tēnā koe Mr Chair. Tēnā koe te Minita. I start by saying I am pleased that the Hon Nanaia Mahuta has not been left to battle on the Opposition benches as she was last week as the only speaker who was put up by the Opposition. Up until about a minute ago we at least had the waka triangle present to provide some robust debate although how robust it was I am not very sure. I wondered in bewilderment when my cousin Mita Ririnui who opened the proceedings today said this bill had been introduced by the previous Labour Government and told us what a great job that that Government had done. I again quote from the Māori Affairs Committee’s commentary on the bill because there is this interesting statement in it: “Because it is desirable that changes to establish the Māori Trustee as a stand-alone organisation be passed into legislation before the close of this Parliament we resolved that splitting the bill along these lines was prudent.”If we look at the bill we see it was originally intended to be passed into law in July 2008. So I ask what the previous Government had been doing. If it was so good at its work what had it been doing with regard to this bill? That speaks for itself and once again it has been left to this National Government to carry out the role of cleaning up legislation to clear the decks. It is interesting to refer to an independent report in the latest version of the Trans Tasman that espouses the great and dedicated work this Government is doing. So this Government is again cleaning up a matter that the previous Government failed to address. This Government is committed to passing this bill into law by July 2009 and that will be achieved.The other issue that my cousin Mita Ririnui waxed eloquent on and that Kelvin Davis talked about was Māori economic development and although I agree with the sentiment that was expressed the fact is that the Minister has now clarified the purpose of the bill. The purpose as reported back by the select committee is to deal with a number of operational matters in respect of the Māori Trustee and how he operates now. It is not about expanding those activities vision mission and all those sorts of things. The purpose is about dealing with a number of operational matters. Those issues are all fundamentally about independence and being able to make the Māori Trustee more independent more accountable and in a greater position to progress the issues that confront him in the normal administration of his job.I sympathise with the thoughts expressed by Mr Davis about aspiration but that is why the National Party came into Government. People do want to have aspiration and that is why this Government is clearing the decks getting rid of all this administration stuff and moving forward. The previous administration with my friend the Hon Parekura Horomia as Minister of Māori Affairs had 9 years to do that. It started with closing the gaps and what happened? We are still waiting. Members opposite still stand and talk about aspiration and Māori economic development but nothing happened about that when they were in Government. Although I agree that “that must happen” and “this will happen” fundamentally this bill is about independence.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Rick Barker): Before I call the next speaker I just remind members that we are debating Part 1.