Eagle PaulPAUL EAGLE (Labour—Rongotai): Thank you Mr Speaker. Can I just acknowledge the previous speaker Rino Tirikatene for his good work and a wee correction at the end there—that's a good start to the evening. Can I acknowledge and applaud the member who's brought this bill to the House Joseph Mooney. I have the pleasure of sitting on the Māori Affairs Committee with Joseph and he does a good—Shanan Halbert: He's a good man—good man.PAUL EAGLE: —job in terms of—he is a good man—representing Māori issues.In terms of this particular bill though you've heard from previous speakers on this side of the House that we won't be supporting this member's bill. We don't feel it's fit for purpose and I say that because it is almost an identical copy of the 2016 Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill that was put forward then; it was discharged later in 2017 and that was primarily because of just the overwhelming concern from all involved. So without knowing in detail what went on back then I am somewhat surprised. But none the less it's good to be talking about Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill.It's interesting. I've learnt a lot about Māori land and laws and how the whole thing interacts and connects. It's complex—there's the word. Having the Chatham Islands in my patch we're just going through the Treaty claims settlement process with the Moriori and Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri and getting an understanding about how when people land there they go There's plenty of land"—lots of gorse too but lots of land none the less—"owned by Māori and tied up with"—Joseph Mooney: Lots of pigs.PAUL EAGLE: Lots of pigs too—nice poaka to eat but we'll talk about eating and that another day. But getting an understanding about the complexities of Māori land and how it's tied up has taken some time. It's good land that I see there. Look it's got the potential and I feel that in terms of some of that targeted reform that we have done since 2018 to now in terms of legislative reform some of that's happened.I give an example here where we've got say for example better provision for housing. There was a targeted amendment done to the Act to support the Māori Land Court and its processes to strengthen that regulatory framework. Those amendments included just that simplification of and for the succession of Māori land new provisions for whāngai and an emphasis on tikanga of the relevant hapū or iwi and new processes for a dispute resolution with new mediation provisions. That's key because I mentioned the word "complex" and it's been vital to try and simplify that or get some clarity and to do that quickly because it is locked up. There is the need to say that well if we are going to get some progress then those targeted reforms to the 1993 Act just show that rather than just doing a wholesale reform like this those targeted measures do actually work and there are some good examples there around how that can happen. I mean there were more in 2019 and 2020 where they were talking about additional—or they impacted the valuation and rating of Māori freehold land too. So that happened in 2021 covering a whole lot of things ranging from rates arrears to remission of rates—that's a biggie. You find that people have found that the complexity and the know-how is just too tough.So I guess that whilst I applaud our member on the opposite side what I'm saying with some really practical examples here is that there are some targeted reforms happening already. They will do a job. It doesn't show a need for this hence the reason why we have said it's not fit for purpose. So unfortunately I do not commend this bill to the House."