Henare Tau: Maori Trustee Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Henare Tau: Maori Trustee Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:654;Page:3023] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 I too congratulate the Hon Pita Sharples the Hon Parekura Horomia the officials from Te Puni Kokiri and the Maori Affairs Committee of the last Parliament. The committee was chaired by Dave Hereora and two former members of that committee Pita Paraone and Mahara Okeroa are no longer here. I congratulate them on their work in the select committee part of the process of the Maori Trustee Amendment Bill. Once a bill has been introduced select committees are the engine room of Parliament. Select committee members get to hear the submissions and all the talk by the officials. So I congratulate the members who sat on the Maori Affairs Committee in the last Parliament. 
I want to say to two Henares who have been part of the last 50-odd years of reviewing the Maori Trust Office—my cousin Denese Henare and my uncle Bob Henare—that it was a job well done. Bob Henare was an unsung hero and sadly is not with us any more. More important his real name was Mita Robert Hoturoa Henare. He was the first Maori to be the general manager—as we said in those old days—of a Government department outside of the Department of Maori Affairs. He was in fact general manager of the New Zealand Railways Corporation. 
To get back to the bill I say that when it is passed the Maori Trustee will become a stand-alone organisation. It will have better accountability in terms of the beneficiaries for whom it is looking after interest. It will be more transparent than it has been and that has to be good for any organisation whether or not it is a Maori organisation. The bill is the beginning of a forward-looking Maori Trustee. It tidies up a few things and will not be a panacea for all of Maoridom’s woes. With all due respect to those who have shareholdings in Maori land interests I make the point that a lot of us do not have any. A lot of Maoridom like myself who live and breathe the urban lifestyle are not beneficial owners of any pieces of Maori land. I make this point too: I am not crying over it. 
Hon David Parker 
: The politics of envy! 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Oh no. There is no envy in those politics I say to my friend. Only somebody who was born and bred in the streets of Otara and now happily lives in west Auckland knows that it is no good being envious of somebody who has something that he or she does not have. 
We must now concentrate on getting the benefits that have accrued over the many years of the Maori Trust Office to those who rightfully own them. I say to the House that if we dare move to that old worn-out idea of a Maori bank then we are in trouble especially if we propose to use the money that is in the Maori Trust Office or the money that has accrued to the Maori Trustee. I am still of the belief that that money belongs to those beneficiaries and/or their families. So before we go down the track of thinking that it is amazing what we could do with this $35 million clump of money let us go down the track of trying everything to find those beneficiaries and their families. Although my colleague the Hon Parekura Horomia the previous Minister of Maori Affairs pooh-poohs my idea of using Baycorp and the Inland Revenue Department— 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: So do the Tories. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: No they do not. We have not tried Baycorp or the Inland Revenue Department. It is no good to pooh-pooh the idea if over the last 40 years we have not tried it. Let us have another look at it. Currently all we do is expect the Maori Trust Office to come up with a thick book that is full of names which we then drop on the local runanga office expecting those people whose names are in the book to walk in off the streets and say: “Well my name’s Harry Walker and I’m here for my five grand.” It does not work like that; it will never work like that. As long as we continue this outdated outmoded way of trying to hunt people down in order to give them a benefit—to give them what they deserve—we will never win. 
I think the passing of this bill is just a precursor to some exciting stuff down the road. It is an opportunity for the Maori Party and the Minister of Maori Affairs to lay claim once and for all to a real bright future. We are here to help him on that journey—not just some of us but all of us. 
I want to take a little time to talk about the gestation of this bill because I think I need to put it into perspective. We cannot all just stand up here and lay platitudes at the feet of the present Minister of Maori Affairs the previous Minister of Maori Affairs and the previous previous previous Minister of Maori Affairs. 
Hon Mita Ririnui 
: Three times removed! 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Yes—the Minister of Maori Affairs thrice removed. 
This bill originally appeared in this House with another part and that was where the Minister or the Government would take part of the spoils of the beneficiaries—albeit the interest on the spoils—and put it into a development fund. The idea may have been laudable but the problem was that it did not carry the country with it. The problem was that there was not a full round of consultation. I think that that part of the original bill the rest of which became the bill we are passing today was a ruse for the Minister to get his hands on the $35 million. As I said it was a laudable idea but it is maybe not the right time. 
Again I say that the passing of this bill is just a precursor to something that may be very very exciting. There may be something we can do to give back to the beneficiaries what they truly deserve and what they can rightly call their own—that is in any business parlance a dividend that they should get back as I suppose recompense for all the years their land interests have been used.