Henare Peeni: Waitangi National Trust Board Amendment Bill — In Committee00DBHOH_BILL12851.1Text is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHenare Peeni: Waitangi National Trust Board Amendment Bill — In Committee00DBHOH_BILL12851.1[Sitting date: 21 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7419. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PEENI HENARE (Labour—Tāmaki Makaurau): Tēnā koe Mr Chair. Thank you for this opportunity. Tēnā tātou katoa. I rise to take a call on the Waitangi National Trust Board Amendment Bill in its Committee stage. In the second reading of the bill I spoke to the House and confirmed in the House my whakapapa and its association with the Waitangi National Trust. I have a pretty passionate view about the Waitangi National Trust and fully support its functions. In fact you might be interested to know that hanging in my office is a photo of my great-grandfather Tau Hēnare and Lord Bledisloe at the ceremony gifting the land to this country. So I am pretty passionate about this.There are some questions that I have about this bill. On the whole we support it but I do have some questions. One of those is about shortening or at least defining the length of service that a board member can serve. For those who have already served for over 9 years and there are several such members what this particular bill is doing is allowing a provision for them either to step down or to serve no more than 3 further years. Some might argue that that is a good point in so far as it keeps the board fresh. There is this Māori expression of “Ka pū te ruha ka hao te rangatahi”.[When the old net is worn out and cast aside the new one goes fishing.]It is saying the old net is pushed to the side and the new net goes fishing. Yes that has some merit to it. But what is not captured in that particular part is that those people who have been serving for such a long time actually hold a lot of mana. They actually hold a lot of respect from the people whom they have represented on this particular board. They range from those who are descended directly from the families that are set out in this particular bill—but some of the people in those positions also come from other positions outside those particular families. One of those is of course Sir Tumu te Heuheu whom I mentioned in the second reading of the bill who has had a long association. Like I say one might say “Oh well he’s past his use-by date.” but I beg to differ. He carries the mana of his ancestor Te Iwikau who signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.You cannot replace this. You cannot replace this kind of knowledge. It is institutional knowledge and it is right that these people carry it down. It has been handed down to them. So I do have a few questions still about the length of service that a member on the board can give. But like I said I do acknowledge that there is opportunity there for a bit of new blood and a bit of fresh thinking to be injected into the board. Sadly for my part that was really just a part of natural attrition with the loss of my father. But you know I still think that those particular positions should be kept and that knowledge the institutional knowledge and the mana that they bring alongside it.My esteemed colleague here Mr Tirikatene also spoke about those particular families who by right through this bill have descendants who have served on this particular board. I was part of some of the select committee discussions and debate about this particular bill. I know there was some real strong debate that if the Pākehā families have a representative for each whānau then why should the Māori families be sort of lumped together? There was some good debate. I think we have come to a pretty fair conclusion.But I want to just look at the bill. New section 2(3) in clause 3A in Part 1 says: “When the term of office of the representative member holding the position first held by Riri Maihi Kawiti ends in accordance with section 10(2) of the Waitangi National Trust Board Amendment Act 2013—(a) that position is disestablished; and (b) the Board must appoint as representative …”; and it goes on. It goes on to say: “(ii) a member of the family of Maihi Kawiti;”. If you go back just a little bit further in that bill you will find that the seat the Government is trying to disestablish was once held by Riri MaihiKāwhiti. In this particular bill—and according to our whakapapa Riri Maihi Kāwhiti was the son of Maihi and Maihi was the son of Kāwhiti and they carry on the name like that. Therefore his name was Riri Maihi Kāwhiti.In this particular case it is going to get rid of that one and it is going to appoint members from the families of Hone Heke Maihi Kāwhiti and a member of the family of Tāmati Waka Nene and a member of the family of Pōmare. I wonder what kind of consideration was given to that given that if you search the ancestral links of our ancestors you will find actually that Tāmati Waka Nene and Pōmare as well as Maihi Kāwhiti and Hone Heke were related—they were related. But we are thankful that in this particular bill it will continue the separate lines of Hone Heke Maihi Kāwhiti Tāmati Waka Nene and Pōmare. I want to acknowledge one of the people who probably was the most vocal about this point and that is my matua—well tuakana on one side and matua on the other side; it is how Māori whakapapa works sometimes. He was very vocal about the rights of the family from Pōmare. I too am a descendant of Pōmare and I am also a descendant of Kāwhiti and Nene so I want to acknowledge that from Arapeta Hamilton.Those appointments when they come in and they serve their particular length of time in this bill it says it is for 9 years—three terms of 3 years. I wonder whether there was any thought by the Government around the succession planning because what we found in the submissions and in the debates in the Māori Affairs Committee was that it is actually not that easy to find those from the families who have the necessary skills and have the capabilities and also possess the whakapapa to fill those positions on the board. I wonder whether any thought was given to that.Just in finishing up just as it applies to the Māori families whom I have already mentioned in terms of their service on the board I want to pick up the point made by Mr Tirikatene around the mana of the position of the Prime Minister the Governor-General and the like on the board. I think they are important because with their presence—and we have been fortunate in the past to have had Sir Don McKinnon and others involved—they actually bring a sense of honour and pride and patriotism from the wider New Zealand community not only to want to visit the Waitangi National Trust but in the operations of the Waitangi National Trust. So I am a little bit disappointed that perhaps some of that position will be lost. I know having gone to every Waitangi Day for my entire life that I have really enjoyed seeing them there and it gives me a sense of pride that the Government as well as my tupuna are taking this particular responsibility seriously.In closing I do want to say that I am slightly disappointed that Te Tiriti o Waitangi will not be returning home to the land of the Bay of Islands. However the hope is still there amongst our people. Kia ora tātou.