van de Molen TimTIM VAN DE MOLEN (National—Waikato): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. It's wonderful to be able to speak here tonight on the Maori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement Amendment Bill at the second reading. Now I've heard a very robust summary there from the Minister of the process this bill has been through and the select committee contribution to that. Ultimately we're supporting this bill as we did at the first reading and the reason for that—well there's a number of them. I'll outline some of those now but primarily it's around providing economic opportunity. That is what is really important for us here. These iwi that are impacted by this are unable to realise some of that economic potential and from the National Party's perspective that is a key opportunity that we need to ensure any party is able to do. Economic potential means jobs for the regions. That means people innovating adapting expanding their businesses and all those things will ultimately be beneficial for New Zealand. But of course for the iwi involved it has a lot more impact than a nationwide perspective.Now we've seen under the Budget this year that just over $16 million—I think $16.19 million—of funding that had been set aside for aquaculture settlements has had to be carried forward from last year's Budget because it simply hasn't been able to be resolved and distributed to those impacted iwi. So that to me is a pretty clear indicator that the current model is challenging and it is complex and it takes time and it can hold up that progress. So these amendments that are proposed here the limited discretionary power given to Te Ohu Kaimoana to allow them to have some more flexibility when there are clear disputes that would otherwise hold up the process unnecessarily—and look the key thing here is actually not that they are making a judgment on the validity of any particular dispute but they are able to instead say Well OK let's park that dispute to the side and in the meantime these other parties who we are confident in their claim their allocation or the willingness to get on and proceed—we can make a limited discretionary allocation on that basis to them to enable them to capture some of the opportunity in front of them at the time."So aquaculture in New Zealand in my view has a huge opportunity. There's huge potential in that space and I commend the Government for coming out with an ambitious strategy for aquaculture growth. We just now need to see that implemented and we haven't seen much detail around how that might actually roll out. The delivery of that of course will be the test for them which will be measured over the next few years. But ultimately that plan to grow the industry is a good one and I've seen strong support for that amongst the aquaculture industry. When we consider that in any new aquaculture space that's consented 20 percent of that is allocated to iwi under the settlement basis that presents a significant opportunity for those iwi players as well to develop those skills to make that economic contribution to provide jobs and employment within their particular rohe. So this is one of the key things that's important in this particular bill.As I mentioned funding at the moment that $16-odd million carried forward—hopefully we'll be able to see a significant portion of that allocated out under the current financial year as a result of this bill progressing. So I think it's quite ambitious. We're looking at what a $600 million aquaculture industry. They're wanting to go to $3 billion. That is ambitious but I believe it can be achieved if we put the right processes in place. Part of that is actually overhauling the Resource Management Act (RMA) because the current RMA makes it incredibly difficult to consent new aquaculture space and that is one of the key issues that the industry are facing. So when we talk about unlocking that potential—which is always a priority on this side of the House—and providing the platform that enables people to get on and do business that's one of the key factors that we really need to see addressed.So I'm hopeful—always the optimist—that we might see some progress from the Government in that space that will enable the aquaculture industry—Hon Mark Mitchell: That's a lot of optimism.TIM VAN DE MOLEN: —to proceed. Yes perhaps it is a lot of optimism Mr Mitchell but in the Waikato that's how we roll. So look I think I'll wrap it up there. We've heard a good summary as I said from the Minister. We support the intent of the bill. There is massive potential here and we always love the idea of being able to capture potential. So on that basis we support the bill and look forward to it proceeding. Thank you."