Davidson MaramaMARAMA DAVIDSON (Green): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai ā tēnā tātou katoa ngā mema Pāremata o tēnei Whare kia ora! Anō hoki he mihi mahana mihi aroha ki a Ngāti Kuhungunu Rongowhakaata Te Aitanga-ā-Māhaki hoki. Ā ki a koe te tupuna a Wī Pere me tōna whakapapa me ngā uri ā kia ora koutou katoa. [Greetings to you Mr Assistant Speaker and to all of us members of Parliament of this House greetings! Once again I bid you a warm and affectionate welcome Ngāti Kahungunu Rongowhakaata and Aitanga-a-Māhaki and to you the ancestor Wī Pere and his genealogy his descendants my acknowledgments to you all.] It is my honour to stand for the Green Party and speak in support of the Māori Purposes Bill in respect of changes to the Māori Purposes (Wi Pere Trust) Act 1991. We are very clear—the Green Party is very clear—and have long stood for the position that Māori must be empowered and trusted to make governance decisions over their land their people and so forth. That absolutely is upholding Te Tiriti relationship and mana motuhake tino rangatiratanga which is what our tūpuna always envisaged for our people. What we are debating here in the House is that the Māori Purposes Bill will remove the Crown so that is the mana motuhake part—the removing of the Crown from the administration of the Wī Pere Trust and we fully support that move. As we have heard and I will repeat again the trust was created in 1899 to be able to care for and be the kaitiaki—a collective kaitiaki—of the estate of the prominent East Coast leader and politician Wīremu Pere. This is a sizable trust as many of my colleagues have put forward to this House today—I think we are talking about 460 beneficiaries and net assets of around $66 million which has probably grown since last year but that was the recorded number. The purpose of this bill—we need to be very clear about that. What the Wī Pere Trust wants to do is to make their whenua more usable make their land more usable which requires for the trust to be more commercially flexible. They want to be more accountable to beneficiaries. They want to improve the governance arrangements and remove the unnecessary Crown involvement. On the face of it we absolutely support and uphold those kaupapa and that vision for their trust. Essentially this bill is to corporatise the trust and to corporatise its workings in terms of the way that it runs its business. So the positive is that we will see a more modern trust organisation unshackled from the Crown—that is a good thing—that is able to move Māori organisations forward. What I do want to spend a little bit of time on—I take it very seriously being on the Māori Affairs Committee and hearing submitters and also in the tradition of the Green Party—is about ensuring that the concerns are given space and are given an airing which is part of a healthy democratic system. I was very honoured to be at the Gisborne submissions. The submitters were very very clear that the whakapapa and blood connections needed to be retained at all costs. We have heard that in a good move—the work of the Māori Affairs Committee—the Māori Land Court will retain being able to determine that as a more knowledgable organisation when it comes to tikanga Māori and mātauranga Māori. Absolutely there were concerns that there could be the possibility of a minority of owners being able to override the majority. That concern is not for nothing because the mandate was something that was raised—the mandate given to making these changes. So although there was a 91 percent vote of support yes—but as with Te Tiriti settlements only 30 percent of eligible voters actually voted. I certainly have always questioned what sort of a mandate that is. This is actually not always a criticism of the trust either because we do need to acknowledge the real difficulties and the challenges of engagement the real difficulties and challenges of trying to sort of fit Māori organisations into an imposed essentially Pākehā and Crown system. That is always met with challenge and it is nearly every time met with a low level of engagement. However it was a concern that was noted and one I feel obliged to raise. It is not so much corporatisation in and of itself that is opposed by Māori. That concern is also not for nothing and it is raised across many Māori settlements and process changes because of the very real threats which we have seen over hundreds of years and many generations of what can happen when we shift power—when power imbalances arise. My colleague Catherine Delahunty will spend a bit more time on that issue when she gets to her speech absolutely. I want to pick up on one of the submitters who said: We do not fully understand the benefits." Although I think there is strong confidence from this House that the benefits will be forthcoming that still does not take away from the fact that beneficiaries have a right to be incredibly convinced about those very benefits. I acknowledge my colleague Joanne Hayes in recognising the fear of the unknown but I still think it is incumbent that every single effort is made to ensure that beneficiaries are comfortable and can fully understand the benefits. The protective mechanisms of the Māori Land Court have been discussed as well as the costs. We sort of had to weigh up a little bit the difference between cheaper access and longer times taken to try to resolve issues disputes and so forth. I hope the changes made through ongoing discussions as well as in the Māori Affairs Committee can ensure that there is not going to be a huge problem of access for whānau. One more concern that I raised in particular was around conflicts of interest for trustees and board members. We see that the select committee has tried to ensure that that part of the legislation will keep things transparent and above board for all of the beneficiaries. Also the rollover of the trustees—the fact that in going from the board to the corporation—[Bell rung]. Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. Is that 1 minute to go?The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Two.MARAMA DAVIDSON: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. They did question a straight rollover as opposed to a vote for trustees but I understand that that is a standard practice. I will just spend the last few seconds talking about the aspirations that whānau also had. I am hearing in the House that the trust does indeed have whānau-centred and whakapapa-centred aspirations and projects happening. I look forward to hearing that every single beneficiary feels that they are at least going to look forward to the benefits—that the power will be spread fairly and justly across whānau and beneficiaries. I want to acknowledge the hard work of the select committee to make the changes that try to ensure that very just application of power and benefits. Lastly I want to emphasise my absolute wish that the Wī Pere Trust continues in the nature of the tupuna Wīremu Pere and kia kaha to the work that it does. Kia ora."