Muller ToddTODD MULLER (National—Bay of Plenty): Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise to take a short call on the Local Government (Rating of Whenua Māori) Amendment Bill second reading. Before I get into the substance of the bill can I acknowledge my opposite the Hon Damien O'Connor who has just come with me from the DairyNZ function. He spoke first David Parker was continuing to speak and whilst I do find David Parker at times laboriously boring when he gives his speeches around essential fresh water I do want to put on the table that this idea that we've got to finish our little dinner break at 7 o'clock and come back here—we need to sort this I think Damien. I don't know about what I think but a one-hour dinner break when we've got stakeholders out there spending a huge amount of money to come and connect with Parliament—I know this is the Speaker's call and it's a Business Committee conversation but frankly I think it's wrong. And I see the Hon David Parker arriving to his seat. I'm lamenting Minister that I never had the opportunity to hear you speak because the dinner break got called. A minor point it's not this bill and I know I'll be told shortly to get back to it but actually there is a serious point in the observation that part of this role of Parliament is to be accessible to the people and having one hour feels to me that we're short-changing them.I will now move on to the substantive issue at hand. I don't disagree with the broad conversation around Māori aspiration in terms of their land ensuring it becomes more productive and the opportunity to partner with local government to help facilitate that conversation. I acknowledge Rawiri Waititi's very fulsome outline of the issues of history of this country and it's an important part of context for this debate. But what is constantly overlooked in this conversation is that the ability for councils to sit with local Māori and work together around how they can make the whenua more productive for the local Māori is not constrained today. Those conversations can happen those conversations do happen and if as part of those conversations it is identified by the local council that there is a rationale and a reason to remit historical rates arrears that can happen today. So there is no constraint. So framing up this bill through the lens of freeing up Māori capability freeing up Māori land productivity and partnering with local government and that somehow the current state fundamentally precludes that from the National Party perspective that is an error.The specific issue that I'd like to talk on today clause 50 amends Schedule 1 provides that rating unit of Māori freehold land that is entirely unused is non-rateable. First point: that can happen today. Second point: that Maureen Pugh I think very lucidly outlined is that it brings to a sharp focus the fact that a particular group who has land that is non-productive should have an automatic right of it not being rated but other groups are still essentially open to council individual perspective. We think that is wrong and as Maureen Pugh well says what that does is essentially puts greater onus on those who are paying rates to pick up the slack.But the real issue that I want to put on the table this evening is that this is playing around with the edges because the real opportunity to unleash the productive capacity of Māori land was captured in Te Ture Whenua Māori Bill. And rather than dealing with that complex challenging but ultimately enabling bill to deal with the core problem the Māori Affairs Committee of the previous Parliament—two Parliaments back—decided it was too hard and it couldn't get progressed. So rather than picking up that challenge despite being in Government despite having a large Māori caucus the previous Government said No we're not going to progress te ture whenua despite it being the key legislative instrument that would unlock the productive capacity of Māori land. Instead of focusing on doing the real heavy lifting we are going to play around the edges and put in a specific piece of legislation to formalise what is already happening in local government around the country." And it is very typical of this Government to speak high rhetoric but actually not deliver fundamental change that will enable unproductive land in particular in a Māori context to be enabled and to be released into the true capacity that it has. Because that is the harder issue. That requires deep thinking. That requires building a broad stakeholder and community support.So instead of promoting and pushing that as an option we return back to a piece of legislation which from our perspective is ill-directed largely facilitates what's already happening establishes a precedent which we do not think is helpful giving a complete free pass for one group in society but not the other and is ultimately not going to deliver on the core challenge that sits in front of this country and in particular our Māori communities around New Zealand which is: how do we create the conditions for their whenua to become as productive as the owners of the whenua wish it to be? Thank you Madam Speaker."