McKelvie IanIAN McKELVIE (National—Rangitīkei): Thank you for the opportunity to speak on this bill. Before I start I want to congratulate the member Catherine Delahunty on getting a bill drawn out of the ballot. Some of us will probably live in this place for years and never get a bill drawn out of the ballot. I am starting to think like that myself. I also want to say before I start on what I am going to talk about that I do have some sympathy for the origins of this bill. I am not going to support it however and I will give the reasons for that as well.If you think about the history of New Zealand—and there has been a lot of talk today about where people come from and where they live and whatever else. My family comes from the Rangitīkei. We have been there since 1850. In that time we have been subject to the Public Works Act. We have also been subject to the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Act 1915 and the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Act 1943 so I have some sympathy for the grievances that a number of the previous speakers have talked about. However that is no reason for us to pass this bill. Imagine the Government now passing a law that confiscated a whole lot of land off people compulsorily and giving it to someone else which is effectively what those three Acts I am talking about enabled. Those days are long gone and I think Nuk Korako in his speech to the House talked about the fact that the world is so different now. We have made a lot of attempts in this Parliament to rectify the wrongs of the past. We will never entirely get to that point but Minister Finlayson with his work and many of our other Ministers both in this Government and in previous Governments have made significant attempts to change and rectify things that have happened in the past that perhaps should not have happened. I think there have been many gross injustices in the past some of them brought about by the Public Works Act and many by other means. As I said the country has changed significantly in that time and I think we are in a pretty good space now in respect of how we acquire land.Local government—I was involved in local government for quite some time before coming here—has to get its planning right. It has to enable public infrastructure to be built—so does central government—and the only way we can effectively enable infrastructure to be built for the future and for future generations of New Zealanders is to plan it well and make sure that it is put in place in a manner that I guess does the best for our communities. Sometimes—in fact very seldom; I understand this Act has only been utilised once in the last 10 years though obviously the threat of it is there—it is necessary to acquire land that people do not want to give up to enable infrastructure to be built. It is essential that a Government has the ability to acquire land from whomever to enable the creation of infrastructure for future generations. That is what this Act was put in place for in 1908 when it was first put in place in New Zealand. It might not always have been used in the manner that we now would intend to use it but none the less it is important that we have that ability to use it. It is hugely important as well that we protect the rights of those people whose land is acquired and I think that we have the facilities in place now to do that.Catherine Delahunty in her address said that there is to be no more divide and rule. I consider that this bill is effectively creating a case of divide and rule and I think it would be very unfortunate for us to go down that track now having gone through such a lot of pain certainly in the last 20-odd years trying to rectify a lot of the stuff that divide and rule caused. Also in the preamble to this bill it says that the Crown has the responsibility to protect Māori land for future generations. The Crown has a responsibility to protect all land for future generations. We have a responsibility to protect the rights and opportunities for all New Zealanders and we also have a responsibility to ensure that those people who are privileged enough to own land manage that land in a manner that future generations will be able to utilise and enjoy. I cannot support this bill. I can understand the sentiment behind it but I do not think it should go any further. Thank you.