Lyndon HūhanaHŪHANA LYNDON (Green): Tēnā koe Madam Speaker. Tēnā koutou e te Whare. Now I'm reflecting on the purpose of this legislation that is to be repealed. It was to ensure that logs grown in New Zealand and bought and sold were handled in a way that was transparent and professional. So since 6 August 2023 it's been an offence to operate as a log trader or provide forestry advice without being registered.Now if I can share some personal experience around the benefit as a small forest owner and administer on behalf of our shareholders this scheme has been very beneficial for us because we had the opportunity to engage with registered professionals to advise us on how to manage our forests and then who to engage to finally execute the thinning that we need on our whenua. Now we may not be big players we may not be members of Ngā Pou a Tāne but our voice matters and we are worried. Because certainly we have seen others who have spent far too much in gaining advice and then seeking services which actually didn't work out for them anyhow. In Tai Tokerau last night and yesterday I had the opportunity to sit with forest owners and other hui and talk to them about Hey have you engaged with any forest advisers lately? Or where are you at with your thinning programme?" They said "Yep it's good because we know tūturu that the person that we're engaging has the right credentials and experience to engage to support our trust." And we aren't big players—no no—but we are important in terms of the building blocks of the economy of New Zealand. And as Māori landowners our voice does matter.So in terms of the original intention of this legislation it was to strengthen integrity; it was to provide continuous predictable and long-term supply of timber; and then to provide of course as I've spoken to transparency and professionalism. But also it helps us to have confidence with those that we engage. And I was thinking about the consultation meeting that I did engage with when the Minister was making the rounds in establishing this legislation and it was robust because we had whenua Māori we had members of our wood council we had advisers and we had some whanaunga who were in the sector. And some of our whanaunga in the sector raised concerns around registration and compliance and "This is just another added burden". But actually in engaging with them recently the professional learning and development that the advisers are required to engage with to keep up their registration has meant that we had confidence in the advisers whether it be for log trading or whether it be for forestry advice in general meant that we knew tūturu that these people had the credentials and experience that we needed.Now in the process of consultation that Minister Jones at the time undertook with Te Uru Rākau the wānanga the webinars the online hui and also the face-to-face like I participated in saw submissions come back because we had a full process. This is really fast what's happening here. But in that process we had the select committee and the submitters came back and supported the need for continuous professional development for our advisers. In fact 87 percent said that the records from this continuous professional development should be held centrally. And 93 percent thought that they needed to be lodged and held so that we could check the credentials of our advisers. So I mihi to the submitters who supported the need for somewhere central—a bank—so we could check the credentials of these people because there's nothing worse than engaging a cowboy—nothing worse than engaging a cowboy that turns up with their laptop on their truck and then next minute it's costing you more and more in the pocket.And when it comes to your annual general meeting (AGM) when you need to stand before your people you're held to account. I have seen many AGMs where we have been burnt as trustees who are inexperienced in the market and we're just doing our best to make a good decision for the use of our whenua but we had confidence because of this legislation. So yes I do support my matua Matua Shane for this. And I do thank him for persevering in this space.Now if we recall the need for this legislation and thinking about the speeches that took place in the House we had by Eugenie Sage and she stood up and she shared that there's a social licence that the industry really needs to gain back that trust within our communities. And we don't have to think too far back to our whānau in Te Tai Rāwhiti and then also for myself in the back blocks Ngāti Hine when our logs fall into the waterways or clog up our roads when they fall over and we have to figure out a plan because actually our planting plan wasn't great. So critical to this is good advice.Now I appreciate that the Minister's going to share the letter he's received from Ngā Pou a Tāne—great; kia ora. As a stakeholder that's great to see that you engaged with someone because in the official records there was "No consultation has been undertaken on the policies within this bill." So the more we learn around the consultation undertaken by the Minister and his officials for this legislation the more we will learn in terms of what is the product that will be produced. Because if we have to rely on the sector and we have to trust that they will come up with something we know they didn't before. There was only 10 to 12 of those forest advisers those loggers that registered—10 to 12 percent. So Matua Tama Wairua Tapu—we're going to have to trust that they're going to come up with something. Kia ora tātou.We know that forestry is a massive player within our economy. We know that our people benefit from the work and also there is always risk within this space. And I've spoken to my own experience in land administration and having to face the wrath of our people at an AGM. But ultimately what I understood back in the day four years ago when the sales pitch came into our kāinga was that this was about retaining the value back in our communities so that we could build our own homes from wood produced in our kāinga to support our local processors. I say this because that's what I clearly heard on the day and that's what I saw from our local processors standing up and saying "Āe tautoko āe." They were there. And I appreciated the way that the industry and us as landowners came together. That was the vision that Matua Shane presented: keeping the value in our communities and building up our own industry. He said the short-term issue is how we manage slowing down the volume of logs getting harvested in Northland and we need to protect the jobs of our local people.Now with this I keep thinking about building more homes. And so I do welcome the discussion around what is the plan beyond here. Through this process can the Minister present what is the vision because from a whenua Māori perspective we might be small players but if we can keep our logs in Tai Tokerau or in Te Tai Rāwhiti and then we can put them through local processing and build local homes for our people because we know we have a shortage of homes in our kāinga then that would be a win. So I welcome the wānanga that we might have today but continue to raise concerns around the exclusion of the people of New Zealand and the exclusion of our voice whether we be large or small forest owners whether we be just a subbie. Sometimes you're only small harvesters the loggers or even I think of some of our matua who are around who try their best and they put in tono all the time for jobbies for our people and they got registered so that they could have a chance with our landowners to be able to demonstrate that they could harvest or they could thin.So my tono to our Minister is to present the vision. What is the plan? Because the people of New Zealand deserve that forest owners deserve that whether we're big or small. And for those that have made the effort to become registered and who have complied with the need for continuous professional development I think they need to be celebrated. And by celebrating them they're important to the sector. And if they've been through the rigour of registration let's maintain that movement of getting the rest of everyone on board. So what is the solution? What is the plan? Because we can't see it right now. Kia ora tātou."