Wall Louisa: Māori Purposes Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWall Louisa: Māori Purposes Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 15 September 2015. Volume:708;Page:6630. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]LOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa): Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker e te Māngai o te Whare. Tēnā koutou katoa. Actually it is a privilege to join my colleagues to contribute to the debate that seeks through the Māori Purposes Bill to create a new piece of legislation called the Māori Purposes (Wi Pere Trust) Act 1991.I think it begs the question who Wī Pere was. Many have spoken about Wīremu Pere this afternoon who was Te Aitangi-a-Māhaki Te Whānau a Kai and Rongowhakaata and born in 1837 in Tūranga. He was the MP for Eastern Māori between 1893 and 1905 and Sir Apirana Ngata said of him: “No man had ever done more for his people.” So he was obviously a person who was visionary and as my colleague Meka Whaitiri has just pointed out to me he was also incredibly entrepreneurial. In fact he would have probably been a large property developer in today’s times because he accumulated land.Actually this bill is about land and it is incredibly ironic for me that this bill is talking about the alienation of Māori land within the context of Dame Whina Cooper leading a hīkoi from Te Hāpua to us here in Wellington 40 years ago—1100 kilometres. This would have been day 2 of the hīkoi and the whole kaupapa of Dame Whina’s hīkoi was “not one more acre of Māori land”.So the point I want to make primarily is that changing the classification of Māori freehold land to general freehold land actually has huge implications. Māori freehold land by virtue of it being Māori freehold is within Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993. And what was that designed to do? It was designed to protect Māori land. The preamble of Te Ture Whenua Maori Act says that it recognises that land is taonga tuku iho and it has a special significance to Māori people and it also highlights that the retention of lands in the hands of owners’ whānau and hapū is of utmost importance and significance. So I think the implication of this piece of legislation is huge. What it does is that it transfers the status of that land to a commodity that is easily bought and sold. There are not a lot of protections around it and actually if the trust got into trouble because it expanded then the banks could take the land.That is the other irony of this piece of legislation because the fact that it is in trust in the first place can actually be traced back to 1899 because Wī Pere got into a bit of trouble. The Bank of New Zealand actually had a mortgage over the land and the fact that it was put into a trust was in lieu of the land being taken. He and the other beneficiaries were given time to repay the mortgage. It took them 6 years. So in 1905 Wī Pere had paid £47000—which in today’s money is $4510000—to reclaim his land. That is what Wī Pere did at that time. They kept that land in a trust so in 1906 we had the establishment of the Wī Pere Estates Act and he was the sole trustee. Progressively over time we have had different trustees who have been whānau of Wī Pere. Then there was an amendment in 1991 and that amendment Act empowered five trustees who had a 3-year tenure. To be a beneficiary you had to be related by blood to Wī Pere.So we come to the discussions today about the amendment to this piece of legislation that I think contains something within it that we must be incredibly wary of—more than wary actually. We have to be vigilant and we have to continue the legacy I believe of Dame Whina Cooper and the 50 people including people like Deirdre Nehua whom I saw on Sunday. I was privileged; I was one of a few people who were invited by Hinerangi Puru and Joe Cooper—the children of Dame Whina Cooper—to attend the 40th anniversary of the Land March at Te Ūnga Waka Marae. So for me to attend that particular hui and to be part of that commemoration was incredibly special.I think what bills like this highlight is actually ka whawhai tonu mātou—struggle without end—which is just what Tā Ranginui Walker said. Our struggles will never be over. Our struggles to retain—and I am talking about ours in terms of our mana whenua our tangata whenua our whānau our hapū our iwi. Actually we have to be ever watchful of pieces of legislation such as this that actually have the potential to take more than one more acre of land.I want to commend Nuk Korako for actually acknowledging that there are challenges about this piece of legislation that the Māori Affairs Committee is going to have to deliberate on. I want to acknowledge the members of the Māori Affairs Committee because I think one of the things that can be amended for example is that the lands that are currently within the holdings of the trust should remain Māori freehold land but if they want to get into commercial development and purchase other lands then that land can be general freehold land. But the reserve of land that they currently have there should not be any ability to change it from Māori freehold to general freehold which would protect the legacy of Wīremu Pere that we have all talked about today. The fact that he established the trust was to keep the land for ever—for ever—for his tamariki the mokopuna the uri of Wī Pere. So I think what we could say though is that there will be a distinction between land that the trust has an ability to purchase once this legislation goes through the House—and that can be general freehold land and they can do whatever they like with that but they need to safeguard the land that they have for future generations.I want to say to my colleagues “kia kaha”. I think that this piece of legislation is going to challenge you in many ways but what I am hoping is that through the process of the select committee we can actually hear from all the whānau and make sure that the mandate of 91 percent is actually real and we will know once submissions are open whether or not this bill has the widespread support of the whānau. Inherent in this is maintaining the legacy of Wī Pere his vision for the future the fact that he must have been committed to passing the land on to his direct descendants because of the blood requirement. So we need to help protect and safeguard this piece of whenua the whenua within the Wī Pere Trust forevermore. Nō reira tēnā koutou katoa. Kia ora.