Whaitiri MekaMEKA WHAITIRI (Labour—Ikaroa-Rāwhiti): E Te Māngai o Te Whare tēnā koe otirā e ngā mema o Te Whare nei tēnā tātou katoa. I am happy to take a call on the Papawai and Kaikokirikiri Trusts Amendment Bill in its second reading. As an uri of Papawai o te whanau Rōpiha as a practising Mihingare of the Anglican Church and of course as the local member of Parliament for the electorate of Ikaroa-Rāwhiti from which this bill stems I stand in support of the intentions of modernising the Papawai and Kaikokiriri Trusts Board. I want to acknowledge the local member who has brought this bill to the House.The convention for what I consider a non-contentious bill like this one is that you generally reach out across all members of the House to ensure that all views are taken into consideration when bringing a bill to the House to ensure its safe passage. I just want to make that point because in this case that was not done.I want to stand and say on record that we have got some fine people in this House who have whakapapa to Papawai. I particularly want to acknowledge the co-leader of the Greens Metiria Turei. Of course we have got another colleague there Ron Mark and myself and I have got colleagues from this side of the House who also have whakapapa to Papawai. But back to the bill Labour does support it. I want to share a bit of history around the word and kupu Papawai". Papawai has been a home to Wairarapa Māori for hundreds of years. The word "Papawai" literally means "a variety of fern root" or "water that lies on blue-coloured clay". Some say that "Papawai" means "the tears of Papatūānuku" when she was separated from her husband Ranginui.Papawai is still very much a working marae today. It has historic and cultural significance to New Zealand. In the last years of the 19th and 20th centuries Papawai was not merely the most outstanding marae in Wairarapa but one of the most culturally important in Aotearoa. At the peak of its national importance Papawai was the largest marae in the country and the place where the Māori Parliament was built. Papawai was revered throughout the country as a place of great learning. A whare wānanga school of learning stood at Papawai. The oral history taught by important tohunga—experts—was recorded by Hoani Te Whatahoro Jury and Rīwai. Much of the basis of Māoritanga that is part of the New Zealand school curriculum has its roots in the teaching from the wānanga houses of learning.Papawai and Kaikokiriri Trusts Board was incorporated under the religious charitable and educational trusts Act of 1908. The college established by that board was destroyed by fire in the year 1932 and the trust funds were insufficient for the re-establishment and maintenance of the college as set out in the trust deed. The purpose of the bill the intention of the bill which is like I said uncontroversial is that it intends to modernise the Papawai and Kaikokirikiri Trusts Act 1943. The objective of this bill is to ensure that the relationship between Papawai and Kaikokiriri Trusts Board the bishop of Te Upoko o Te Ika and the tangata whenua of Wairarapa is upheld. The intention is also to establish a more robust nomination of board members process to provide fairer distribution of funds for the tangata whenua of Wairarapa and to facilitate the long-term development of land. The bill also changes the way the trust applies its funding and no longer limits distribution to just Anglican Church schools. The board for example must appropriate income for each financial year to a fund to be called the "Papawai and Kaikokirikiri Scholarship Fund" and the bill sets out the process by which this fund is limited.The bill also changes the make-up and appointment process for the board. It reduces the board from 10 members to eight and makes some minor amendments to definitions within the original 1943 Act. The bill further deals with the alienation of land—which I will mention again later—allowing the board more flexibility as to how it manages the land under its control. It was interesting that the member who has brought this bill to the House mentioned in his opening address how the land was donated. The bill changes the way the board's investments are managed. That is the intention behind the bill and anything that allows the descendants greater control over the lands and the running of the trust we here in Labour support.But I want to turn to the report provided by the Māori Affairs Committee. I am not a member of that select committee but I want to congratulate the chairman under his chairmanship and the members on that board for doing a very good job in bringing this bill to the House. I note that we had two written submissions and one oral submitter.I just want to draw the House's attention to two points that were made as part of the select committee process. One was on the definition of "tangata whenua of Wairarapa". I want to acknowledge the post-settlement entity group Rangitāne Tū Mai Rā Trust who just noted and gave some recommendations to the Māori Affairs Committee about making it really clear that we are talking about Ngāti Kahungunu and Rangitāne and also made some useful references I think to the fact of introducing the kupu of "hapū". I see that the select committee considered and did not feel that it should adjust the definition but I think for future purposes—because you remember this trust is going to be around a lot longer after we have all gone—it is important that we actually allow descendants of those hapū of those iwi to see themselves in this bill.The other one was around—and I mentioned it earlier—the timing for selling or leasing lands. I do want to commend the member who introduced it making it really clear that the corpus lands—or the ones you have identified Papawai and Kaikokirikiri—are protected under this bill so that it is very clear that they cannot be sold but making it really clear that Clareville lands could potentially be sold or leased on. So I just want to commend that particular amendment in this bill. Given our history around land losses in this country it is something that I am very passionate about in this House—to ensure that not one more acre is lost as legislators. So I just want to acknowledge that under the Act it was fairly broad in that you could potentially sell that land and in this amendment bill that you are bringing to the House you are making it really clear that you cannot sell those corpus lands. So I just want to acknowledge that.Finally I want to just comment on again one of the recommendations from Rangitāne Tū Mai Rā Trust and that was the use of Te Reo. I read the Ministry of Justice's response about how cumbersome it is to change not just this bill—because you have to actually change the entire Act and that would take a long time and of course we do not want to stop the passage of this bill. Can I just make the comment that in this country as legislators the fact is that Te Reo Māori is an official language of this country.It may be something that you as Speaker or this House need to address: that we should not just be saying that in future we should be looking at introducing dual language bills into this House; we should have a more streamlined process for existing Acts if it is wished—if the people subject to those Acts want a dual translation. I just want to go on record as saying that I read the reason why they will not do it but I am sure that there is an opportunity here as a House for us to be looking at creating mechanisms where dual usage—or multilingual if that is what we want to get to—is not prevented simply because it will create a whole lot of unnecessary work and we have to draw the process out. So I just want to make that point and hopefully when we come to the Committee stage we might have some responses as to why we did not introduce the word "hapū" by the member. All in all this is a very non-controversial bill. Labour does support it and I commend it to the House. Kia ora tātou."