Cameron MarkMARK CAMERON (ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's a privilege to stand on behalf of the ACT Party to speak to the Māori Fisheries Amendment Bill in its first reading and it will be interesting to see how it will be canvassed through the select committee process. It will be interesting to hear a lot of the submissions and what it speaks to and the rights and assets of Māori fisheries and their owners and rangatiratanga—forgive me if I pronounce it incorrectly—and what it means to Māori fisheries and their owners. I heard 50 percent was the ownership value of the assets inside Sealord; 40 percent of commercial fisheries in New Zealand is owned by Māoridom. That is tremendous when we are looking at the economic sustainability of those assets.This bill speaks to a wonderful opportunity to bring the Māori Fisheries Amendment Bill forward and what it means for futureproofing the industry. It amends the Maori Fisheries Act 2004 to give effect to the recommendations in Te Ohu Kai Moana which conducted a review I believe on settlement entities. It was noted it would give iwi a greater degree of rangatiratanga—if my pronunciation is correct—over their assets and create the right legal framework to protect those assets and iwi in the future. The bill was introduced to the House on 20 December 2022—so it's recently been introduced to the House. And in the departmental disclosure statement it was noted that under the 1992 deed of settlement—the fisheries settlement legislation—the Crown and Māori agreed to a full and final settlement of any claims to Māori and their said fisheries. The Maori Fisheries Act 2004 sets out that legal framework. The Act required an independent review of the settlement entities to be carried out no later than 11 years following the commencement of the Act. Suffice it to say the world is a very different place after 11 years and by virtue their assets and how they're owned. An independent review was finalised in 2015 and it recommended significant changes in accordance with the Act of Te Ohu Kai Moana and how it was undertook and significant engagement with iwi.They established two iwi working groups to develop and set out various proposals. As a result Te Ohu Kai Moana recommended a suite of changes as mentioned by many of the members of this House this evening giving greater rangatiratanga over their assets to iwi and reducing cost and improving efficiency. And by virtue—as the Green member the Hon Eugenie Sage rightly noted prior—we spoke to the Fisheries Amendment Bill earlier and aquaculture to Māori assets and their owners. This is a welcome piece of legislation. These principles and these changes include changes to governance arrangements of the entities mandated iwi organisations and their asset holding companies to take more control—what a good thing for a party of private property rights—this is certainly something we would advocate for here in the ACT Party; Te Ohu Kai Moana and Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd and the governance of those assets a greater say to allocate ordinary shares and be mandated to iwi organisations nothing like having a say over how your own business is run I would wager; simplification of the process of quota assets and ordinary shares within the pool of fisheries settlement and those commercial entities. It's been referred to in the regulatory impact statement of 22 June 2021 prepared by the Ministry for Primary Industries that the costs and benefits which are noted as suiting both the Crown and Māori asset owners iwi asset owners—and these people would be the main beneficiaries of this new proposed legislation—create greater alignment between iwi and their commercial operation and improve entities' operational efficiency by removing restrictions that no longer remain fit for purpose.Based on that I think it's currently a good piece of legislation. It warrants much further investigation through a select committee process. I'm sure there will be some—it has been previously noted in the House tonight—that will raise concerns but by virtue of supporting it to that process I can only think that we will see better outcomes for Māori for their assets and futureproofing for their business model going forward. ACT will support this piece of legislation through the first reading. Thank you very much.