Menéndez March RicardoRICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH (Green): Thank you Mr Speaker. In one of these rare occasions where there is cross-party support for a bill it's a pleasure to continue speaking in support of the Māori Fisheries Amendment Bill. Before I go into the substance of the bill I did want to pick up on some of the comments from the National Party members particularly the previous National Party contribution from Dan Bidois. While this bill does advance Māori sovereignty over fisheries for example I think we should not conflate what is a concession from the Crown with the Government actually supporting tino rangatiratanga. I think we should be careful or the Government should be careful of claiming that they are honouring the Crown's Te Tiriti obligations with just the passing of this bill in the context of everything else that is going on that is effectively trampling over Te Tiriti. So I just want to offer that brief reflection.The second thing is that in the context of this bill it's important to note that the ocean shapes all of our lives. A healthy ocean is critical to feeding us. A healthy ocean is critical to supporting our mental and physical wellbeing and is critical as well in protecting us from the extreme weather events that our communities are facing more so now than ever.Throughout the passage of this bill I know the Māori Affairs Committee has taken a great deal of work to honour the nuanced contributions that they have received. I want to pay tribute to you Mr Speaker as a former member of that select committee.One of the things that the Greens were looking for throughout this passage is being able to receive support from Māori on this bill. We've always made it clear that no community no culture has a homogeneity or monolithic voice on any issue. But we did want to make sure that there was support for the bill as it stood in terms of making sure that the different people at play and decision makers would be given a fair deal when it came to the governance changes to for example Te Ohu Kai Moana and the things that it established.I think there were a few components that this bill was trying to address. One of them as has been traversed by my former member—sorry not former member; my colleague Rawiri Waititi who just spoke before me. One of the components was to improve the governance arrangements and that was to change the entities' governance arrangements to make them consistent with standard corporate governance practice. There were other issues such as the empowering of rangatiratanga and that was to better support mandated iwi organisations to take more direct control of Te Ohu Kai Moana and Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd by removing intermediary decision-making bodies. So that was to grant that more straight governance control and then to redistribute the shares of Te Ohu Kai Moana and Aotearoa Fisheries Ltd which as is noted own 60 percent of the shares in Sealord. That would basically enable the simplification of the process for trading settlement quota assets within the pool of fishery settlement commercial entities.All of these things as has been traversed by other speakers will grant Māori greater sovereignty over our fisheries. We will always continue to be to be advocates and organising alongside people who are protecting the wellbeing of the oceans. It is really clear that this House and this Parliament needs to continue to support—not just in the passage of this specific bill but throughout any bill that we discuss—the devolution of power and resources back to Māori and that the Crown actually honours that promise that was laid out in Te Tiriti o Waitangi.As a tauiwi as a first generation migrant to Aotearoa I take great pleasure in being able to stand here and actually change the narrative that has often been put by other political actors that we somehow come as people who have no interest in supporting legislation that honours Te Tiriti. When Te Tiriti is honoured our migrant communities are better able to flourish are better able to find a sense of purpose and belonging in this land because we're connected to the history of this land. This bill goes someways towards connecting us to that. For that reason I support this bill.