Turei Metiria: Māori Purposes Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTurei Metiria: Māori Purposes Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 15 September 2015. Volume:708;Page:6626. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green): I do not intend to speak for long on this bill. It is not particularly complicated or particularly controversial so far at least but when we get to the select committee—[Interruption]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! Sorry I did not make myself clear. I think there had been previous discussion about the New Zealand flag at the Business Committee and although not all of us would agree with the conclusion the committee came to I think that those flags have been displayed for some time and I have not made a ruling as to the New Zealand flags. Thank you. Metiria Turei—time starting again.METIRIA TUREI: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. But there will be issues that will come to the Māori Affairs Committee and I look forward to hearing the submissions from those who are involved particularly the beneficiaries and I will be particularly looking at two of the questions that have been raised by other members on that committee.One is the corporatisation of the trust and the extent to which the purpose of the trust moves from managing the assets in the best interests of the beneficiaries to a much more corporatised model where the changes will allow for a whole different approach to the management of that asset. I do not think that is a small change; I think that is quite a significant one. It may well be supported by the trustees and possibly by most of the beneficiaries—we are yet to find out. But that will be one of the questions that I will be looking for advice on from submitters—about whether that new kind of structure will be in the best interests of everyone.This is an old whānau trust. It has been running for a long long time and anybody who has been involved with Māori land will know how difficult it is to manage the assets that a trust like this might have—and there are hundreds of them around the country—to be able to maximise the opportunities that those assets have while retaining the land in Māori ownership and protecting it from sale because of course that is always the risk. It is why these kinds of structures are set up. So the corporatisation of the trust is a concern and we will be looking for more information about that.Related to that is the change in the status of land under the trust. As I understand it Māori freehold land will become general land as a result of this legislation. On the one hand you could argue that that makes that land more usable in a commercial sense but it also makes it much more vulnerable to being lost to that whānau in the short and long term. And it is not necessarily even because of the decisions of the trust and the beneficiaries and the trustees but potentially for example through compulsory acquisition. We have seen examples in New Zealand in very recent times and very close to here of Māori land that has been taken or attempted to be taken through the Public Works Act compulsory acquisition process and the fight that iwi have had to try to retain some of that land. And that is land that is in their ownership; we are not talking about other examples like we see in Auckland where whānau land is being rezoned for housing against their will. That land is technically owned by an agency but actually Māori land owned by Māori which is subject to the Public Works Act and can be taken.I would just note that Green MP Catherine Delahunty does have a bill in the ballot the Public Works (Prohibition of Compulsory Acquisition of Māori Land) Amendment Bill and it is designed to protect Māori land from being taken under the Public Works Act without consent. Just as an example should this bill pass with the current provisions that transfer Māori freehold land into general land that land is then available to be taken without the consent of the owners under the Public Works Act. If perchance Catherine Delahunty’s bill was pulled from the ballot and was passed that legislation would protect the Māori freehold land but it would not protect the general land. So there are real consequences and there are real issues around the protection of Māori land and we see continued threats to Māori land for example through the Public Works Act compulsory acquisition process. The Green Party has proposed a solution to that so it is just not possible to take Māori land in that way.But if Māori land becomes general land it becomes much more vulnerable. I am looking to hear from the beneficiaries and the trustees about their intentions how they expect to protect that land what the beneficiaries are hoping to see from that change in status and what protections they think are necessary to make sure that there is always whānau land being held by this trust that it will not be wasted that there will not be too many mistakes being made about its management—and this happens; it is just the nature of business—and that the effects of the corporate model on this trust will not in time disenfranchise this whānau from the land that they have been caring for for so long. I will say that I am always pleased to see legislation that removes Crown control over Māori resources and this bill does that to at least some degree. That is a good thing so I am looking forward to talking about that more too with the trustees.We are happy to support this bill to select committee and I expect that if we hear good support from the trustees and particularly the beneficiaries about these provisions—it might be that there is a little bit of negotiation or change to the bill—Meka Whaitiri: Bet you you won’t. Bet you there won’t.METIRIA TUREI: Well yes my colleague says: “Bet you there won’t.” That is probably true too. Often these things are faits accomplis by the time they come to us. But assuming that the beneficiaries in particular are comfortable with the provisions and with the protections in the bill I cannot see why we would not support it through to the second and third readings. At the moment the Green Party certainly commits itself to supporting it to the select committee so that we can have the conversation about whether this is the right approach. Thank you.