Woodhouse MichaelHon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National): Thank you Madam Speaker. It is my pleasure to speak in the second reading of the Thomas Cawthron Trust Amendment Bill and I've enjoyed the anecdotes. It's not been a very technical examination of the bill and that's probably not appropriate but I think some of the broader contexts that have been introduced into this discussion have been helpful. I want to start with the last one that Ingrid Leary made about whether such local bills local Acts are appropriate in a modern age. Actually I'm pretty ambivalent about that or perhaps a bit more than that—a bit more sanguine. Bear in mind that this is a 100-year-old piece of legislation and it hasn't troubled the House too much over that century. So to be able to give effect to some of the court rulings that have been necessary over the years to modernise this legislation while accepting that from time to time it may be necessary for the courts to have a say is I think an appropriate use of the House's time. I don't want to sound in violent disagreement with Ms Leary because she's got a good point but I just have a slightly different perspective. Speaking of perspectives I did appreciate Marama Davidson's contribution to this debate but I want to focus a little bit more on the positive. ACT had opposed this bill at first reading and I was surprised by that. They've stated their reasons—and Mr Baillie reiterated them tonight—albeit my understanding is that that position has changed. I get the context of the concerns that they may have around certain aspects of co-governance or the universal franchise but I frankly think that this is not only not an appropriate place to be having that discussion but this is the very very sort of legislation and trust and organisation where iwi can make a huge contribution and will—and already have frankly—in te mana o te moana kai moana seaweed. They are already contributing significant history science and strategy and it's entirely appropriate—and the Economic Development Science and Innovation Committee strongly supported this call by the trustees—to have a member of Te Tauihu on the board. In fact our biggest concern was how to actually spell it. One needs the wisdom of Solomon in that and I think the select committee's report on that matter shows that we sat firmly on the fence. There were also some I think helpful changes through the select committee process which was I think conducted in a very good spirit and with the permission of the Business Committee we recommend deletion of another perhaps rather antiquated provision for the setting aside of what used to be called a capital conservation account. In old accounting parlance reserves like that were pretty common but modern accounting standards mean that they're no longer necessary. We struck the slight problem that deleting that section in the Act was going to be outside the scope of the bill so we went to the Business Committee and said How about it?" and they said yes. That was an appropriate response and I think it also reflected the pragmatic and I think collegial manner in which the consideration of the bill was conducted. I want to thank those who contributed to that consideration. The officials as is stated in their departmental report basically can't make strong recommendations because it's not a Government bill but they were very helpful and they engaged with the trustees and we thank them for that. During the consideration I was rather ignorant of the Cawthron organisation and I visited it during that time and was struck by the sheer extraordinary amount of research and science that's going on there that as others have said will have not only domestic but global impact for the better. I wish them every success in meeting the many challenges that they have had to face firstly after storms and floods in the last 18 months or so have made simply carrying on a bit of a challenge but they also do science in a way that simply blows my mind. I commend them for that and I look forward to seeing this bill passing this evening."