Ririnui Mita: Māori Trustee Amendment Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRirinui Mita: Māori Trustee Amendment Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 05 May 2009. Volume:654;Page:2867. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon MITA RIRINUI (Labour):Thank you for that reminder Mr Chair; quite often we have a tendency to wander off and use some of our life experiences to support what we are about to say. I was hoping the previous speaker was going to hang around but—The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): You cannot refer to a member who is not here.Hon MITA RIRINUI: I apologise Mr Chair but I think that in his contribution he actually meant that he was putting a challenge to the current Minister of Māori Affairs to basically go out and find those beneficiaries—those who need to succeed to these unclaimed moneys. He also made reference to the Bay Collection Agency and to how well it does its job and to the Inland Revenue Department and to how well it does its job. He said that they do not seem to have any problem locating people and asked why the Māori Trustee has a problem. But the problem with the Bay Collection Agency—I am told; I am not 100 percent sure of this—is just that it employs heavies to do its bidding. The Accident Compensation Corporation does not need to do that; it is accustomed to locating people that it needs to speak to. But the Māori Trustee is dealing with an intergenerational problem a problem that has been around for a very very long time and we have to give some credit for the attempts that the Māori Trustee has made over the past years—over decades—to locate the beneficiaries of unclaimed interest.I took from the Hon Tau Henare’s contribution to this part of the debate that he was issuing a challenge to the current Minister of Māori Affairs. I want to pick up on that particular point because it is a real issue—an issue around whether the Māori Trustee can continue to accumulate funds on behalf of unknown beneficiaries without making serious attempts to locate those people wherever they may be and whether they are still with us. I do not think that it is such a huge undertaking for the Minister of Māori Affairs to take on that responsibility but I will say to him that it is a bold move because from my experiences over a number of years the Māori Trustee has done everything possible to locate those beneficiaries. But who knows? There may be a much simpler way of doing it. I do not think that all of the ideas have been discussed or all of the attempts have been made to locate those people. Some ideas that may sound absolutely ridiculous sometimes seem to be the most effective. So as the Hon Tau Henare has issued a challenge to the Minister now sitting in the chair the Hon Pita Sharples I hope the Minister will take a call on this particular matter because it is one that would resolve a lot of concerns not only in this Chamber but also around the country when we look at the size of the fund that has been accumulated through the Māori Trust Office.As Tau Henare said I think in another challenge to the Minister once all these attempts have been exhausted and we are quite happy that we are not going to find those people then we spend their money. Essentially he is saying “Let us use the money”—I am sure he means in a transparent and prudent way—“to promote Māori economic development.” We are getting close to the dinner break and I am sure the Minister in the chair has a response for us because this issue as I said earlier on is a very very important issue. I say to the Minister that we on this side of the Chamber are very very interested in his response and we are more than happy to sit down and work with him around this particular matter because as I said earlier on many of us in this Chamber know certain families—we know everybody; let us be honest about it—from every whānau from every iwi and from every hapū in the country. Just mention a name and I am sure there is a Māori member in this Chamber who can tell us who that person is—not necessarily the person involved but who his or her family is. Thank you.