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:2858. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon MITA RIRINUI (Labour):I thank the member who has just resumed her seat for her contribution. During the course of this debate in the Committee stage on the Māori Trustee Amendment Bill we have been reminded many times that we are speaking to particular parts of it so I will do my best to stay in line—[Interruption] It is hard not to laugh but I will try to stay in line lest as my colleague the previous Minister of Māori Affairs says I be scolded like a headless chook. I think he was referring to the previous contribution.Nevertheless this is a very important part of the bill. I would like to talk about the necessity of change and the necessity that the Māori Trustee become a stand-alone organisation. I would like to talk about the necessity of very clear roles and responsibilities and the necessity of robust financial internal systems to guide prudent financial management. We still have to get there. This part of the bill explains to us how we should get there. We are debating the transitional provisions and they are showing us how we will get there. The consequential amendments are required to ensure that everything we have voted in favour of this evening meets certain standards. There is reference to the existing undertakings in relation to “all property and estates administered held managed or controlled by the Māori Trustee or the Māori Trust Office before the commencement of this Act”.I mentioned earlier that much of the work done over a number of years by the Māori Trustee has been viewed by Māori as favourable and quite necessary. This part refers to shares held by the Māori Trustee certain land blocks and estates where it has been thought that the Māori Trustee should not in any way be a beneficiary or a shareholder in these estates and where the Māori Trustee has through a transparent process transferred the assets back to their rightful owners.Having said that the Māori Trustee still holds a lot of interest in lands. I mentioned earlier one particular area that I am familiar with but I am also familiar with several others where the Māori Trust Office holds shares. I recall some time ago in 2001 where the Māori Affairs Committee when speaking with the Māori Trustee inquired into the interests of the Māori Trustee in terms of certain estates. We were pleased to hear that the Māori Trustee had over a period of time been transferring those assets back. Some of it was very difficult because the Māori Trustee just could not locate the rightful beneficiaries of the estates.In Part 2 I highlight the fiduciary rights and liabilities. It includes “all rights capacities authorities discretions duties and liabilities of the Māori Trustee”. We expect that the Māori Trustee would perform his or her particular role to an extremely high degree because that is the expectation of this Parliament and it is certainly the expectation of those who have interests held on behalf of their families within the Māori Trustee. To be fair the Māori Trustee has managed many of those interests if not all of them. That is the prudent way. But it has still been subject to criticism. Naturally there are those who think they know better and have better ideas about accountability reporting and a whole lot of other things. But when we want them to front up to a particular meeting we cannot find them. They never turn up. We do not see them about. Nevertheless the Māori Trustee has taken a lot of this criticism on the chin. In my view over a number of years the Māori Trustee has boldly tackled a lot of the difficult issues.The new form of the Māori Trustee would naturally succeed to the existing undertakings of the current Māori Trustee even though we are talking about the same person. As I say these transitional provisions are necessary for this to be enacted.