Mark Ron: Papawai and Kaikokirikiri Trusts Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMark Ron: Papawai and Kaikokirikiri Trusts Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 02 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9337. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RON MARK (Deputy Leader—NZ First): It is a privilege and an honour to be able to stand and to speak to the first reading of the Papawai and Kaikokirikiri Trusts Amendment Bill. I want to start by acknowledging my whanaunga whom I cannot see in the gallery but I know they are up there who have come along to witness this first reading and will no doubt appear at a later stage before the select committee. I cannot see them from here Alastair. I am too short. It is a genetic thing you know—it is my Ngati Porou side. Although looking at some of my cousins cousin Marama we seem to share the same affliction—height disadvantage and not being able to see.But anyway a couple of things that have already been mentioned here today: I think it is timely right and proper that an Act that was put together in 1943 comes before the House for amendment so that it fits contemporary law a little more and makes it more workable. Those of us who are from the Wairarapa who are Ngāti Kahungunu ki Te Wairarapa who do whakapapa to Papawai Marae—the thing you need to know also is that if you whakapapa to Papawai Marae you probably whakapapa to Hurunui o Rangi to Ngāti Hinewaka to all of those hapū that surround the lake. It is something that was pointed out to me when I first came to Parliament back in 1996. After that I was told where I was from. Cousin Rex Hemi and Kim Workman arranged for me to go home to Papawai and introduced me to my whanaunga and told me who I was—something that I did not really know a great deal about having been brought up as a ward of the State.It was quite astonishing as a member of Parliament to be standing there and hearing the history of Papawai—it being the seat and the home of the Kotahitanga movement the site of the only still to this day Māori Parliament in New Zealand and a marae from which an immense amount and quality of leadership was demonstrated to the nation as Māori gathered there from all over the motu to discuss the issues that concerned them and to have those issues brought here to the Parliament of the day.So it was something that quite astonished me when people like Rāna Waitai who became a New Zealand First member of Parliament who then ended up with the National Party again having come from the National Party—he was a former policeman of some renown—told me that he too was from Papawai and Edwin Perry. At that time Tūtekawa Wyllie also introduced himself to me as another person who could whakapapa back to Papawai. We have a list here of at least 10 but I think there are more members of Parliament who whakapapa directly back to Papawai.I will leave that to the House and to others to contemplate why it is that such a small marae in such a small part of New Zealand has such a long history in politics. I guess it is that wairua thing that keeps tapping you on the back of the neck and reminding you that there are things beyond your control that lead one to where one is at the time despite one’s best efforts maybe not to be there. But it is something that you need to note: from the seat of the Kotahitanga movement we end up here in Parliament today with Māori from Papawai represented in an array of cross-party political parties.I just want to conclude by saying two things. It is timely that this bill is here. I would have liked it to come to the House probably from Meka Whaitiri because she is the elected Māori MP over in that part of the country. I would have liked it to come to the House maybe from someone who actually comes from Papawai but it has come here in this way. I would also have liked to have more consultation with our people back home giving us some background as to why this bill is here. It concerns me that Labour New Zealand First the Green Party or I had any contact at all from Papawai and Kaikokirikiri Trusts Board to brief us as to what the issues were and why this bill is here. I think we need to recognise that there are more than just two Government members in Parliament from the Wairarapa. There are a lot more. If we talk about tino rangatiratanga and kotahitanga then we need to demonstrate that.But the bill highlights some issues like the two-thirds of the funding that goes to students going to religious schools and only one-third going to other Māori students when in actual fact I think the number is about 10 in the Church of England schools and about 200 applicants from the wider whanaunga.