SpeechHon TE URUROA FLAVELL (Minister for Māori Development): Just in the time that we have available I want to clarify a couple of matters. To help the member who just took his seat Pita Paraone I suggest he might be reading clauses from an older version of the bill which is probably not going to help.Just to clarify the second chance issues that have been raised by members regarding clause 51B the clause that has been mentioned earlier—I just note for the Committee that the second-chance provisions cannot be used for decisions that require a threshold of all owners. They can be used only for participating owners and actually the Māori Affairs Committee added a requirement for court confirmation. I hope that clarifies that issue in respect of the second-chance issues.Marama Davidson asked the question about thresholds being reduced. I can confirm to the member that they are not reduced. The current thresholds are those that currently sit within the Act right now but as I said in the earlier contributions those thresholds can be lifted on the basis of what the trust cum the owners wish to do. They can take it up to 99 percent 80 percent—whatever. It cannot go under that threshold ever and that is documented within the law. OK? So it strengthens again the provisions in respect of the retention of the land.She also raised an issue in respect of the use of Māori terms in law. I mean of course the use of kupu Māori in law is not new. We have it in Te Ture mō Te Reo Māori and Te Pire mō Te Reo Māori we have it in fisheries legislation and we have it in Treaty settlements so a precedent has already been set in respect of the use of Māori language in this House and in law. It is not new and as I said earlier to the member and to the Committee we took careful consideration to think about those concepts.In the end as has been mentioned by all of us our tikanga is our tikanga. Ko te āhuatanga ki a Ngāpuhi he rerekē anō rā ki te āhuatanga ki a Te Arawa ki a Ngāti Raukawa ki a Ngāti Porou rānei. Kei tēnā iwi kei tēnā whānau tōna tikanga kei tēnā hapū o roto i te āhuatanga o tētahi iwi te tikanga o roto i a ia. [The situation as it relates to Ngāpuhi differs once again from that of Te Arawa Ngāti Raukawa or Ngāti Porou. That tribe and that family has its own tradition that subtribe within the circumstance of a tribe the tradition within itself.]We are sometimes a little bit different from what Te Arawa collectively believes and thinks. Our tikanga is our tikanga and that I believe is one of the strengths of this legislation because it allows whānau hapū iwi rūnanga or whatever other body to operate by our tikanga. I am hoping that it is about time we recognise that a tikanga has some place for us to be able to do the decision making and not necessarily have it always legitimised by law because it is our tikanga. This is at the forefront of this legislation: allowing our people to make decisions in a way that is right for us.I am fairly clear as Pita Paraone talked about that when we went up north and had the discussion about I think it was version No. 4 or 5 they had a particular tikanga at the time. It was not necessarily too friendly. In fact even within the hall there was a different tikanga about how everybody respected each other and so on and so forth. Be that as it may that is what we operate by as Māori and surely utilising our land in a way that we believe is appropriate. Me whai tātau i ō tātau ake tikanga. [We must follow the tradition that applies to us only.] That means that we are not locked down to a generic tikanga base called Māori". I runga i te āhuatanga he rerekē te kōrero o Te Tai Tokerau ki tērā o Te Tai Rāwhiti ki tērā iwi ki tērā hapū. [And so based on the situation Northland talk will differ from that of the East Coast tribe and subtribe.] I hope that that gives some assurance to the member that we are in the right zone and the use of Te Reo Māori—ēhara i te mea he āhuatanga hou karekau i roto i ngā āhuatanga o Te Whare Pāremata e noho nei ko te āhuatanga o Te Reo Māori e kōrerotia ana [it is not as though it is something new far from it; in circumstances relating to Parliament as it sits now the situation concerning the Māori language is being addressed]."