Hon Christopher Finlayson

Preamble

CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National) : There is a certain air of unreality in going straight from a second reading to debating the preamble, and there is a danger that, in this air of unreality, there will be unnecessary repetition. Of course, the Committee does not want to hear unnecessary repetition from me. I must confess that my primary interest in the bill, and the area I want to speak on, is schedule 2, which is the tikanga-based resolution process for the allocation of land, so I will be reasonably brief in speaking about the preamble.

I simply say that I am particularly interested in recital (4), which talks about the way in which the allocation is to occur. It refers to the terms of the deed of trust. As we heard last night from the Minister in charge of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, almost 86.5 percent of the beneficial interest in the forests is to be held for the collective, “and the individual beneficial entitlement of each member of that Collective is to be determined by reference to the allocation process that has been agreed amongst those members and is set out in this Act.” That is a reference, first, to schedule 3, which sets out the percentages for allocation of rental proceeds. I must say that I think those percentages have been prepared to an admirable level. For example, Tūhoe are entitled to 27.2987 percent of the total, and how that was worked out, I do not know.

More particularly, I will focus on schedule 2, which deals with the way in which the allocation process is to occur. As we can see from that schedule, which I will look at in far greater detail when we get to it, there are essentially three stages. I am particularly interested in stage 3, and the effect of that type of adjudication process on the ability of courts to interfere in any decision that may be reached.

The preamble is a quite straightforward part of the bill. It sets out the background, and it sets out that the Crown and the collective agreed to negotiate in good faith, have established a framework, and have established the percentages and a means by which each individual member of the collective is to be allocated a particular portion. I think that is all I need to say about the preamble; we must move on and get to the real heart of the bill.