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Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (Attorney-General): Can I begin by saying that I have not spoken in the House since you became Assistant Speaker, Mr Barker, and I am delighted you are Assistant Speaker, wish you all the best, and congratulate you on your appointment.
 
 
CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National) : Can I too, in opening, offer my congratulations and best wishes to the iwi of the central North Island collective, to Tumu te Heuheu for the outstanding work that he has done, and to the work of Wira Gardiner as Crown facilitator. I offer my congratulations to the Minister and his team on the contribution they have made. As other National members have said, we support the third reading of this important legislation.
 
 
Part 1 Purpose of Act, acknowledgements and apology, interpretation provisions, settlement of claims, and miscellaneous matters

CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National) : I will take just a brief call on Part 1. It contains the usual clauses one expects to find in Part 1 of a settlement bill. It sets out the purpose, makes certain acknowledgments, contains the apology, and then has various interpretation and jurisdictional provisions.
 
 
CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National) : National enthusiastically supports the second reading of this bill, which, as the report of the Māori Affairs Committee states, gives effect to the deed of settlement between the Crown and the Central North Island Iwi Collective, which was signed on 25 June 2008. The committee’s report—and the Minister has referred to this—records that there were 167 submissions, and the committee heard 42 of those submissions in Taupō on 6 August 2008. The committee’s report also notes the genesis of this settlement. The Central North Island Iwi Collective emerged out of a recommendation of the Waitangi Tribunal in 2007 that the Crown give time for central North Island iwi to develop a proposal for Crown forest lands.
 
 
Part 2 Provisions relating to transfers of assets, allocation principles, Crown agreed proportion, and DSP properties

CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National) : I would really be grateful to receive the comments of the Minister in the chair, the Hon Mita Ririnui, on an issue. In my earlier contribution I dealt in detail with schedule 2 and particularly with the adjudication part, which is to be completed by 25 June 2011. I focused on clause 6(15) in schedule 2, which provides that a “decision of the adjudication panel will be final and binding on all the parties.” I said the authorities have suggested that the effect of that clause would not be to oust the jurisdiction of the court in judicial review. My personal view is that maybe it should do so.
 
 
  • Debate resumed.
CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National) : Madam Assistant Speaker informs me that I have 1 minute and 30 seconds remaining to speak on the Central North Island Forests Land Collective Settlement Bill. I note that I started speaking last night at 9.52 p.m., so strictly speaking I should have 2 minutes, but I will not quibble with the Chair, because that would be inappropriate.
 
 
Part 2 Provisions relating to transfers of assets, allocation principles, Crown agreed proportion, and DSP properties

CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National): I have only one other question that I want to raise about schedule 2, and I would be grateful for the guidance of the Minister in the chair, Mita Ririnui. My question concerns clause 13(e).
 
 
CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National) : I will direct my comments this morning to Supplementary Order Paper 246, proposed by Judith Tizard, the Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, in the House last night. In my second reading speech I explained why, following a visit to the Government Administration Committee by Sir Geoffrey Palmer, it was thought fit to include in the interpretation clause some definitions that were regarded as very important. The first is “author”, the second is “book”, and the third is “New Zealand author”. I will now analyse those definitions briefly.
 
 
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.
 
 
Part 2 Public lending right for New Zealand authors scheme

CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National) : Part 2 is the heart of the legislation; it establishes the scheme. It disestablishes the Authors’ Fund established by Norman Kirk in 1973, and it provides for the establishment of an advisory group. I do not think I need to detain the Committee for too long on this issue.