Horomia Parekura: Foreshore and Seabed Bill — First Reading 
Horomia Parekura: Foreshore and Seabed Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:617;Page:12724] 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA (Minister of Maori Affairs) 
: 
 E tikaakeanoi te mihi akeano ki a koutou o te hau kainga te mana whenua i a koutou mai i te motui tae akeanoi roto i te ahua o te hikoi. Tena koutou. 
[ 
It is fitting indeed that I should acknowledge those of you of the home winds the authorities of the land and those of you from up country who came in respect of the hikoi. Greetings to you. 
] 
Greetings to all our people who have made the effort to come here on the hikoi. 
We have just heard a very divisive statement by “Dr Divisive” in the sense of wanting to keep Maori in the dungeons of doom and gloom. That is what those members want to do to Maori. We need to understand fundamentally and very pragmatically from the outset that there is a tangata whenua in this country and it is Maori and that the issue that is relevant to this bill is quite clear in our minds. It is a tuku-ed treasured passing on to us. It is quite clearly about kaitiakitanga o Tangaroa not the ownership of the ocean or the sea. That came with Captain Cook. Our people have this tuku-ed to them to our mokopunas by our ancestors and we do have the customary right in this country as the first-nation people in this country. 
I say that this issue is a sign of a healthy democracy and I want to pay respect to the hikoi yesterday because those people got out there and are unafraid to challenge Governments. This Government will not sway or move away from recognising the customary rights and the peoples who are the tangata whenua in this country. We are a Government that is prepared to face up and that is the context of this bill. 
We need to understand some things in the sense of what is relevant to Maori from our view as Maori members on this side. In the sense of being a mokopuna who has gone around the rocks to rukupupu to gather seafood it is clearly something that was passed on to us by our tupuna and we want it to last. 
There are three types of people whom “Dr Divisive” has been encouraging— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Minister is to refer to members by their name or their rank not in that way. The Minister will withdraw that comment. 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: I withdraw and apologise. There are people in this country who want to continue in contemporary times the nasty divisiveness; to leave it with the elite to leave it with the privileged and to have the tangata whenua left out. We do not want that carry-on. In 1992 the customary right was put in a regulated framework—the “Treaty of Wellington”. That is where the fishing right went. It was done without consultation it was done in the dark in Wellington and it was done by that party over there. At least we went out and we stand by it. 
In the sense of those types of people who are saying “Leave it as it is because it is OK.” well that is a lot of hogwash because at the moment the kai moana—seafood—is being depleted. The nasty take—the illegal take—is three times bigger than the customary take at the moment. The allocated take is struggling to find a regulated average-sized paua or kina in these modern days. It is terrible and we want to do something about it. So leaving it as it is is not right. There are those who say we should leave it to the Crown in total. That is not right. There are those who are muscling up to create fee simple which is about purchase and sale—one buys it and one sells it. At the moment we have Maori who are selling whenua that was tuku-ed to them. We have other races encouraging them to pillage the kai moana and sell it in Auckland in the dark. I want to make sure that my mokopuna can go there and get kai when she grows up. 
The foreshore is that strip of land between the high-water mark and the low-water mark—nothing above it nothing below it. No treaty settlement is interfered with or adjusted by this bill. This bill strengthens our customary right. It identifies it quite certainly and creates an understanding that there is a tangata whenua in this country—something that some people want to ignore and deny. That is terrible and disgraceful. 
Yesterday was an emotional day. It was the sight of Maori where they are now. Our demographics of 200 years of being colonised by other people are over. There is always the international well-known licence that tells one that the demographics of the colonised people are just and it is totally driven by the majority. We are a very very young race with a median age of 22. We have more 13 14 15 and 16-year-olds than older people in this country such as those members. It is really important to understand that. That is a technical truth: Pakeha are a more aged people than we are. So we as the people who are here now representatives in this House have to make sure through platforms like this bill that we create a better lot for our people. It is quite simply that irrespective of all those people who are telling us to sit down or leave. We have to stand up and do that because we understand the process. Today is the first day of a long process where votes will be taken on the way through over the next 6 or 7 months. Today is not the end. Today is the beginning in the sense of making us go forward—it is important to that. 
Let me remind members about retention. Most of the Maori land that is still intact now was put into a regulated framework by Ta Apirana Ngata and it has stood the test of time; whether it has gorse or manuka on it it has stood the test of time and we still have it. It is still in our possession. A lot that was left out was pre-pillaged by people who came as visitors to this country. It was ransacked. We were haemorrhaged by it. It was disgraceful. And our people have sold on in recent times—whenua that was tuku-ed to them given to them by their tupuna. If they have bought their house bought their car bought their land kei te pai but at the end of the day with our young population we have to ensure that we have documents like this and policies like this that will help our progress—and that we are not sitting where those members want us to be. Let me tell you Maori have grown up. A lot of our assets are better managed. With all this scurrilous scandal that is around it is important to get it into context. 
I have heard the harping of the Maori affairs spokesperson on that side. There are a whole lot of summaries in here that are clear about the sense of the policy and the benefit for Maori. That is right; Dr Brash is dead right: we are trying to create priority for the tangata whenua through customary right. It needs to be recognised—that is right. We are saying that upfront. But those members are telling other New Zealanders that this is dastardly. It is fodder for your divisive policy. You are a disgrace in the sense of bringing— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I would be pleased not to be brought into the debate. I ignored it the first five times but I must not be brought into the debate. 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: I withdraw. Some people in this country are divisive and disgraceful. They do not want Maori to go forward; they are used to their being behind. I am a 53-year-old Maori. I want to mihi to my elder here Winston Peters. I am a 53-year-old Maori and I will tell members what I am: I am from the last generation of children of manual labourers. Ninety-nine percent of my parents’ generation like a whole lot of these people here worked for the Ministry of Works worked for the Post and Telegraph Department worked for the freezing works worked on the railways and did all those great labouring jobs. They were loyal; they worked for 30 to 40 years. They were neither close to management nor close to enterprise because other people kept them out of the opportunities. 
Well I want to tell members this. I have a 6-year-old mokopuna and I have a young son at university. There are 1375 Maori attending Otago University and only 130 of them are doing a Maori paper. They are doing a whole lot of things so “Move over!”. We want to be the business managers we want to be the business owners and we want to make sure that Maori have their rightful place as the first-nation people the tangata whenua in this country and we want to make sure that their customary right is recognised—not a whole lot of the hogwash that has been meted out by other people in the development of this country. 
I tell members that Maori are going forward with or without hikoi. There are a whole lot of other hikoi to be made in education employment and housing and this Government can be measured on what we are doing. We are not saying to get a lead in the polls that we want to do away with that. We are not saying we want to get rid of those issues that are good for Maori. We are not saying that Maori are irrelevant. We sure as hang are trying to function properly within the process of this House and make sure that our people get a fair say. That is what we are on about. If members are not used to their people telling them what they do not want to hear then they had better get used to it because that is what happens when one is a Maori member. 
Certainly we will be supporting this bill. We will be voting for it. We will stand the heat from our people and recognise it. We will not be playing divisiveness like those members over there are. If those members are serious about nationhood then they should recognise the first nation—the tangata whenua of the people. If those members support better relationships in this country they should support the bill. Do not go out there trying to claim it is namby-pamby—that is nonsense!