Jones Shane: Business of Select Committees — Appointments 
Jones Shane: Business of Select Committees — Appointments 
[Volume:654;Page:3191] 
Hon SHANE JONES (Labour) 
: 
 Tena tatou katoa. Firstly I stand to support those of us who have the good sense to see that this motion is a terrible slur on Chris Auchinvole and Nikki Kaye. Goodness knows what they have done to earn the ire of the front bench and the other strategists because this would have been a brilliant opportunity for the Local Government and Environment Committee—Mr Hide has been soldiering on with it looking at resource management changes—to hear the views of Aucklanders tangata whenua and Pasifika stretching from Pokeno right through to Wellsford. John Carter no doubt is quietly working away and endeavouring to convince Rodney Hide that Wellsford should be cut loose and given to the north. That is why we do not support the motion. 
Te Ururoa Flavell 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I do not want to interrupt my colleague but I think his microphone is not on as the sound is not coming across on this side of the House. It may be that his words need to be broadcast to the country so I wanted to give him a hand and ask the sound people to please look at that. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Thank you for that point of order. We will ask the sound people to look at that issue. Otherwise the member might like to move to another position. I have stopped the clock for you. 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: Kia ora Mr Deputy Speaker. 
Rest assured my whanaunga from the Maori Party will hear loud and clear what will follow as a consequence of their foolish agreement to support the creation of this committee. Apparently Hone Harawira is being put on the select committee. He is being dubbed the “Father of the Rainbow Coalition” yet no other person would embody more qualities that are an abnegation—a denial—of what “rainbow” means: respect for people of other colour righteousness and hope. I doubt whether Mr Harawira with his busy schedule in the Pacific and his obligations to Melanesian politicians will actually be at the committee on a regular basis. I will say one thing for him though. As a consequence of being told that Dr Pita Sharples himself— 
Te Ururoa Flavell 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Other members have earlier raised points of order in respect of whether it is appropriate to make comments about members who are not in the House. I ask you to ask Mr Jones to think about that judgment. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: That is correct. Members cannot refer to somebody who is not here. 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: Speaking to the point of order I say that I was not alerting either you or the House to the member’s absence. I was simply referring to the fact that Dr Pita Sharples had a role to play in the flow of this legislation. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Please continue your speech. 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: As a consequence of being told about the legislation Dr Sharples who is a Minister but is not in Cabinet and other Maori members of Cabinet did not stand up for and did not support the inclusion of Maori representation or other elements legitimising the Maori presence. They did not support it. 
Hon Member 
: Rubbish! 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: Members should ask Rodney Hide what he has been telling Aucklanders. Dr Pita Sharples and the great friend of Christine Rankin Georgina te Heuheu—who is about to be eclipsed by the “Queen of Persia” Hekia Parata; I should say “Lady Hekia”—did not support Maori representation. They forced the issue. Mr John Key pointed out to them that they will be embraced for as long as it suits National’s purpose to sustain the powers of Government but he also said they will not be given an appointed Maori representative or elected Maori representatives. Mr Harawira as part of the general dynamic of improving the legislation—and I am not drawing attention to the man’s whereabouts—then decided to stimulate interest in a hikoi because the Maori Party cannot achieve simple concessions in its governmental relationship. 
I can say one thing for Mr Hide: he has been overt. Mr John Banks will not be the next mayor because the more the man promotes the notion of a super-city the more it starts to appear as something completely disagreeable. But Mr Hide has not concealed what he really thinks which is that there should be no representation for Maori. He is straight-up. But our friends in the Maori Party want the opportunity to extol the virtues of hanging out with John Key and crowd. 
Hon John Carter 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It is normal for a member to have a lead-in to a debate but this debate is about setting up a select committee. The member has yet to refer to what the debate is about. I ask you to bring him back to the subject matter. 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: Speaking to the point of order I say that the purpose of this select committee is to consider legislation that impacts on over 1 million people a significant percentage of whom are tangata whenua. This group has been conspicuously absent throughout the process of this proposed legislation. There has been not one single reference to tangata whenua. It is not unreasonable to draw to the House’s attention— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: This is not a speech. A point of order is a matter of process. We are referring to a motion that sets up a specific select committee. I ask the member with 5 minutes to go to please confine his comments to those points. 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: I shall endeavour to do so. 
Hundreds of speeches and thousands of amendments will follow me until the end of the week as a consequence of this egregious attempt to taint democracy with this slur upon representation. As I look at these proud esteemed wreaths around the walls of this Chamber I say that the bill we are about to deliver a verdict on and the existence of this select committee are a denial of all the fine sentiments that hang around us in this Chamber. That is how important this issue is. 
The committee will at one level go out and meet Aucklanders but Aucklanders deserve far more than that. They deserve for National to put into practice what it promised to do in its manifesto. We have come to accept that Mr Key is a breezy affable sunny sort of dude but that the man never completely delivers on what he says he will do. This motion is just another small example. The real test for this select committee will be whether Aucklanders turn up and say anything apart from the fact that their democratic rights are being denied and that their assets are now in danger of slipping into the hands of the privateers the frustrated merchant bankers and the other critters who have ruined the finance industry. All of them will flock up like beasts at a bar. 
But what about the garden variety fair dinkum Maori and Pacific Island ethnic communities and the people from South-east Asia etc.? If as a consequence of the establishment of this select committee which will lack the guile and leadership of Auchinvole this bill is unable to boost its profile and cause people to flock to bring their submissions forward then I fear for the standard of democracy in Auckland. The Government is attempting to foist this committee on people in order to obfuscate and obscure the fact that it is not giving the people of Pokeno Port Albert Matakana and other such far-flung Queen Street - orientated places which will soon be gobbled up into the area of Auckland the chance to have their say. What will become of them? [ 
Interruption 
] No no—many more speeches of this character are to follow. Members need have no doubt about that. 
I listened to what Mr Carter said. Mr Carter pointed out that this is an opportunity for Aucklanders to be consulted yet he stood in this House and said we have had enough consultation. He said the royal commission was the consultation. But National is not following the process the objectives the goals—even the vision for that matter—of the commission. What it is hoping to do—and I sadly conclude that it might get away with it as a consequence of the foul acquiescence of the Maori Party and the agenda of the ACT Party—is to ram this legislation through with the half-baked idea of having a select committee. Labour will bring three or possibly four strong people who will enrich the intellectual quality of the committee no doubt but it is still a terrible situation. Nikki Kaye the poster girl of the rangatahi—the young people—of Auckland has been swept aside. That is why we do not agree with the establishment of this special select committee—and Mr Auchinvole sits there with all the guile of a Beatrix Potter character.