Harawira Hone: Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading) Amendment Bill Electricity (Renewable Preference) Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
Harawira Hone: Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading) Amendment Bill Electricity (Renewable Preference) Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
[Volume:650;Page:18738] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Kia ora tatou e te Whare. Earlier today the Maori Party tabled three amendments to the Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill that spoke to the importance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in Treaty settlements. We sought to insert under clause 28 a new section that made reference to any iwi that received redress under any Treaty of Waitangi settlement. Under clause 43 we sought to insert a new section referring to the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and asserting the need to maintain the integrity and value to iwi of Treaty of Waitangi settlements and to have redress under those settlements. Finally we sought to insert in clause 68(4) the words “the Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Act of 1988”. We sought leave to table those three amendments because they were a simple but intelligent contribution to matters of fundamental importance to our nation. Today the House chose to vote down those Treaty amendments and those parties and those politicians who voted them down must live with that decision and with the shame that attaches to them for their part in doing that. 
The Maori Party has always taken the view that every issue is an opportunity to recognise and honour the Treaty in word and in deed. So it is with emissions trading as it is with everything else. Treaty settlements are the instruments of national reconciliation. They are opportunities for Governments to begin to redress the wrongs of the past so that we can build a pathway forward together. Yet in this as in far too many cases decisions have been taken to undermine to oppose and to threaten that very path to reconciliation. This legislation affects all Maori because it fails to pay due regard to the place of the Treaty in our nation and it breaches the good faith in which five Treaty settlements have been reached—settlements that the people believed to be fair and based on principle settlements negotiated and accepted by the people whose ancestors carried the fight for justice across generations settlements that should have been treated as solemn pacts and settlements that should be respected and protected by the Governments of the day. 
Today Ngai Tahu have told us that this emissions trading legislation represents the most direct assault on the integrity finality durability and purpose of Treaty settlements since Treaty settlements began. This legislation is an attack on the integrity of Treaty settlements because it is an attack on the so-called good faith the Crown said that it had in entering into Treaty settlement negotiations. Lack of good faith as every iwi can tell us has deprived iwi of the opportunity to develop and has resulted in generations of iwi existing in poverty. Our Supplementary Order Paper was not just about Ngai Tahu and the massive loss they will be forced to suffer because of this bill but it was also about other iwi in a similar position who will also suffer loss because of a lack of good faith by the Crown. 
The emissions trading legislation is also an attack on the finality of Treaty settlements because it will wipe millions of dollars off the value of those settlements so Ngai Tahu’s situation clearly highlights the dangers of this bill for Maori. In 2001 Ngai Tahu relied on the Crown’s promise when it purchased forestry lands at market value only to have that promise withdrawn when the Government signed up to the Kyoto Protocol less than 12 months later—an act of betrayal that will lead to a loss of millions of dollars from the value of the Ngai Tahu settlement. That loss comes directly as a result of the non-disclosure by the Crown at the time Ngai Tahu were encouraged to purchase forestry lands and the fact that the Crown must have known in 2001 that the Kyoto Protocol it would sign up to in 2002 would lead to a significant destruction of the value of Ngai Tahu’s forestry purchases. Had Ngai Tahu known of Kyoto’s implications they would undoubtedly have made different decisions to ensure the future prosperity of their settlements or as Ngai Tahu themselves would say: “Ma tatou a mo nga uri a muri ake nei.”—“For us and our children after us.” Any erosion of good faith inevitably impacts on the durability of the agreements reached between Maori and the Crown—the first in 1840 and the second in the Treaty settlements—and in this situation the Government’s failure to disclose its lack of good faith in its Treaty settlement negotiations actually prevented Ngai Tahu from making choices otherwise available and created the grounds for a second claim of a Treaty breach. 
Yesterday Te Ohu Kaimoana added its voice to this issue noting that the durability of iwi and pan-iwi settlements is vital to sound working relationships between Maori and the Crown. Chief executive officer Peter Douglas commenting on the concerns of both Ngai Tahu and Ngati Awa regarding emissions trading summed it up when he said: “If the early wave of settlements are considered by their people to be at risk then the certainty and finality of all Treaty settlements is put at risk as well.” The settlements affected here are those from the early wave of settlements and the risks that have occurred have taken place within but 10 years of their conclusion. Ten years is too short a time within the life of a so-called perpetual agreement between Maori and Crown for such risks to have emerged. 
I want to make it quite clear that we knew that the amendments we sought to table would not cure the loss—they would not remedy the lack—of good faith today. All we wanted to do was to allow for these issues to be reconsidered by this House. As Te Ohu Kaimoana said yesterday: “We do not expect that Treaty settlements should have special immunity from the consequences of change but we do expect the Crown to engage in good faith with iwi over changes which will affect the nature of those settlements.” This is not just about Ngai Tahu having to deal with a change in policy; it is about their being misled and making decisions on the basis of poor information provided by a Government that knew otherwise. I hate to say it but I am not surprised by these actions for they simply replicate Crown behaviour against Maori over the last 170 years—behaviour that has been in repeated breach of the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi and behaviour that demonstrates the Crown’s failure to honour its obligations to its Treaty partner. 
Today’s amendments were a modest and reasonable approach by iwi to national international and environmental considerations. Today’s amendments were an opportunity to consider the Ngai Tahu situation in the context of the national interest. Today’s amendments simply asked that in terms of the settlement process and the integrity of the emissions trading scheme Parliament should have the option to reconsider its views. But it seems that that is not to be the case—that this House is not yet ready to deal honestly with Maori issues and that this House is not genuinely committed to the reconciliation of our nation. 
Although we are on different sides of the debate on this bill I again thank the Green Party for their continued support of the Treaty. But in closing I again say how absolutely devastated we are to see that Labour’s Maori MPs including Parekura Horomia Nanaia Mahuta Mita Ririnui Mahara Okeroa Dover Samuels and Dave Hereora have again chosen party loyalty over the Treaty and again chosen to vote down the Treaty when they had a chance to finally make a positive stand. That is a point that Maori people all over the country will remember when we go to the polls in a few weeks’ time. Tena koe Madam Speaker. Kia ora tatou e te Whare.