Mackey Moana: Gisborne District Council (Alfred Cox Park) Validation Bill — In Committee 
Mackey Moana: Gisborne District Council (Alfred Cox Park) Validation Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:632;Page:4008] 
MOANA MACKEY (Labour) 
: 
 I want to follow on from what Anne Tolley was saying about the consultation. This bill has been around for a very long time—at least the recognition that we needed to clean up the law in relation to Alfred Cox Park has been around for a long time. To be fair I think it is reasonable to expect that over the course of a decade people would be aware that this was happening and that the consultation was going on. It was certainly reported in the  
Gisborne Herald 
 a lot. 
I have to also say that in Gisborne we do things very differently. In Gisborne there is not an “us and them” mentality—not at all. We pride ourselves on the fact that when we live in a fifty-fifty Maori / non-Maori mix the usual political grandstanding about this kind of thing tends to go away because we all know each other and we work really well together. No matter what goes on in the rest of the country about race relations we tend to kind of shrug our shoulders and say well living in a bicultural society like Gisborne when Maori fails Gisborne fails and we get on with the reality of dealing with that. 
Mr Flavell raised the point that during the first reading debate Tariana Turia was not able to have a speaking slot. I also point out that I did not have a speaking slot in that debate because of all the people who wanted to speak on the bill. Judy Turner did not have a speaking slot and Phil Heatley who had an interest in the bill did not have a speaking slot. But all of us sought leave to be able to speak because we felt strongly about it. There are ways and means in this Parliament to have our say even if we are not through normal processes allocated that time. 
I also note that the Maori Party at that time did not raise any concerns after the first reading of the bill which would have been the time to do that. As we have heard from Anne Tolley in that way at the select committee stage if the committee really felt that the proper level of consultation had not been carried out by the Gisborne District Council the bill could have been sent back to the council. 
I have to say having met with Rongowhakaata about this bill that they have no bones with its content at all. They think it is a sensible bill—indeed they enjoy going to the flea market as do members of the Maori Party on a regular basis. But they felt that given they are just about to enter into their consultation with the Crown it was a good vehicle for them to be able to raise their concerns about the history of Alfred Cox Park. OK fair enough—they wanted to make a statement. But I think that to suggest Rongowhakaata are horribly opposed to this bill on its very merits simply is not true. I said to Mr Stan Pardoe whom I talked to that this was fine. I said that I accept he had seen that as a good way of highlighting the iwi’s concerns before going into negotiations with the Crown. But it is important that this Committee knows that Rongowhakaata are not opposed to what this bill is trying to do. Indeed they said it is particularly sensible. 
But we also have to acknowledge the political nature of the fact that this concern was not raised after the first reading when something could have been done about it. It has been raised now at this stage of the Committee when we very much want to get through the bill so that when people from Rongowhakaata and the Maori Party go down to the flea market and hold their stalls they are not doing so illegally.