Henare Tau: Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill — First Reading 
Henare Tau: Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill — First Reading 
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Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 Well well well well—I have been waiting for this moment for a long long time. I suppose— 
Grant Robertson 
: Lower the tone Tau. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Oh lower the tone! Do members know what people hate? It is the fact that 6 or 7 years after Labour did a deal after the dirty deed was done those same members have turned up and said “Oh we didn’t mean it. Oh it’s OK. Oh it’s all right”. But one of the things those people never said was “sorry” and like the famous Elton John song “Sorry Seems To Be the Hardest Word”. You know every member of the Labour caucus who has spoken this afternoon has missed this one opportunity the only opportunity that they will ever have to say sorry. 
Hon Mita Ririnui 
: What for? 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Oh what for! The Hon Shane Jones hit it on the head save for a little difference. Do members know the difference between the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill and the 2004 Foreshore and Seabed Act? It is access to the judiciary. Everybody has a right—it does not matter whether they are black white red or green; it does not matter—everybody has an absolute right to go to court to find out whether they are right or whether they are wrong. 
What happened in 2004? I will tell the House what happened. The Prime Minister and Dr Cullen Clark and Cullen got the willies 24 hours after the Court of Appeal made its decision in 2003. In 2003 they got more than the willies. They extinguished a people’s right to have access to the judiciary. In this bill’s explanatory note it is stated that it will repeal the 2004 Act and that is music to the ears of the thousands of us who marched across the Auckland Harbour Bridge— 
Hon Shane Jones 
: You were at McDonald’s! 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Oh no. I was not at McDonald’s; I was not watching any porn videos. Oh no; that was not me. 
This is about access to the judiciary. This is about human rights and that is what that whole debacle was about. Fifty thousand people were outside the front door of this place. Today we saw a couple of teachers having a little protest; well in those days 50000 people were outside the front door. Labour members took the opportunity today to talk about the fact that it was Don Brash’s fault or that it was this man’s and that man’s fault. I cannot believe the gall of those members across the way. They were the Government at the time. They made the rules; they made the law. But they stopped people from going to court to find out which is the most significant part of this legislation. It restores a people’s right. 
Those members should just say sorry; they missed the boat. They had the opportunity to say sorry but they could not bring themselves to say it. The Labour Party has said sorry to all sorts of people—gay people Samoan people Chinese people Korean people and who else? But they have not said it to Maori. Those members have not got up off their hind legs tonight to say sorry for the hurt and the pain that was brought upon Maori by their own people. Mita Ririnui Parekura Horomia and Nanaia Mahuta were the instigators. They should hang their heads in shame. They had an opportunity to say sorry but they never did. Shame on the Labour Party! 
I will tell the House another thing: in 2004 when Labour passed the Act it was the instigator of the Maori Party. I say congratulations to the Maori Party because five people are here who have stayed the course and did what they were elected for. They were elected to repeal the Act and it is being and will be repealed. So my hat is not off to those people across the way; I doff my cap to the people in front of me. It is off to those five members of the Maori Party who have worked tirelessly with the Hon Chris Finlayson for the repeal of this bill. So let us take a vote and let us send the bill to the Maori Affairs Committee where we can see who was responsible for this garbage from across the way.