Smith Lockwood: Address to Her Excellency the Governor-General 
Smith Lockwood: Address to Her Excellency the Governor-General 
[Volume:617;Page:13198] 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH (National—Rodney) 
: 
 It is an honour to speak in the House on this historic occasion and I want to acknowledge all the men and women who have served in this Parliament. Whether they served with greater or lesser distinction all came into this House keen to see progressed the things that they believed in. I want to pay particular tribute to one member whose modest headstone stands less than 5 metres from that of my parents my grandparents and my great-grandparents in a beautiful cemetery in a little place called Matakohe. He was the first member for Kaipara and our first New Zealand - born Prime Minister. Although I do not wish to compare the distinguished career of the Rt Hon Gordon Coates with my humble one what is kind of remarkable is that between the two of us we have represented our area for more than a third of this Parliament’s total history. 
History tells us that 4 days from now 88 years ago the young member of Parliament Gordon Coates entered the Army to serve in the First World War. On this very day 64 years ago Coates met with Labour Prime Minister Peter Fraser to serve as an Opposition MP in the Labour war Cabinet of the Second World War. Coates was one of those special members who genuinely put his love of country ahead of petty politics. 
 In my 20 years in this place I have heard many MPs leaving the House speak of the privilege of serving here—and it is a privilege. For me there has been the honour of working for New Zealand in global trade negotiations and speaking for New Zealand at Gallipoli on Anzac Day and at Messines in remembrance services there—where incidentally Gordon Coates while a member of this Parliament won his first Military Cross for gallantry in action. 
But perhaps even more special is the opportunity to share the lives and aspirations of so many New Zealanders whether as a local MP helping families to overcome intractable problems or in my case as Minister of Education visiting schools right around the country—rural and urban wealthy and struggling communities big and small. In agriculture and trade I have met with farmers and business people from all around in different sectors succeeding and struggling and I have seen great New Zealanders exporting and doing business right around the world. 
I have to say that New Zealanders inspire me. The thing that I like about New Zealanders compared with other countries to which my trade work has taken me is the Kiwi spirit—the “can do” character that was so embodied in the Rt Hon Gordon Coates. New Zealanders are basically decent good-natured people who love their country and respect one another. Left to their own devices New Zealanders do pretty well. As the late Michael King put it in his seminal history of New Zealand: “Most New Zealanders whatever their cultural backgrounds are good-hearted practical commonsensical and tolerant.” and I share his optimism about the long-term future of our country. 
As we look to the future I worry that we are at risk of undermining that Kiwi spirit through excessive regulation. I believe we must trust sensible New Zealand people a lot more than we do. It troubles me that in my 20 years in this Parliament we have passed 2938 bills and respective Governments have promulgated 7636 new regulations. It begs the question of whether our country is now 10000 new rules and laws better off. The answer in short is no. It is not just the red tape that makes business so difficult and almost every endeavour so much harder; it is the encroachment into almost every area of everyday life. We now think that we need to legislate how every organisation in New Zealand that has a legislative basis to its activity such as local government is to do everything damn near down to the level of going to the toilet. We put into legislation how every little organisation must go about doing everything. 
I concede that that is not a new concern. Coates spoke back in 1938 of a similar concern in what is now my Rodney electorate when he railed against “licensing regimes becoming established for transport secondary industries chemists’ shops”—that one is still with us—“and the sale of petrol.” He said that Government appointees were beginning to make decisions that were better left to the private sector. It is not just in our democracy that those matters of liberty cause concern. A United States Supreme Court justice put it this way when he said: “Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government’s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal well meaning but without understanding.” 
I believe that those words contain much that should warn us because it is so easy to pass more and more legislation that encroaches progressively on the everyday lives of the men and women of New Zealand who make this country so great. We should remember that it is not we in this Parliament who make the country great it is the men and women of our country. 
I would argue that it is the freedom of our people to exercise choice and to be able to be responsible for their own and their families’ lives. It is that genuine liberty that is the measure of the quality of our democracy. It is the dream of that liberty that brought my great-grandparents and so many others like them halfway around the world to build a new place of freedom here in the South Pacific. Let us in our legislative enthusiasm as we look to the future not trample on that dream. 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA (Minister of Maori Affairs) 
: 
 Koutou nga kanohi Maorii roto i te Whare nei e mihi kauana ki a koutou katoa. I a ratoukare kei te ora i a ratou e haere akeano e mihi kauana ki a ratou katoa. 
[An interpretation in English was given to the House.] 
[ 
To those of you from Maoridom who are present in this House a warm greeting to you all. To those who are not in good health to former members my sincere greetings to them all as well 
.] 
It is a privilege to be a Maori MP. There is something special about the relationship between Maori members of Parliament—a basic courtesy. I do not want people to think for a moment that we have something non-Maori MPs do not. It is just that we have a great bond because no matter how much we argue and divide ideologically over what our parties are doing at the end of the day we are all tangata whenua and have a greater obligation to Maori collectivity than to ourselves individually. It is a privilege to be a Maori MP a role we will never take for granted. 
When I gave my maiden speech in this House on 15 February 2000 I was mindful of all the other Maori MPs who came through here before me and I want to mihi to Koro Wetere and others who are here today. The 1999 general election delivered 16 Maori MPs to this House. In 2002 that number grew to 19. There are times when I think it is tough being a Maori MP—especially over the last couple of weeks—and it is at those times that I consider how much tougher it must have been when there were fewer of us. For the greatest part of the history of this House of Representatives that was the case. 
This anniversary has given me cause to reflect and do some research on all the other Maori MPs who came before us. I could not rely on my memory for that detail—not because I do not have a good memory nor because I did not attend history lessons at school but because generally the teaching of New Zealand history in relation to Maori in politics was not very good. Four Maori seats were established by the Maori Representation Act in 1867. In 1993 126 years later that number was increased to five by the Electoral Act. Nine years on the number of Maori seats rose to seven which is what we have today. 
Maori were not allowed to stand for general seats until 1967. How many of us knew that? It is certainly a sobering fact. A special exception to that law was made for Sir James Carroll on account of his Pakeha ancestry. Sir James first became a MP in 1887 when he won the Eastern Maori seat. He held his seat for 6 years until the 1893 election when he stood for and won the European electorate of Waiapu later to become known as Gisborne. After the rules were revised William Rex Austinand the late Manuera Ben Couch were the first Maori to win election in general electorates albeit electorates with Maori names—Awarua and Wairarapa—in 1975. 
Sobering too is the fact that in order for Maori to participate in the formal institutions of political power in New Zealand and vote between 1852 and the late-1860s Maori had to be male over 21 and landowners. Although those qualifications on voting rights applied to Maori and non-Maori males alike in effect it meant that few Maori were able to vote since most land held by Maori was communally held rather than individually owned and held in customary title that was unregistered. Whilst unable to vote Maori still contributed to taxation revenue. It is within that context and conflict of land ownership that Maori representation and the origins of the Maori seats began. 
Since the 1868 general election that first brought Maori MPs into existence there have been a total of 79 Maori members of Parliament. Many of that number served multiple terms. Thus far a handful have served in excess of 25 years—namely Tame Parata 1885 26 years; Apirana Turupa Ngata 1905 38 years; ErueraTirikatene Southern Maori 1932 35 years; Eruera’s daughter WhetuTirikatene-Sullivan 29 years; and Koro Wetere Western Maori 27 years. The longest-serving Maori MP in this House—and I notice he is absent at the moment—is my elder Winston Raymond Peters who is in his 23rd year and still going strong. 
Being a Maori MP was purely a male domain until 1949 when Iriaka Matiu Ratana was elected as the MP for Western Maori. She held that seat for 20 years. I can only imagine how tough it must have been for her during those two decades. With the first MMP election in 1996 came list seats that opened up new possibilities and delivered more Maori women to this House. If my calculations are right there have been a total of 12 Maori women MPs to date. Over half that number are in the House today and I acknowledge them—Georgina te Heuheu Donna Awatere Huata Georgina Beyer Nanaia Mahuta Moana Mackey Jill Pettis and Metiria Turei. Until recently Tariana Turia was also a member of that grouping—a grouping she seems certain to rejoin in the not too distant future. I am aware that that group of my colleagues have all had tough and testing times since they were elected to Parliament. I often wonder whether it would have been quite so tough for them had they not been Maori. 
I shall spend a little of my time talking about Sir Apirana Turupa Ngata who was an outstanding politician. He was committed totally to uplifting Maori people from Pakeha domination to cultural revival and to strengthening. He was totally committed to developing a Maori economic base based on farming and other activities. Apirana attended Te Aute College and then went on to Canterbury College where in 1894 he completed his BA becoming the first Maori to complete a degree at a New Zealand university. Two years later he completed his LLB and became the first New Zealander Maori or Pakeha to complete the double degree. 
Though he could have become a prosperous lawyer Apirana did not practice. Instead he threw himself into reforming the social and economic situation of his people. The incorporations were brought under the control of Maori councils. Apirana was determined to demonstrate that with skill leadership and management Maori could be as successful as Pakeha. Around the same time as that was happening he was making his way in national affairs particularly through his friendship with James Carroll. He assisted Carroll in developing the Maori Lands Administration Act and the Maori Councils Act. Those two Acts gelled much of the work Apirana had been doing for many years. 
Another legacy Sir Apirana left with us was the Maori Battalion which is very relevant given last week’s activities both here and abroad. He wrote a booklet and I quote from it: “In this war Maori asked to take his full share in the front line and in this he has been fully indulged. Has he proved a claim to be an asset to this country? If so he asked it to be dealt with as such—an asset discovered in the crucible of war should have a value in the coming peace.” 
Members may well ask why I have dwelt on Apirana. I am more than certain that this Government and in current and testing times with Maori leadership has to ensure that courage prevails. Emotion and all those things that mislead and misinform our people are things we have to put asunder. If we want to recognise Parliament and the Crown as sovereign it is important that we understand and remember that there is a Treaty of Waitangi in this country and there is a tangata whenua—the Maori people. We have accelerated and changed when the need has come about and we intend to keep doing that. Eighty-two percent of us were living in rural areas but with urbanisation we have transferred ourselves to the towns. 
I want to leave us with the future: 55 percent of us are under the age of 18; 75 percent of us are under the age of 35 and only 4 percent of Maori are over the age of 60 years. Certainly misinformation and miscalculation about the ability of Maori in this future need to be put asunder. As New Zealanders it is certain that we all need to understand that our job as leaders and politicians for Maori at the moment —and I can say this on behalf of all the Maori members in this House—is to ensure that we set up a clear and positive platform for the other partner in this country and that is Maori.