Smith Nick: Financial Review Debate — Procedure In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Smith Nick: Financial Review Debate — Procedure In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:616;Page:11855] 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson) 
: 
 We have heard quite an extraordinary contribution from the Prime Minister and I really want to challenge her and her Ministers as to just what the Government’s policy is with regard to the foreshore and seabed. I make the point to the Prime Minister that the people in my own electorate of Nelson have been holding out for 9 long months to get some idea of the Government’s policy. We met with the Leader of the Opposition Don Brash and the Mayor of Tasman District who said that the lack of decisive leadership from this Prime Minister is costing our community $45 million a year. I have listened over the last 9 months to six different positions in respect of the foreshore and seabed. Every time the House comes back after a recess the Prime Minister has changed her mind. We started with the position which National reaffirmed that the foreshore and seabed should be in Crown ownership. We have gone right around the paddock over the last 9 months back to that position. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Have we though? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Gerry Brownlee quite properly asks whether that is the position. Perhaps the Prime Minister because she is so keen to openly debate these issues in the Chamber could debate this question: will the Government vest the foreshore and the seabed in the Crown? The silence is deafening. She challenges us to come down to the Chamber and have the debate here yet Government members will not engage in it. Can the Minister of Local Government or can the Minister of Health answer this question: is the Government going to vest the foreshore and seabed with the Crown? [ 
Interruption 
] Well the Minister of Health does not know the answer to that either. 
I say given the Prime Minister has provided such a level of indecision for 9 months it is no wonder that her Government is toast—it is no wonder at all. The people of New Zealand are demanding firm leadership and they are getting none of it from the Prime Minister. 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: They used to! 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: They used to say that they believed what the Prime Minister said—that they believed in her. She said that the Government would vest the foreshore and the seabed with the Crown but that has not come to be. So I ask the Prime Minister this question again seeing that I have her attention and because she challenges us to raise these issues in the Chamber: will the foreshore and the seabed— 
Hon Chris Carter 
: Where is your leader? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Just because the Prime Minister chose to show up during the Committee stage for the first time in the last 12 months— 
Gerry Brownlee 
: It is her first speech for the year! 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: It just shows how effective the Opposition has been that finally the Prime Minister has decided to show up in the Chamber. So I ask her a very simple question: is it Government policy that the foreshore and seabed will be vested with the Crown? 
Jill Pettis 
: Wait and see. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: We have been waiting to see for 9 months. 
I ask the Prime Minister when the legislation will come before us. I remember that last June when the decision first came out from the Court of Appeal we were told there would be legislation within the next couple of months then the next couple of months and then the next couple of months. 
 So I ask the Prime Minister today when we will see the bill. 
Mark Peck 
: When will the member be deputy leader? 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: Is that not interesting! Mr Peck does not want to answer the real questions; he wants to divert attention from them. So I ask the Prime Minister this: when will we see the foreshore and seabed legislation? 
Jill Pettis 
: Soon. 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: We had “Soon” last July. We had “Soon” in November. We had “Soon” in the Prime Minister’s address and it is still “Soon”. That is not good enough. It is not good enough because people all over New Zealand are sitting back with their investments sitting back with uncertainty and adding to the racial tension in our country because the Prime Minister— 
Government Members 
: That’s rich! 
Hon Dr NICK SMITH 
: I say to Government members that they should show the courage of their convictions and state their position clearly to the people. The very day that the Court of Appeal decision came out National knew where it stood. On the very first day National said we needed to have certainty and the foreshore and seabed should be vested with the Crown. Despite all the resources of all the Crown agencies—the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and all the other departments—9 months later this Government is still riddled with indecision. 
I simply say to the Prime Minister that if she does not have the capacity to govern she should do as she says—let us bring it on. Let us see the Prime Minister front up on the  
Holmes 
 programme to debate with Don Brash and answer this question: what is the Government’s policy on the foreshore and seabed?