Samuels Dover: Foreshore and Seabed Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Samuels Dover: Foreshore and Seabed Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:621;Page:16973] 
Hon DOVER SAMUELS (Minister of State) 
: 
 It has been very interesting listening to the claptrap coming from the other side of the Chamber. I would have thought that Opposition members would realise that this is an important issue and they would put a bit of intellectual horsepower into it but I guess when one’s leader is in the deep freeze it is very difficult to defrost him overnight and have him take part in the debate. We have heard all the korero from the members of the National Party who are members of the Fisheries and Other Sea-related Legislation Committee. We have heard them all blah-blahing about not receiving the Supplementary Order Paper at the appropriate time. I just want to say that they began playing games in terms of the process of reporting back to the House. They are the architects of their own destiny yet yesterday we heard enough whingeing and whining because they did not get the Supplementary Order Paper in time. I say to them: “You play your games and that is what you get.” It is called cause and effect. 
Hon Dr Nick Smith 
: Outrageous. 
Hon DOVER SAMUELS 
: I know that Nick Smith does not understand what cause and effect is all about. He may have to go to court to find out. But anyway I just want to say that I am interested in the comments about racism that are coming from Richard Prebble and the ACT party. They have been talking about how racist this legislation is. I am reminded of the debate we had here in this House relating to Maori reserve land. ACT members opposed the legislation because they thought it was racist because the rights of Maori in their view overrode the rights of their farmer mates so they organised a hikoi of tractors down to Parliament. They did not think about racism then. They did not call the legislation racist. In fact they actually promoted it. Is it not a bit—I will not say that word because I know it is unparliamentary. But is it not speaking with forked tongue to call this piece of legislation racist? All of a sudden they suffer from some sort of amnesia about their position in terms of their performance during the debate on Maori reserve lands.  
Let me say that I am very clear on the objects of this legislation. All Maori are clear on the objects of this legislation. I say again that in all my lifetime and the lifetime of my tipuna my kaumatua my grandparents my great grandparents we lived beside the sea. Their whole being their wairua was part and parcel of the takutai moana foreshore and seabed. There has never been any recognition in law at all over that period of time of the rights of my people. I want to reiterate that time and time again because somehow somewhere there is a blockage in some people’s thoughts and interpretation of this matter.  
For the first time in the history of this nation there will be some recognition in statute. It is not all that we wanted and not all we fought for but at least at this particular time in the history of this nation this Parliament this Government will recognise the tangata whenua Maori the indigenous people of this country. It is consistent with the world view. It is consistent with international covenants that in fact the customary activities of the indigenous people of this country are recognised.  
I do not know how much more clearly it can be spelt out in terms of the objectives. The objectives quite clearly reconfirm what has already in the last 150 years been the understanding of all New Zealanders including Maori. We never saw a hikoi 20 or 30 years ago in relation to some people’s warped understanding that Maori own all the foreshore and seabed out to Hawaiki nui Rapanui and out to the Cook Islands and everywhere. Those are some of the untruths that have been permeated throughout the Maori community. 
 I say to members that if the other party—the under-party the Green Party—can deliver the foreshore and seabed into the ownership of Maoridom then its members should put their signatures on the line. They know very well that they were not able to deliver. They know very well that they cannot deliver and they know very well that the only party in this Parliament that will deliver is the Labour Party with the assistance of New Zealand First.