Henare Tau: Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill — Third Reading 
Henare Tau: Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:671;Page:17641] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 Te mea tuatahi aku mihi ki a koutou e te papa Pita e te whaea Tari kei a koutou aku rangatira aku tuakana i roto i te Pati Maori; tenei te mihi tenei te aroha ki a koutou katoa. Nga rangatira o te motu nei anei te mihi ki a koutou e aku rangatira e aku tuakana i runga i taku komiti te komiti whiriwhiri take Maori o te Whare nei. 
[ 
The first thing is to thank you all—Pita the fatherly figure; Tariana the motherly figure; and my esteemed and elder colleagues in the Maori Party. I acknowledge and empathise with you all. To the leaders of this nation I salute you the esteemed and respected members on my committee the Maori Affairs Committee of this House 
.] 
First of all I congratulate the members of the Maori Party basically on being here and doing what they said they would do which was to repeal the Foreshore and Seabed Act 2004. So I give big ups to that party. Secondly it was not National members who stood in this House and accused Maoridom of being haters and wreckers and who accused people of all sorts of things. When the Prime Minister of this nation Helen Clark felt that it was a better look to visit a sheep named Shrek instead of going outside and greeting 50000 people I thanked God I was never a voter for that party. Then having come to this stage of my political career I hear— 
Kelvin Davis 
: Tell us about when you were a union rep. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: What about then? I will tell the House what I was doing then. I was talking about the right of people to go to court the right of people to seek justice in the courts. But within 2 hours of the Court of Appeal decision both Helen Clark the Prime Minister and Margaret Wilson had said that all bets were off. They said: “We’re not going to court and you Maoris are not going to court to find out whether you own something or don’t.” The Court of Appeal judges said that it would be very hard to prove a case but people could still come to court and find out whether they could. But that was all Maori asked for. Yes I know that some of my whanau up north were jumping up and down left and right saying that the beaches were ours and asking how the Government dared to confiscate the beaches. Well the Government did not do that but it did confiscate our human right our civil right to be able to go to court and seek justice. That is what it was all about. So when the question is asked of me about what was I doing then I tell the House that I was on the radio on Newstalk ZB talking about that stuff. I marched over the harbour bridge in support of the Maori Party in support of the repeal of the 2004 Act and in support of the right to seek justice. 
I will talk briefly about our Maori Affairs Committee. I congratulate every member on our committee especially the Maori members who have had to put up with some of the worst vitriol that I have ever heard inside or outside this place. I say to every party—Labour National and the Greens—who had a Maori on that committee that I commend the actions of their members on the committee. I enjoyed myself immensely; it is the committee that I have always wanted to chair and I finally got my wish. 
I turn now to John Boscawen the “prince of parliamentary procedure” the prince of—no not darkness but he may be one day. I note the sort of vitriol and the twisting and turning of the issues we had from our coalition partner. In my mind I suppose this is why Mr Key is the Prime Minister and I am not: if I was the Prime Minister there would be no warrant for that member who is sitting over there. There would be no warrant for that member sitting over there. I said last week that I accepted the apology—not on behalf of all Maori but on my own behalf—that the Hon Maryan Street made in this House. It is time for us to move on so that we can deal with the issues that Kelvin Davis raises. It is time for us to say that— 
Su’a William Sio 
: Pakeha and Maori are now at each other over this bill. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: That is the acolyte from Labour sitting in the cheap seats. Look it is time for us to move to a better place—a better place where we can actually have our barbecues and do whatever we want on our beaches. But regardless of any law whether it be the 2004 Act or the 2011 Act there will always be somebody who jumps up and says: “Get off my beach! This is not your beach; it is mine.” No law in the land will stop that so people should not go around using that as an excuse to vote against legislation that I consider to be a wee bit better than the 2004 Act. Will we ever get legislation any better than this? I doubt it—I doubt it. Do members know why? It is because the Greens will never be in Government. They can say what they say because they will never be in Government and because they will never have to front up to the whole of New Zealand and say: “This is what we have to deliver.” They have to front up to only 5 percent of the nation and they can say what they want on whatever planet they are on. But they will say it just for that little 5 percent—or these days even 6 or 7 percent. Oh it is 7 percent. But they do not have to say it to the majority of this country. The majority of this country wants just to get on. They just want to be able to put a roof over their heads they just want to be able to go to the beach and pick a few kai moana for themselves so that they can put it on the table. That is all they want. 
Hon John Carter 
: Or having a rest even. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: As John Carter says even just for a rest. It has nothing to do with anything else and if people think there is some sort of subliminal takeover of this country by some radical Maoris my goodness I would like to see it. I would like to see it because some of my whanau up north have been waiting for a hell of a long time. 
To talk about colonialism and imperialism as a sister did over there is all well and good for 1880-1890. But this is 2011 and it is time to move on. It is time to pick up our tools pick up our toys play together in that big sandpit and not be divided. If we cannot do that then we are seriously seriously in trouble. 
I want to turn briefly to my whanaunga Hone Harawira. I believe that a democracy works because we have dissent. It does not work when we do not have dissent. So to all the whanau who turned up the other day—and there were only 200 or 300— 
Paul Quinn 
: Mostly your relations. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Yes they were mostly my relations and I am from the cradle of colonisation so at least I know what I am talking about. I congratulate them on the manner and the way they came to Parliament and the way they brought their message. I congratulate them. I cannot congratulate these three groups: the Coastal Coalition the One New Zealand Foundation and that party over there. That party has done nothing but cause trouble on racial grounds. 
Hon David Parker 
: You said “that party”. You meant ACT. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: That ACT Party—I am sorry it is the ACT Party. I thought Winston was good at it but boy he has got nothing on these fellas. I commend the bill to the House and I thank every member of the Maori Affairs Committee who had to go through what they went through—not a lot of committee members have to go through that abuse and vitriol. Congratulations to the Maori Party and congratulations to National. This is about moving on. This is about the first step of our playing in the big sandpit together.