Turei Metiria: Te Arawa Lakes Settlement Bill — First Reading 
Turei Metiria: Te Arawa Lakes Settlement Bill — First Reading 
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METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
: 
 Te manuhiri tuarangi nga kaumatua nga rangatira o Te Arawa kua tae tautoko mai i tenei ahiahi nau mai haere mai whakatau mai. 
[An interpretation in English was given to the House.] 
[ 
To the visitors from afar to the elders and chiefs of Te Arawa who have come in support this afternoon welcome welcome alight here. 
] 
The return of the Te Arawa lakes to their rightful owners has been a very long time in coming and the Greens are pleased to see this bill finally before the House. We warmly welcome Te Arawa and their bill to Parliament. We want first to recognise the incredibly hard work by the iwi and the negotiators on their behalf who have been working through the Government’s negotiation process. It is an extremely difficult and a very costly time-consuming and often truly heart-rending process. 
It will come as no surprise to this House and probably to pretty much anyone else that the Greens have a continued and sustained objection to the Government’s Treaty claims settlement process because we believe it is fundamentally unfair to the claimants. The redress generally offered by the Government pales in comparison with other redress for other issues—let us take the West Coast forests and the Titford settlement for example. The conditions that iwi must agree to in order to gain redress for the wrongs committed in the name of this Parliament are in our opinion unconscionable. It still remains a serious problem that this Government refuses to properly inform and educate the community about the settlements as they arise thereby leaving those communities vulnerable to the Maori bashing rhetoric and antics of irresponsible political parties. I will touch on that briefly a bit later on. I just want to make clear that our criticism of settlement bills has been and will continue to be squarely directed at the Government’s framework. 
We were very impressed with the nature of the redress in this bill and we fully support the return of the ownership of the lake beds to Te Arawa. We also fully support Te Arawa having a strong regulatory role over the lakes. I know it is not as strong as perhaps some people would have preferred. The fact is that there remain in our law opportunities for councils to delegate regulatory functions to iwi and hapu organisations but not once I understand have those provisions ever been used to enable hapu and iwi to exercise those functions at a local level. I refer to things like being able to approve or not approve resource consents. It is the failure to use those mechanisms that causes major problems where hapu and iwi have responsibilities as mana whenua in the area and could well take on those obligations but councils refuse to allow that. We are very pleased to see in this bill at least some attempt to allow that. 
For example consents will be required from Te Arawa for the construction of new structures on the seabed. They can charge for the occupation of that space and also regulate and manage new types of commercial activities on the lake beds. We think that those are very good provisions and at least are a small start. 
This bill demonstrates that the rights of other users can be catered for where title and ownership are shifted back to the rightful owners. In this case public access to the lakes is guaranteed. Recreational activities like swimming and picnics remain open to all members of the public. 
We were horrified that just a few years ago particularly around 2004 the settlement of the claim regarding these lakes was used as a political football by the National Party to drum up opposition to Maori. That followed on from Don Brash’s racist speech and occurred on the back of the foreshore and seabed issue. We considered that attack on Te Arawa showed just how deeply frightened Don Brash and the National Party were that Maori would have any kind of decision making over anything including their own property—like the lakes. In one interview when referring to the possibility that people may have to get permission from Te Arawa to put up a jetty in the lakes Don Brash said: “It seems to me that that opens the way to all kinds of blackmail and extortion.” The Greens consider that comment to be absolutely disgusting. It shows just how much contempt Don Brash holds for Maori in this country. 
But let us not forget given the provisions of this bill that the recognition of title and the capacity for management over these kinds of areas does not interfere with public rights as described by the Government. Surely the Government can only reflect on its own shameful and what I consider abusive behaviour in promoting and passing the foreshore and seabed legislation. 
We fully support the return of the lakes to Te Arawa and we expect that these old new rightful owners will be able to provide the necessary will that should see the eventual cleaning up and restoration of the lakes. Those lakes are incredibly precious and beautiful and of extraordinary ecological and spiritual importance to everybody. But they are dying and they are dying as a result of the pollution caused by human activity over the last 80 years when the lakes have been out of the hands of their hapu. Leakage from septic tanks is a classic example. It has caused enormous problems. The deforestation of the surrounding areas which are pumice soils has caused continuing problems and there remains the very serious issue of pollution from farm runoff which is causing nutrient loading in the lakes. Much of the soil water contributes to nutrient loading and it can take up to 30 years for the nutrients on the land to make their way down into the water itself. That means that the damage from 30 years ago will take many more years before it comes to fruition. It also means that there is an absolutely desperate need for urgent action now. 
The hapu and iwi—Te Arawa—are committed to taking that action. When I met with Te Arawa about the bill I was really pleased to hear about the plans to restore the wetlands around the lakes. That is just one example of action. The wetlands are incredible ecosystems and many have been lost in New Zealand because they were drained for farmland which then caused the nutrient problems. Wetlands are highly sensitive. They are key indicators of the health of an area as well as key indicators of climate change and they operate as a critical protection mechanism for lakes and other waterways. So hearing that from Te Arawa reminds us that hapu and iwi have a huge capacity to manage areas of ecological importance outside and separate from the Government structures that are in place but have failed to do that so far. We have incredible faith and belief that hapu and iwi structures are capable of doing that work and are committed to doing it long term. 
During the select committee process we will hear from other mana whenua and hapu from around the area who are unhappy about the settlement. We welcome those views and submissions because it is only by hearing about those stories those concerns and the failures of the process that we can really establish systems to address them. I know it can be very difficult for the claimant groups to hear the issues being relitigated but it is still important to have all of those issues heard. I certainly look forward to hearing both from Te Arawa and from those hapu at the select committee. The Greens thank and welcome Te Arawa for all the work they have done so far. Kia ora.