Sharples Pita: Urgent Debates — Toll Holdings—Rail and Ferry Purchase 
Sharples Pita: Urgent Debates — Toll Holdings—Rail and Ferry Purchase 
[Volume:647;Page:15860] 
Dr PITA SHARPLES (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 The Maori Party comes to this debate with a range of feelings about the Government’s snap announcement to buy Toll’s rail and ferry business for $665 million. The decision to claw back significant assets into the ownership of the Crown is a significant challenge to the context and the history of privatisation in Aotearoa. The major beneficiaries of privatisation—big business and transnational organisations—came into Aotearoa and bought up large on all our existing infrastructure. Too many New Zealanders have become casualties of that policy over the last decade or more. Maori have been hit particularly hard by much of this privatisation and sale of New Zealand assets through the sale of workplaces like forestry the railroad and Telecom which employed huge numbers of Maori and the break-up and sale of many of the country’s freezing works. The Government was also selling off resources subject to Treaty claims—resources that were hard enough to recover when held by the Crown but ones that would become nigh impossible to get back once ownership moved offshore. 
Because of the monetary policy decisions by successive Governments the Maori Party has been advocating for a greater emphasis on sustainable equitable and participatory solutions—solutions that put Aotearoa first. Establishing a properly integrated rail system is one such solution—the use of State-owned assets for the benefit of all who call Aotearoa home. We think back to some 21 years ago to 1987 when the Labour Government set about passing the State-Owned Enterprises Act and we recall the advice of the Waitangi Tribunal at that time on this matter. The tribunal drew the nation’s attention to the fact that the legislation took no account of the need to address Treaty of Waitangi concerns. On 29 June 1987 the full Court of Appeal unanimously declared that the proposed wholesale transfer of assets to State enterprises without establishing any system to consider whether the transfer of such assets would be inconsistent with the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi would be unlawful. As a result a clause was added stating that nothing in the Act would be inconsistent with the principles of the Treaty. This was a dark period in our history; a period that went against the interests of Treaty partners and that ruthlessly and recklessly failed to take fully into account the consequences of the assets passing from the Crown upon the honour of the Treaty. Justice David Baragwanath in referring to the historic  
New Zealand Maori Council v Attorney-General  
decision of 1987 demonstrated the glaring and profound damage that stripping the nation’s assets would do in terms of the Treaty relationships: “The Crown was about to deprive itself of the capacity to honour by return of disputed assets the manifold breaches of its Treaty obligations. They would pass into the hands of third parties and be irrecoverable.” So when Labour determined to invest in rail we thought of this past we thought of this history and we welcome the move as a positive move for our future. 
There are other reasons why we supported the Government’s decision to buy back the rail. We have an absolute commitment to working in ways to ensure energy efficiency and sustainable progress in terms of environmental management. In this context the electrification of rail and the possibility of having longer heavier and more efficient trains—which mean that more freight could be taken off the road and put on rail—are all positive steps along the way towards achieving cleaner emission control. The Maori Party is happy to support investment in the rail infrastructure to deliver a better service and thereby reduce the number of cars on the road. We note that the rolling stock was old. Reports about having to take stock out of museums to cope with the rail demand hardly engenders confidence in the industry. However there is a concern we share with other parties in the House about the prospect of taxpayers having to face an extra $200 million as part of the Government’s buy-back of the national rail service. We applaud what the Government did in having the courage to invest more than $1 billion in the country’s rail and Cook Strait ferry services including the planned upgrades. But a lack of transparency is always a worry we have with this Government. The $200 million debt should have been declared upfront. 
Ultimately we know that the decision to buy back the rail was always designed to engender votes in an election year and we are disturbed at the environment of secrecy that has surrounded some of the Government’s statements. But on balance we certainly support the decision in our belief in the value of keeping our assets here under New Zealand ownership and for the benefit of New Zealanders. Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker.