Harawira Hone: Appropriation (2009/10 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Harawira Hone: Appropriation (2009/10 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:656;Page:5934] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Speaker. Kia ora tatou katoa e te Whare. The Appropriation (2009/10 Estimates) Bill includes within its schedules the commitment and departmental output expenses to implement the Government’s decisions on the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance. It is pretty straightforward one might think until one gets to the report of the Local Government and Environment Committee. Then it starts to come unstuck. Yes there were issues about cost. But the real issue for us as the Maori Party and for the whole nation was the arrogant dismissal of the issue of Maori representation. This House knows well of our commitment to strong Maori representation at every level of governance in this country because of the value we placed on the Treaty partnership and the honouring of that partnership by both Maori and the Crown. In fact our agreement with National includes a line that reads: “Both the National Party and the Maori Party will act in accordance with te Tiriti o Waitangi the Treaty of Waitangi.” We take that line seriously because the Treaty partnership is the basis of the Crown’s relationship with Maori. We expect the Government to do its best to uphold the Treaty. 
The issue of the Maori seats was just the vehicle for the Prime Minister to use to advance his philosophy about taking the country forward. He would have had the support. Heck even before he came along the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance travelled all over the region talked to hundreds of people received more than 3500 submissions and publicly recommended Maori seats. It made the point that Maori have simply not been represented in local governance at all. Eight Maori councillors in 150 years is an indictment on the current system not an endorsement of it. 
On election night 2008 the Prime Minister famously spoke of looking forward to a positive relationship with the Maori Party. The Maori seats in Parliament have been there for more than 100 years without there ever being a collapse of Government. With the emergence of the Maori Party there is finally a recognition that the Maori seats provide the opportunity for greater participation by Maori in the electoral process and more independent thinking from Maori MPs. The newly minted Minister of Local Government thought he could run a sly one past the Maori in Auckland by talking up the importance of the Auckland Governance Legislation Committee process probably expecting people to oppose the Maori seats there. But what do members know? The select committee also travelled all over the region talked to hundreds of people and received more than 2500 submissions. Guess what! More than 80 percent of non-Maori submissions also came out in support of the Maori seats. 
Hon Nanaia Mahuta 
: How many? 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: More than 80 percent. One hundred percent of the Maori submissions supported them but that is to be expected. Most of the councils in Auckland have come out in support of the Maori seats as have three of Auckland’s mayors. The Prime Minister himself thought the seats were a deal worth doing. The Leader of the Opposition supported them Russel Norman and Metiria Turei added their weight as leaders of the Greens and of course the Maori Party’s Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples were clearly in favour of the Maori seats as well. Thousands of Aucklanders marched in support of the Maori seats and for heaven’s sake even the good old conservative  
New Zealand Herald  
spoke out strongly in favour of those Maori seats. 
Yet what do we get from the Minister of Local Government? We get a threat to throw his toys out of the cot if he cannot get his way. We get a threat to resign if the Maori seats go in as part of his legislation. Well so much for democracy! In fact the Government caved in completely by announcing its rejection of the Maori seats before the select committee report was even in. Never mind the hundreds of thousands of dollars wasted on the exercise; never mind the will of the people; and never mind even thinking about the overwhelming support for the Maori seats from all over the place and from all kinds of people—black white and all shades in between. 
What a bloody joke the select committee turned out to be! I am glad that I did not bother hauling my little black ass around all the hearings because at the end of the day the word was sent down from on high: “We do not care what you National and ACT members of the select committee saw we do not care who you met and we certainly do not care what you heard. You will put together a mealy-mouthed report that uses petty little words like ‘substantial’ instead of ‘overwhelming’ and prattles on about different models as the reason for trying to deny what people were actually saying.” 
David Garrett 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I have listened very carefully to this speech and thus far I have not heard one reference at all to expenditure on anything. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Probably prior to the member coming into the Chamber an amendment was put in the name of Labour that talks about the Maori seats in Auckland. This member is speaking to the amendment in Labour’s name so he is in order. 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: Word was sent down from on high: “We do not care what you National and ACT members of the select committee saw we do not care who you met and we certainly do not care what you heard. You will put together a mealy-mouthed report”— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: The member cannot bring me into the debate. He has mentioned “you” many times. The member should concentrate please on the substantive nature of his speech without bringing the Speaker into it. 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: —“that uses petty little words like ‘substantial’ instead of ‘overwhelming’ and prattles on about different models as the reason for trying to deny what people were actually saying.” Eighty percent of those submissions can be summed up in five little words: “We support the Maori seats.” 
Ngati Whatua chairperson Naida Glavish described the Government’s unequivocal no to Maori representation as a slap in the face. She said that the future now looks bland and unrepresentative. Ngati Whatua o Orakei spokesman Ngarimu Blair described it as “one more chapter in our long struggle.”—a struggle to uphold the nation’s constitutional foundations; a struggle to live by the promise of the Treaty of Waitangi. Tainui chairman Tukoroirangi Morgan said that he was disappointed in Mr Key saying he had “caved in to Rodney and his 1 per cent party.” Mr Morgan went on to say that Mr Key said the relationship with Maori was a significant one. Mr Morgan said: “clearly that’s amounted to nothing.” He said further that Tainui would refuse to take part in any advisory board: “That’s not where the decisions are made. Giving Maori people the crumbs at the second level is a nonsense and we’ve made it quite clear we are not interested in being a tekoteko or tonotono—people who are subservient to the top table.” Mihi atu ki a ia. I wanted to present those views up front because this House needs to understand how seriously Maori view this breach of the relationship between Maori and the Crown. It is hugely and massively disappointing but surprisingly unsurprising. 
I put all this before the House today as we consider the appropriation bill because it also signals a substantial cost that this nation can ill afford. In the same way that this country agonised over MMP and finally accepted it as a model that would better enhance democratic representation in the Parliament of this nation so too should we be bold enough to consider other ways of enhancing representation at local body level. In the same way that Maori seats in Parliament are a means of enhancing democratic representation for a Treaty partner in a plural society so too are Maori seats on the proposed Auckland Council. The facts tell us that Maori representation does not happen as of right and that it will not happen unless there is the political will for the Treaty to matter. When the Government says that if the new Auckland Council wants Maori seats then it can choose to establish them it is consigning those Maori seats to the dustbin of history. If there are no Maori seats on the council to begin with who on earth will advocate for them to be established? 
The long history of Maori participation and representation in local government is all the evidence we need to support the view that this House has an obligation to provide for Maori representation in the governance structure of the proposed Auckland Council. Pita Sharples said that Maori will never go away and that Maori representation is inevitable. All that Rodney Hide’s political tactics are doing is putting off the inevitable putting this Government on the wrong side of history and bringing discord to the relationship between Maori and the Crown. The Maori Party will continue to work with mana whenua and with other Maori in Auckland to fight this attack on our rights as Treaty partners and to push for those Maori seats. 
I make one final statement about those seats. Getting Maori seats at local government is like using Pantene shampoo: it may not happen overnight but it will happen. The sadness is that when history looks back at this time it will not see a head of shining hair. All it will see is a balding scalp full of kutu because Rodney will not share his shampoo. Kia ora tatou.