Flavell Te Ururoa: Mount Maunganui Borough Reclamation and Empowering Act Repeal Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Mount Maunganui Borough Reclamation and Empowering Act Repeal Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 13 June 2012. Volume:680;Page:2951. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Speaker. Kia ora tatau e te Whare. I move  
That the Mount Maunganui Borough Reclamation and Empowering Act Repeal Bill be now read a first time. 
 I intend to move at the appropriate time that the bill be considered by the Local Government and Environment Committee. 
I hiahia ko te iwi ra ki runga o Kopukairoa papa te whatitiri ki runga o Maunga Mana papaki tu ana nga tai ki Karikari te tere o te Waitao whakapapa pounamu te tahuna o Rangataua. I whakanukuhia i whakanekehia ki tai wiwi ki tai wawa ki te tai papaki onepu ki te whai ao ki te ao marama ti-he mauri ora.  
[ 
In accordance with the wishes of that tribe upon Kopukairoa the thunder claps over Mount Mana the tides crash against Karikari the current of the Waitao River and the calming beach of Rangataua. It then disperses here there and upon the repelling beach to the world of light and of understanding behold the breath of life. 
] 
Can I start by saying that I am honoured to sponsor this very important bill into this House. What is really pleasing to me is how the council and mana whenua have come together to bring about a positive outcome. I want to say congratulations to the Tauranga City Council and Nga Potiki on showing the way. The purpose of this bill is to repeal the Mount Maunganui Borough Reclamation and Empowering Act 1975. This bill for members in the House takes us back to another time some 40 years ago in 1972 when the Mount Maunganui Borough Council proposed a sewage disposal scheme—[ 
Interruption 
]  
I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I appreciate there is allowed to be some banter here but actually it would be good if the banter was about the bill as opposed to something else. Could I ask that I be given a little bit of leeway in being able to present this korero as there are a lot of people listening back in Tauranga Moana who think it is quite important. I would like to think that the House thinks so as well. 
Hon John Banks 
: Some of us are sick and tired of the inane interjections and we ask you to give this learned member an opportunity. I am sitting beside him and I am interested in what he has got to say. Give him a fair go. If they want to go away and do something else in their spare time they should. But this is Parliament; it is not a kindergarten. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Order! The House has been in reasonably light-hearted mode this evening. There have been interjections and at times they have been over the top. I would just ask members to show some courtesy. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I would just like you to affirm your ruling in respect of conduct in this House. When that member was on the telephone we thought he had fallen asleep or fallen off his perch but he was on the telephone— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Order! The member was not creating any disturbance whatsoever. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I have already ruled on it. Please sit down. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: A separate point of order? 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Yes Mr Speaker. With respect you have had points of order from Mr Flavell and Mr Banks on conduct. I have raised a legitimate point which is a rule and I invite you to rule on it. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I have ruled on it. I will just say this. When members raise points of order they are not opportunities to attack other members of the House and in that regard one of the people speaking to the points of order did use that as an opportunity to degrade other members of the House and that is not appropriate. 
TE URUROA FLAVELL 
: Can I just start again. This bill takes us back to another time some 40 years ago to 1972 when the Mount Maunganui Borough Council proposed a sewage disposal scheme that required substantial reclamation within the Rangataua Estuary in Tauranga. That council is now defunct but the legacy of its actions remains. The legislation we are repealing today established the construction of oxidation ponds from which effluent would temporarily be discharged into Te Tahuna o Rangataua or what other people refer to as Rangataua Estuary.  
I want to just acknowledge the work done to ensure that Te Tahuna o Rangataua as of 10 May 2012 is now the official geographic name of this area characterised by the tidal mudflats and sandy area of the inner south-east reaches of the Tauranga Harbour. The Nga Potiki hapu of Tamapahore Marae submitted the proposal to alter the name Rangataua Bay to Te Tahuna o Rangataua. Rangataua Bay was gazetted in 1974 as an area of Tauranga Harbour. It makes for great timeliness that at the same time we are adopting the new official name we are also repealing the legislation of this time.  
Going back a little bit the 1972 proposal I referred to earlier would have eventually been supported by the construction of an ocean outfall at Papamoa. For Nga Potiki and indeed Tauranga Maori the discharge of human waste into the pristine Te Tahuna o Rangataua which had served as a pataka kai for centuries was and remains an issue that has caused deep resentment. The proposal was particularly abhorrent for Nga Potiki as the area designated for reclamation was part of the ancestral landscape.  
For the purposes of the record let me just go back a little bit to the history of this land. It traces its history back to the award of the Papamoa Block to Nga Potiki by Crown commissioners in the 1880s. Nga Potiki and its close relation to Te Tahuna o Rangataua is celebrated through its rich oral traditions including pepeha whakatauki and waiata and is demonstrated by the location of marae in close proximity to the shoreline.  
The deep relationship where the health of one is believed to be linked with the health of the other and vice versa was referred to in many briefs of evidence submitted by Nga Potiki kaumatua to the Waitangi Tribunal held at Maungatawa Marae in 2000. Throughout the early 1970s the late Paraone Reweti MP for Eastern Maori and Wiremu Ohia chairman of the Tauranga Moana Maori Executive on behalf of tangata whenua were particularly vocal in their opposition to the Mount Maunganui Borough Council’s proposal. Even the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Ministry of Transport also opposed the proposal to reclaim foreshore and seabed. All recognised the importance of protecting an asset of significant environmental and cultural value and maintaining water quality.  
An environmental impact report entitled  
Crown Acquisition and Desecration of Nga Potiki Land 1999 
 commissioned by the Waitangi Tribunal acknowledged that “a flourishing ecosystem on the tidal flats would be lost” through the reclamation but claimed that the effects of the oxidation ponds would be minor. This is a really damning statement which adds to the history of this bill and I would have to say that as the local member for Waiariki I am pleased that we are at long last making efforts to rectify this to make right something that was wrong. The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment in a report around this same time concluded that the reclamation could not be justified because of the impact on the area and the possibility of other sites being used. In or about 1977 the Mount Maunganui Borough Council completed the construction of the easement to enable the discharge of effluent into the ocean.  
But it gets worse. This easement was constructed through an ancient Nga Potiki urupa or cemetery located in the sand dunes at Papamoa. Nga Potiki again opposed this work on the grounds that human waste in close proximity to a wahi tapu was grossly disrespectful and abhorrent. That effluent was to be discharged into the pristine ocean environment at Te Akau ki Papamoa or Papamoa Coast which has for centuries served as a pataka kai and was equally offensive. In 1989 the Mount Maunganui Borough Council and the Tauranga District Council were amalgamated and their sewerage systems became jointly managed. Some 10 years later the Tauranga City Council embarked on a consultation process with Nga Potiki that eventually led to the establishment of extensive wetlands in addition to other filters aimed at removing solids from waste water prior to discharge into the ocean.  
However the concerns on the part of Nga Potiki around the discharge of effluent through its urupa have not been completely allayed even four decades later. For Nga Potiki the reclamation of the foreshore and seabed the construction and continued presence of oxidation ponds and the discharge of effluent represents a failure by the Crown to protect Nga Potiki and their ancestral landscape as provided in the Treaty of Waitangi. These issues form part of the settlement currently being negotiated with the Crown as well as an application before the High Court seeking a customary rights order under the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Act 2011.  
Although the repeal of the Mount Maunganui Borough Reclamation and Empowering Act 1975 brings a certain amount of closure it also represents a vindication of the many many Nga Potiki kaumatua in the 1970s and 1980s who as a group protested against what they viewed as an invasion of their ancestral landscape and cultural values. In spite of their advocacy and widespread community opposition legislation was enacted anyway.  
In the year 2000 the Tauranga City Council established the Tangata Whenua Tauranga City Council Standing Committee to facilitate improved engagement between Maori and the council. In 2004 the Tauranga City Council established the Tauranga Moana Tangata Whenua Committee to encourage numerous hapu of Tauranga Moana to engage with the council. In 2006 Tauranga City Council established the Wastewater Management Review Committee comprising elected councillors and appointed tangata whenua representatives. Te Runanga o Ngai Te Rangi Iwi Trust and Ngati Ranginui are each represented by one person and Nga Potiki represented by two people reflecting the significance of issues relating to the area.  
Nga Potiki say they enjoy a good relationship with Tauranga City Council based on mutual respect and underpinned by their relationship as Treaty partners. The joint approach by Nga Potiki and the Tauranga City Council to Parliament represents the latest initiative reflecting the commitment on the part of both parties to work together collaboratively and constructively. It will have the effect of helping to heal the past and strengthen an already positive relationship. It is therefore most appropriate that Nga Potiki and the Tauranga City Council jointly sponsor the application to Parliament to repeal the legislation. The Maori Party is delighted to stand alongside them and to commend this bill to the House.