Flavell Te Ururoa: Eden Park Trust Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Eden Park Trust Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:654;Page:2971] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker Roy kia ora tatou katoa i tenei po. Me tuku au i tetahi paku poroporoaki ki te tangata nei ki a Marunui Murphy i hinga i na tata nei. Ko ia te mea Maori tuatahi nei o te motu no reira me mihi ki a ia me tuku nga poroporoaki ki a ia kua ngaro nei i te tirohanga kanohi. 
[Greetings to you Mr Assistant Speaker Roy and to all of us this evening. I make a brief reference to this person Marunui Murphy the first Maori mayor of the country who passed away recently. And so I acknowledge and farewell him lost from view.] 
Some unusual things have been apparently happening at Eden Park without a rugby ball in sight. Last July I am told the Ngati Whatua o Orakei chairman Grant Hawke and trustee Cyril Talbot launched the $240 million Eden Park redevelopment project with mihi karakia and a himene. Last month international singer Hinewehi Mohi sang the song “Beneath the Maori Moon” to a recording of her great uncle George Nepia. A book was launched at Mount Eden bringing together a first XV of Maori greats to launch a history of Maori rugby since the 1860s. My relation—a short stocky fulla with short hair but still very good looking—by the name of Hika Reid from my home town was one of them. 
What has all that got to do with the Eden Park Trust Amendment Bill? I suppose it is about knowing about all these histories which are quite important. It is about knowing about the peoples and the stories. As other speakers before me have said the bill simply amends the Eden Park Trust Act 1955 to establish new governance arrangements for Eden Park. As Mr Nathan Guy said these amendments have all been made in preparation for the Rugby World Cup in 2011. The new governance arrangements were agreed to by the Government the Eden Park Trust Board and the Eden Park Board of Control. 
The trust board is being set up “To promote operate and develop Eden Park as a high quality multi-purpose stadium” for sports and “recreational musical and cultural events for the benefit of the public of the Region;”. That all sounds pretty good. The goal of the trust is “To administer Eden Park and the Trust Assets on a prudent commercial basis so that Eden Park is a successful financially autonomous community asset.” This is where the challenge comes. We in the Maori Party say that when the trust receives public money it should be accountable to the public as well. With public money involved there should be greater opportunities for the public to be involved. 
Despite the policy uncertainties around Auckland governance arrangements Maori—the Treaty partner—are actually a significant part of the public. I think we can all learn from Tukoroirangi Morgan’s reaction to the Government’s decision to reject the proposal to formalise Maori representation in Auckland. Only a brave person could rationalise how no seats for Maori can be better than three. Tukoroirangi’s analysis was that the decision to marginalise Maori to the sidelines showed that the National-ACT partnership was not prepared to enable a Maori voice as a legitimate voice amongst other power brokers and decision makers. That is how he saw it. Those are challenging words of course which should be considered carefully in other settings such as in relation to this bill. The iwi of Tamaki-makau-rau will thus be watching this bill with a bitter sense of disillusionment that the Auckland decision has been left hanging. 
I will put certain things in context. The area we are talking about is what we call wahi whakahirahira. The Ngati Whatua people whakapapa to the site as an old wetlands where they used to harvest kai. There are other sites of significance around Tamaki-makau-rau for the people of Tamaki. The Eden Park area has close associations with the volcano Maungawhau. One of the springs that provided fresh water for those living on Maungawhau is named Te Ipo Pakore. It has a particular history link to the Waikato warrior Kawharu during the Ngati Whatua taua of retribution in the late 1700s. The point I make is that these particular areas of Tamaki-makau-rau are important and cannot be treated simply as towns suburbs or boundaries. They have deep significance to the people of Ngati Whatua. 
I will make one particular point as I close this discussion. The development of Eden Park is not just about respecting and protecting the significance of the land to mana whenua; it also cuts right to the heart of issues around Maori representation. I would like to make one key point on the back of this bill from the Maori Party point of view. The reconciliation between kawanatanga in the hands of the Crown as provided by article 1 and article 2 of the Treaty of Waitangi—the guarantee of tino rangatiratanga over taonga tuku iho of the Maori people—is one of the most urgent challenges facing this nation. Of course tension is inevitable when both parties of the Treaty want to occupy the same space. The key issue here is how we address this tension and we can learn from the Auckland City proposal to know how not to get it wrong. Kia ora tatou.