Robertson Grant: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Robertson Grant: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 19 July 2012. Volume:681;Page:3746. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
1. 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Deputy Leader—Labour) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Does he stand by all his statements regarding water ownership rights and interests? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Prime Minister) 
on behalf of the Prime Minister: Yes. 
Grant Robertson 
: Can he confirm the joint announcement he made last night with the Maori Party leadership that no matter what the outcome of the tribunal and subsequent court action he will not legislate even if that outcome was that Maori had a proprietary-type right over water? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The Prime Minister stands by the statements made in the statement that was released. 
Grant Robertson 
: Can he confirm that his agreement to not legislate against Maori rights and interests in water has in fact already been broken by the Mixed Ownership Model Bill which has passed through Parliament and allows for the partial sale of entities like Mighty River Power that have rights and interests in water that affect all New Zealanders including Maori? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: No the Mixed Ownership Model Bill does not do that. In fact it includes the preservation of section 9 of the State-Owned Enterprises Act and its references to the Treaty of Waitangi. What the Prime Minister is doing is quite different from what the previous Labour Government did and that is we are building confidence around discussion with Maori about their rights and interests rather than overreacting— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! That was beyond the question asked. 
Grant Robertson 
: Can he confirm that it is his Government’s intention that no matter what the outcome of the Waitangi Tribunal and subsequent court action—whatever rights it may decide Maori have in terms of water—his Government will not legislate in that regard? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The Prime Minister stands by the statement in the statement that was released last night. It is the Government’s expectation that—well put it this way: the member is probably not correctly connecting any outcome from the Waitangi Tribunal with any outcome from the court action because the court action is much more likely to be focused on preventing the sale of assets going ahead rather than any particular aspect of Maori rights and interests. 
Grant Robertson 
: Does he agree with Tariana Turia that it was a misconception that this claim is about the ownership of water; if so why did he continue to make statements about his opposition to the ownership of water if not to just raise tension around the issue? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The issue of ownership was actually raised by the claimants. In fact we have seen claimants I think discussing it publicly recently. The Prime Minister stands by his restatement of the longstanding view of New Zealand’s Governments and jurisprudence that no one owns the water. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: In light of the indemnity granted for Treaty matters to private shareholders of the to-be-privatised State-owned enterprises under the mixed ownership model legislation passed recently does that mean that all risk from court action now lies with the Crown; if so why did his Minister of Finance not record that unspecified fiscal risk as part of the Budget documentation currently being considered by the House? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: It has always been the case that the risks or costs associated with Treaty settlements are matters between the Crown and iwi. But again I think this member like the other is getting ahead of himself over whether or not the courts are likely to be settling the issue of Maori rights and interests. There is a prospect of court action. That court action is much more likely to be related to injuncting the sale process. It is unlikely that the courts themselves would set out to determine Maori rights and interests. If they did that could take quite a long time. 
Grant Robertson 
: Is it correct that the reasons he raised the spectre of ownership of water by Maori were to divert public attention from his hugely unpopular asset sales programme and to inflame divisions about Treaty issues and when will he apologise for this divisive behaviour? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: I think the member is overstating his case there. The fact is claimants have gone to the tribunal they have made a range of claims and some of them have expressed those claims as ownership of the water. The Prime Minister just clearly restated in the light of that action in the tribunal what the longstanding position of New Zealand Governments has been and it will remain so. Obviously there is pretty broad public interest in whether the Waitangi Tribunal is or is not going to be contesting the ownership of water.