Flavell Te Ururoa: Infrastructure Bill — First Reading 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Infrastructure Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:656;Page:5847] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Kia ora Mr Deputy Speaker. Kia ora tatou katoa i tenei po. The priority accorded arrangements to facilitate infrastructure development has been welcomed by iwi certainly from the feedback that the Maori Party has received. I would not go so far as to say that iwi would be flooding our offices with requests for changes to the umpteen range of Acts that are amended by the Infrastructure Bill. The bill amends the Telecommunications Act 2001 the Electricity Act 1992 the Gas Act 1992 the Government Roading Powers Act 1999 and so on. That detail is properly reserved for the members in the House who are fascinated by the fine print. The people out there are excited by the bricks and mortar of infrastructure development and the dollars and cents. 
Iwi are embracing the investment opportunity for ownership of infrastructure projects as part of public-private partnerships. At the start of this year a tribal assets workshop chaired by Ngati Tuwharetoa paramount chief Sir Tumu te Heuheu was a forum for iwi leaders from around the country the motu to discuss their enthusiasm for engaging in infrastructure projects. From Ngapuhi Erima Henare spoke passionately about the desire of Maori to have a viable partnership with the Crown and with private enterprise. In his words: “They don’t want to be bit players and bulldozer drivers.” Tainui chairman Tukoroirangi Morgan also spoke very positively of iwi being poised and ready to go just waiting for the opportunity to be opened up by the Crown. 
The last 24 hours have given us a very sobering context in which to consider both the capacity of iwi to take on the challenge of infrastructure development and the readiness of the Government to respond. As I indicated at question time today Tukoroirangi Morgan was not impressed after the shock announcement of the decisions made in advance of the select committee report into the governance arrangements for Auckland. Yesterday Mr Morgan said and I repeated his words at question time today: “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.” Perhaps the bill provides an opportunity for the Government to again reflect on its recent actions and consider whether it intends to restrict Maori to positions as bit players or bulldozer drivers—tekoteko or tonotono—or whether it can reconsider ways and means to honour the Treaty relationship with mana whenua. 
The bill will improve the arrangements for managing access by utility operators—gas power phone water electricity and the like—to transport corridors roads railways and motorways. The Maori Party stands today as it did yesterday and will do tomorrow to remind the Government that infrastructure development is as appropriate an avenue for iwi investment as any. If that was not obvious from the outrage that has been expressed across the land at yesterday’s announcement it should be obvious that iwi are as Tuku Morgan described so well the sleeping economic giant in this country. The Maori Party will encourage iwi to engage with the nation’s essential hardware just as we encourage iwi to engage in every sphere of activity across the Government sector. 
The co-leader of our party Dr Pita Sharples told the House this afternoon that Maori people will be here forever; they are not going to go away. The Maori Party will continue to advocate for Maori representation to be fully engaged in every aspect of a fair and meaningful democracy. Investment in infrastructure is a way of providing for employment enterprise and economic development. Iwi see participation in infrastructure development as a way of advancing economic interest beyond the more traditional tribal pathways of primary industry fishing forestry tourism and property. We support every opportunity that we can to enhance economic growth for iwi and in doing so to improve the nation’s productivity. 
The Maori Party seeks to bring other considerations to the debate. As a party we have placed great priority on any commitment to further invest in public transport by strategies such as developing Greater Wellington’s public transport network of buses and trains and network of walking and cycling tracks. We need services that are frequent reliable and inexpensive for users. We note a press release today by the Sustainable Energy Forum that calls for a rethink of the Government’s transport policy. It directly challenges the Government to take a precautionary approach to the construction of State highways in the context of the dual challenge of peak oil and climate change. The forum’s concern was generated by a report of the OECD’s International Energy Agency that oil production is declining at almost twice the rate that had previously been predicted. The other issue is around the capacity of the Government to meet the 2020 greenhouse gas reduction target—a challenge that will require significant cuts in transport greenhouse gas emissions. 
Those are the issues that we take very seriously as a party. There is an urgent need to prepare for ongoing oil price increases and a future downturn in availability by providing people with affordable alternatives. We will be looking to the select committee process to see exactly how the legislation will take into account the imperatives for sustainable development. We all appreciate that there is an urgent need to reduce dependency on oil by using strategies and to that end we will be interested to see a wider-ranging debate around the consequences of the bill for those wider energy and environmental issues. 
We reiterate the genuine readiness and enthusiasm of iwi and Maori to be actively involved in any future discussions surrounding the issue of infrastructure development. Just 1 month ago my colleague Dr Pita Sharples announced the signing of an agreement with InfraTrain the industry training organisation for the civil infrastructure industry. The Maori trade training initiative will allow an additional 1820 Maori to receive training in industries that have strong employment prospects. How can we not be enthusiastic about that sort of initiative? Maori make up more than one-third of the current civil infrastructure workforce in the North Island so there is plenty of interest. Maori are a strong and reliable component of the human resources that will be required to make this bill work. We are proud of the Minister’s initiative to provide 250 training places in the civil infrastructure industry—50 places in Waikato 100 in the Northland and Auckland area and another 100 in the East Coast and Hawke’s Bay area. Of course the great Waiariki region for which I am the MP will be first in line for the next stage of the development I hope such is the level of our people’s enthusiasm for industry training opportunities the prospect of job creation and a focus on high-level training. 
The Minister of Maori Affairs called for a Maori economic summit conference and that was held earlier this year. There was a focus on Maori party policy and the flourishing of economic enterprise and skills development. Members should make no mistake; that issue is very clearly on the agenda for iwi. 
We support the first reading of the bill and look forward to the doors being flung wide open to ensure Maori participation and representation in this process which hopefully will be encouraged. Kia ora tatou.