Tamihere John: Building Bill — In Committee Procedure 
Tamihere John: Building Bill — In Committee Procedure 
[Volume:619;Page:14839] 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE (Associate Minister of Commerce) 
: 
 I would like to make a number of reflections on a number of the challenges made to the Minister as follows. As the member for Taranaki-King Country rightly opined Norm Kirk—great man that he was—did build his own house in the Christchurch area. He did so at a time when men were made of steel and wood with chips. Things have changed. After 10 years of Tory rule in the implementation and application of the 1991 Building Act a large number of matters have fallen into disrepair whether in terms of the capacity and capability of apprenticeships or of standard certification processes and the like. I do not want to rearticulate those. Mr Ardern was on the Government Administration Committee and is aware of the manifest and multifaceted problems that needed to be reviewed and fixed. This bill goes a long way towards doing that. 
I want to also acknowledge one of our great Prime Ministers and in doing so say that the only difficulty we have with his great prime ministership is that he was a member of the National Party. But what he did say which I thought was marvellous in terms of the principles that the great National Party used to stand for was: “Never forget that we are a property-owning democracy.” The nub of this bill goes to protecting the Kiwi battlers out there who are making one of the most significant investment decisions in their lives. They need to be protected from the rorts that were occurring and that will continue to occur with regard to the building industry. 
A number of other matters were raised by members about the powers of the chief executive officer and the like. Somebody will have to conduct the bringing together—and have the discretion with regard to a number of the authorities and powers—of four or five agencies to form a new department of building and construction. I commend those authorities and delegations that have been provided to the chief executive officer. 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: What about the tikanga Maori issue? 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: I want to conclude—as challenged by Dr Wayne Mapp—on the issue of tikanga Maori. There are 66 million square acres of land in this country—I will use acres because those are the land measurements I think in—and over 3 million square acres is Maori Land Court title. It is different title—absolutely—to the general title system. In the MacIntyre amendment of 1967-74 Maori-owned land owned by four or fewer owners was transferred arbitrarily mandatorily and without notice into general land holdings. So there are also tens of thousands of acres of general land held by Maori under Maori Land Court jurisdiction. The application of this law must apply to that land block as well. So in the first instance I say to members opposite that instead of turning this into a race issue they should acknowledge that this Parliament legislated different laws. At one time all land was Maori land save for the land that was confiscated and we are having a debate about that. The issue therefore is not about whether there are separate rights available in this country; it is about Parliament having decreed that different rights are applicable to different levels of land tenure. That is the first point I wanted to make. 
I want to conclude on the tikanga Maori issue by stating quite carefully and clearly that it is as in the United States: where there are sacrosanct pieces of land where tens of thousands of US citizens lost their lives in the Civil War Americans uphold that land and protect it. It is iconic heritage land. It is great history nation-building land and it is right that in the Maori world view of tikanga certain things are supported. So I indicate quite carefully and clearly that different rights have been applied by this Parliament with regard to Maori land tenure. It is large it is there we cannot deny it and we must make laws that acknowledge it. It is about time that people started to move on. I commend the bill accordingly.