Turei Metiria: Waka Umanga (Maori Corporations) Bill — First Reading 
Turei Metiria: Waka Umanga (Maori Corporations) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:644;Page:13869] 
METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
: 
 I will take a very short call on this Waka Umanga (Maori Corporations) Bill after having heard significant and mostly useful arguments about it. The Greens will support having the bill go to a select committee. We think it is worthwhile— 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Oh yeah that’s right. That’s great. Here we go! 
METIRIA TUREI 
: If Mr Henare has finished I say that we think it is worthwhile having this bill proceed so that we can see whether it really will meet the needs of Maori or whether it is too structurally focused on providing for the needs of the Crown and particularly the Office of Treaty Settlements. But it is certainly true that the nature and structure of governance entities has been a serious problem in the Treaty settlement process. Arguments about governance entities have held up some settlements for 5 years or more and the blame for that lies squarely at the feet of the Government and of the Office of Treaty Settlements because they have argued for their criteria for a governance entity. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: This won’t fix it. 
METIRIA TUREI 
: Mr Brownlee can shout and slap his hands on his desk but that is not a particularly useful way of dealing with the arguments about the merits or non-merits of the legislation which I am trying to elucidate to some extent. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: Please the interjecting is just too much. We need to hear the speaker and we just cannot over the member’s interjecting. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Well ask her to stay relevant. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: Mr Brownlee I am ruling on this point of order. I am asking you and Mr Henare to just give the speaker a fair go please. Thank you. 
METIRIA TUREI 
: Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted by the National members the Office of Treaty Settlements is largely to blame—in fact I think it is solely to blame—for the delays that have been experienced by iwi Maori who are trying to get their settlements through. 
The Greens have never been strong advocates of the settlement process and we have criticised every settlement. We do not believe the settlement process is fair and until it has been completely revised in accordance with the needs of Maori as opposed to the needs of the Crown it will always be a fundamentally—[ 
Interruption 
] 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: Mr Henare I will now ask you to desist. The member has really gone over the top in interjecting. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: In what way? 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: Mr Henare I am on my feet. I will give you a warning. I am asking you now to desist. I think you have interrupted every speaker in this debate tonight quite extensively and I am just warning you that it is going over the top. I have ruled— 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: Please be seated. I have ruled on that simple point of order and I have ruled that the member’s interjections are too disruptive for the order of the House. I am not taking any argument on it. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. Can you point out to me in the Standing Orders where it allows you to shut down one person in the debating chamber? The Standing Orders state that I have a right to interject in a “rare and reasonable” way. You might not think the interjections are reasonable and you may not even think they are rare but I do have that opportunity to interject on any speaker in the House. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: Please be seated. I have been very tolerant towards you Mr Henare. It is my decision and my decision is from Speakers’ rulings and the Standing Orders. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: Please be seated. If the member is going to argue with me the member will leave the Chamber now. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I seek a point of clarification. Are you saying that I am not allowed to interject in the next 35 minutes? 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: The member is trifling with the Chair. He is questioning my ruling. The member will leave the Chamber now. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: Please be seated. The member will leave the Chamber now. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I am calling for a point of order— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: Please be seated Mr Brownlee. I am dealing with one matter and the matter is that Mr Henare is leaving the Chamber. 
Hon Tau Henare withdrew from the Chamber. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. That was an extremely unfair act in our opinion. Mr Henare has every right to interject on a speaker as has any member in this House. I have to say that in my time in this House I have heard far worse interjections on speakers than that offered by Mr Henare tonight. The appropriate course of action would have been for you to suggest that in order for the speaker to be heard her speech should be heard in silence a position from which there is absolutely no recourse for any member of the House. But to simply single out a member and ask him to leave the Chamber is to be completely unfair and I think it contributes to disorder. 
Hon Brian Donnelly 
: I want to just say that during my speech of 10 minutes Mr Henare continued to interject for the whole 10 minutes. There was not 5 seconds when he was not making an interjection in that speech. In my particular case I chose to ignore him but he continued to do that afterwards and having been given a warning by you he continued to ignore that warning. I have to say that I believe the action you have taken could very well have been made long before it was. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: I would say to Mr Brownlee that Mr Donnelly is perfectly right. I think I have been overly tolerant of Mr Henare. However I will not debate it with the member. The point is that I have made my ruling and the member was certainly guilty of misconduct. 
METIRIA TUREI 
: We hold the Office of Treaty Settlements fully to account for its delays and its behaviour in creating the delays for settlements particularly around governance entities. As I was saying before we do not support the Treaty settlement process; we consider it to be inherently flawed. But at the same time our people are engaged in that process and are trying to do the best that they can for their people so in the meantime we have to find mechanisms to make it easier for them to get proper justice. 
To that extent we are prepared to consider the bill— 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Stand up when you’re speaking. Stop slouching. 
METIRIA TUREI 
: —I say to Mr Brownlee—and have it go to a select committee. Then we will be able to get people to come in and we can hear their submissions—[ 
Interruption 
] Mr Heatley is making really helpful comments about personal etiquette which was nicely done. 
I know that there was a consultation process and my colleague from the Maori Party has outlined a lot of the serious concerns that were raised during that time. We are always reluctant to force Maori to have this continual round of consultation where they are perpetually ignored. They are always asked for their opinion which is then largely dismissed. 
Dr Wayne Mapp 
: So you’re going to pass more legislation to make them do it all over again. How stupid is that? 
METIRIA TUREI 
: It is a risk. I agree with Dr Mapp who so rudely commented on Annette Sykes earlier even though her view is the same as his. Even though she agreed with him on the point that the bill was not a very good idea he was still very rude about her. The point is we have to be very careful about that process. 
But in the meantime this bill is before the House. Let us see whether it is possible to remedy the problems with it and see what other options come out of it. As we know the purpose of the select committee process is to look at what can be done to fix legislation and we are prepared to be constructively engaged. If in the end it turns out that there is just not the support for it that it is not able to remedy the issues it is designed to remedy and that it will cause more problems or will be used as a tool by the Government and the Office of Treaty Settlements to force Maori into a specific kind of governance structure and will not enable them to have the more creative solutions they are putting forward then we will not be supporting it any further than that. But it is worthwhile having that exploration. 
The Greens take a constructive approach to legislation. We would like to see a real discussion had about this matter by the House and by Parliament as a whole. Thank you.