te Heuheu Georgina: Supreme Court Bill — Third Reading 
te Heuheu Georgina: Supreme Court Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:612;Page:9115] 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (National) 
: 
 The Supreme Court Bill which abolishes New Zealanders’ right of access to the Privy Council represents a constitutional change that does not have the backing of the New Zealand public and National does not support it. Helen Clark herself in 2000 acknowledged the constitutional nature of this change because of its relationship to the treaty and the link to the British monarch yet in the face of opposition from Maori she pushes it anyway. This is the height of arrogance from a Prime Minister who is happy to fraternise with Maori at their hui on their marae when it suits but on an issue that they feel strongly about she has closed her ears. Tinkering with the purpose clause has not answered Maori objections one bit. 
As for the Government Maori MPs they will rue the day they allowed our right of access to the Privy Council to pass into history. This they do in the face of overwhelming opposition from their own constituents. But then as the Rt Hon Winston Peters says: “Lions on the marae lambs in caucus—not a bleat!” What a disgrace! It demonstrates how well and truly under the proverbial petticoats of Helen Clark and Margaret Wilson those Maori MPs are and demonstrates exactly why under their stewardship the existence of the Maori seats has proved to be of no value whatsoever. 
Those Maori MPs also show their complete lack of understanding of the Maori position. Parekura Horomia’s belated statement today demonstrates this. He said that the Privy Council had not been good for Maori. Others of his colleagues say much the same thing when they review the matter in terms of cases won and lost. I say to them sometimes one should pursue important matters because there are matters of principle involved. But then the Maori MPs on the other side of the House would not know a principle if they fell over one. 
Maori value deeply the symbolic link to the monarch with whom their forebears signed the Treaty of Waitangi. There is no protection in this bill for the status of the treaty and those Maori MPs on the other side of the House have done nothing to alleviate Maori concerns about that matter. But I say again that sometimes there are issues that Maori regard as so significant that the possible outcome of a case is not as important as the principle and the right of access to the counsellors who are privy to the monarch is thought important for principles. The te Heuheu case was one such example and more recently the Maori Option was another. Those cases show that even when the odds were stacked against Maori they took the case anyway because they considered that there were matters of principle involved that mattered more to them and to their position as New Zealanders in this country. But then why would I think that the Maori MPs on the other side of the House might understand that? [ 
Interruption 
] I say to the Labour member who has just commented that her husband knows very well what I am talking about. There is no doubt whatsoever that the independence of the Privy Council and the exposure of the Privy Counsellors to a greater breadth and depth of humanity can never be replicated in New Zealand. 
However there is an even more worrying outcome from what has happened here today because of those Maori members’ lack of will to do the right thing by their people—that is by their inaction they confirm in the mind of the Prime Minister although she probably did not need confirmation that their support can be counted on in relation to the Government’s unprincipled proposal to deal with the foreshore and seabed issue. On that issue the Maori MPs will get done like a dog’s dinner. By their inaction today they have guaranteed that. They will lie down like lambs as they are doing today and allow Helen Clark and Margaret Wilson to ride roughshod over the rights of the people who voted them into this Parliament. 
John Tamihere talks of breaking free of our colonial vestiges but my gosh he should look out from under the petticoats of Helen Clark just long enough to walk his talk.