Harawira Hone: Crimes (Repeal of Seditious Offences) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Harawira Hone: Crimes (Repeal of Seditious Offences) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:640;Page:9977] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker— 
Hon Peter Dunne 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I stand to be corrected but I think the member has already had a call in the debate. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: No the member has not actually had a call. 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: I was called in the last debate but I have not spoken in this one. Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker. Kia ora tatou te Whare. When Ross Meurant came to Parliament fresh from his dastardly deeds as head thug for the Red Squad he warned the Government in his maiden speech of a small group of Maori who he said had plans to overthrow the Government. Well I was one of those he named and he was right. The overthrow of the Government is exactly what I have in mind and I intend to carry out that promise. Back then of course Meurant was trading on his reputation as a hard man to try to cast us in a seditious light. I note that the tough guy got all quiet when he was asked to repeat his charges outside of the House. 
But the charge of sedition is an oxymoron—a contradiction deriving from “oxy” or “sharp” as in the Maori Party and “moron” as in “dull” like any politician who opposes this repeal. The contradiction of course in repealing seditious offences is that the act of sedition—“To bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against Her Majesty or the Government”—should even be considered an offence at all. People who have been charged with sedition are often our sharpest citizens passionate about their causes and patriotic about their country—the peacemakers the protestors and the movers and shakers of Aotearoa. 
The roll of honour for those charged with sedition includes people already named; the Labour movement leaders; labourer Tim Armstrong who published in 1916 the statement: “… the freedom that we enjoy in this country today is owing to the fact that there have been men courageous enough to defy any law that was contrary to the interests of the people and aimed at robbing them of their freedom.”; Catholic Bishop James Liston whom Keith Locke referred to; Methodist clergyman teacher and former soldier Ormond Burton who printed a mild anti-war poem and who for his radicalism got 2½ years in jail; and ordinary citizens who marched and protested against the Viet Nam War. 
Of course our most celebrated prophets of sedition are Erueti Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kakahi who in 1881 were both charged with “wickedly maliciously and seditiously contriving and intending to disturb the peace”. It is a big jump from disturbing the peace to sedition. Despite their protests and demands for a proper trial Te Whiti and Tohu were held in custody in New Plymouth for 6 months before being shunted off to the South Island with many of their followers. Then in another oxymoronic and self-serving act of legislative juggling the Government passed what it called the West Coast Peace Preservation Act in 1882 so that Te Whiti and Tohu would not be tried for sedition but could be detained indefinitely as the Governor thought fit. Dr Ranginui Walker explained this best when he stated in his book  
Ka Whawhai Tonu Matou: Struggle Without End 
 of 1990: “It was by violence that a tribal (Maori) society was destroyed in the first instance and the (Pakeha) nation state brought into being.” The so-called peace preservation law resulted in peaceful people and peaceful prophets being assaulted arrested jailed without conviction and treated like animals and herded into caves—all for daring to passively resist colonial land-grabbing. The so-called peace preservation law was in fact a declaration of war against people who were seeking nothing but peace. 
And then there is the man immortalised in song and in the three-part painting series by Colin McCahon Tuhoe prophet Rua Kenana from Maungapohatu who was charged with sedition in 1916 for daring to call himself a prophet for peace for daring to call his community Hiruharama Hou—the New Jerusalem—for daring to establish a policy of non-violence and for daring to call upon his people to hold to their faith and not enlist for World War I. The police hunted down Kenana killing his son in the process and packed him off to Auckland for trial for sedition. 
At the other end of the century—not too long ago—a new generation of Maori activists including lawyer Annette Sykes and activists Mike Smith Nick Tangaroa Ken Mair and Tame Iti were accused of sedition for their intentions “to incite procure or encourage … lawlessness” for protesting the creeping control and ownership of Aotearoa by foreign investors which is an issue that people are only now starting to wake up to. Mike Smith talked about targeting the 1995 Asian Development Bank conference as an opportunity to destabilise the political infrastructure and discourage foreign investment. Mike Smith also explained the concerns he had rightly for Annette Sykes when he said that Sykes “who represents the respectable face of Maori nationalism” was more feared than himself for daring to be uppity while still inside the tent. He said: “Watch her lose her positions on boards like Moana Pacific and the Maori Broadcasting Authority.” And so it came to pass. 
This is the nub then of the whole issue. Sedition has been used to quieten the natives and to suppress and oppress anyone daring to challenge the status quo. In fact even former Prime Minister and President of the Law Commission Sir Geoffrey Palmer admits that the archaic offence of sedition was too wide and too unclear and had been used to muzzle unpopular political speech. The most recent expression of this ridiculous law of course came when Timothy Selwyn got charged for opposing the foreshore and seabed legislation. He made submissions started a petition and sent out emails but was stymied by a Government determined to ignore due process to ensure it got its way so was forced to take more direct action and surprise surprise—not at all—he got slapped with the charge of sedition. 
When the Maori Party first started drafting a member’s bill last year I spoke to Keith Locke from the Greens who said he was working on a similar bill. So I asked the Clerk’s Office if the Maori Party and the Greens could co-sponsor a bill. Well well well the response was a bit like getting charged with sedition: “What! It’s never been done before. That’s out of order. It’s out of the question.” Then of course ACT and United Future also started looking at reforming the sedition laws so the whole notion of repeal became a lot more real. So it is good to see that by joining together the four MMP parties were able to have an impact on fast tracking this legislation. 
In closing we would like to honour those who have helped get this repeal bill to the Table: those who have suffered so that we can more easily see the mean-spirited ugly demeaning and destructive nature of the charge of sedition; Idiot/Savant for drafting a bill and badgering us all to sponsor it; those who still speak against conscription and war; those who still speak out for their land rights and their Treaty rights; those who still speak against colonisation and foreign control; those who still speak out against injustice; and those who still speak out against violence and economic abuse of power. Theirs is a rightful freedom and we dedicate this repeal bill to them all. Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker.