Turia Tariana: Crimes (Repeal of Seditious Offences) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Turia Tariana: Crimes (Repeal of Seditious Offences) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 24 October 2007. Volume:643;Page:12702. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
TARIANA TURIA (Co-Leader—Maori Party) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Tena tatou katoa. Nothing in this House is a matter of chance and we in the Maori Party have wondered then why today of all days the minority Government has deemed that Parliament must deal in rapid succession with Acts to do with terrorism suppression seditious offences armed forces courts martial and defence. As any keen historian would know today 24 October marks the 90th anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution which overthrew the Russian Provisional Government and was followed by civil war. The revolution was led by the Bolsheviks the Left Socialist Revolutionaries and anarchists with troops commencing their takeover of the Government buildings on 24 October. Far be it for me to draw any comparison between the October uprising of 1917 and events in Aotearoa in the last few weeks but I do have to wonder at the cause of the timing in the sudden placement of these bills at the top of the Order Paper. 
I say from the outset that the unity and spirit of cooperation evident amongst the MMP parties has been a key feature of getting the Crimes (Repeal of Seditious Offences) Amendment Bill on to the agenda in the first place. This time last year my esteemed colleague Hone Harawira was drafting a private member’s bill to amend the Crimes Act 1961 in such a way as to repeal all offences related to sedition. As is the way with MMP parties a chance discussion with Green Party members revealed that they too were seeking to repeal those offences that cut across the concept of freedom of expression. 
We joined forces and on 24 April this year we welcomed the ACT party and United Future in a joint call to the Government to push through legislation that would pick up on the recommendation of the Law Commission to scrap the charge of sedition. And here we are today 6 months to the day after that historic press conference with Parliament finally discarding the charges of inciting rebellion or resistance. But unfortunately it is putting in place more Draconian laws such as the legislation that is also in the House today. 
It is reason for great jubilation that MMP can prove and has proven its effectiveness in the form of this significant legislation before the House. I also have other reasons to acknowledge the important precedent this bill has set Parliament for in reviewing the question of sedition all political parties have invested in the very important task of looking critically at our history. 
The parties in this Chamber have become familiar with the pacifist prophets of Parihaka Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kakahi. They have recounted the legacy of passive resistance that has been passed down to subsequent generations. We have heard the stories of how the peoples of Taranaki refused to accept the brutal land confiscations the extensive land loss and the military force and takeover by the terrorist actions of a rampant colonial force. Taranaki stood firm like their majestic maunga. They ploughed up the fields put the fences back up again and resisted colonial imposition and theft with the simple statement naku te whenua—mine is the land. This statement which saw Te Whiti and Tohu charged with sedition and sent to jail is a statement that to this day remains embedded in the heart and on the lips of the people of the land the tangata whenua. 
Through the passage of this bill our thoughts in this House have also turned eastwards to the Urewera settlement of Maungapohatu the home of the Tuhoe prophet Rua Kenana. We have heard how over 1000 supporters from Tuhoe Ngati Awa and Whakatohea established a communal farm a temple and a communal bank as their spiritual movement blossomed into a significant force. It was a movement based on the return of the whenua and mana to Maori—naku te whenua. Members of the House reflected on this history our history in Aotearoa in which Rua Kenana spoke out against the war and was duly arrested on the charge of sedition. He was eventually found not guilty of the charge but nevertheless he had already spent 9 months in Mount Eden Prison. 
As this bill has progressed through the House other more contemporary episodes have been raised to illustrate the urgent need to reform the law of sedition. We have heard about the case of Tim Selwyn and the Pakeha movement that he led to express Pakeha disgust and fury at the Government’s attempts to steal by confiscation and without consultation Maori land in the form of the seabed and foreshore legislation—naku te whenua. We have heard how my dear friend the late Nico Tangaroa along with Annette Sykes Mike Smith and Tame Iti was threatened with a charge of sedition over comments they made opposing overseas investment in our assets during the Asian Development Bank conference—again naku te whenua. 
Democracy must be about justice for all. We must have certainty in the law and certainty in its application; values that would be given life through the means of free speech. During the process of hearing this bill we have received many many responses from everyday New Zealanders who are proud of their tradition of supporting and participating in civil actions against injustice. One person wrote to us telling how his late great-uncle Bramwell Robinson was arrested and taken to prison in 1912 and served a sentence for sedition for protesting against the action of the police in breaking the Waihi strike. In Mount Eden this seditious character kept good company with Peter Fraser before he became Prime Minister and with Bob Semple who was Minister of Works in the first Labour Government. Both Peter Fraser and Bob Semple were leaders of the miners union and were also in prison for sedition. 
Finally I bring to this debate an unfortunate exchange that occurred in the House yesterday as my colleague Hone Harawira raised issues to do with Maori perceptions of the justice system. As a proud and independent Maori voice the Maori Party is here to raise issues as they are expressed to us regardless of whether they are issues that everyone accepts or understands. The relationship between Maori and the criminal justice system is probably best expressed in the work of Moana Jackson and his publication  
The Maori and the Criminal Justice System: a new perspective—he whaipainga hou 
. In that epic work Moana stated: “When the analysis of law is founded in the belief that ‘one law for all’ means ‘one process for all’ rather than ‘one resultant justice for all’ the debate becomes confined by monocultural strangulation.” 
This comment came home to me last evening when another member in this House described the speech delivered by Mr Harawira as “one of the most disgusting embittered divisive and downright irrelevant speeches I have heard in this House for a long time”. There is no place for political censorship in a healthy democracy. We must have the courage in this House to listen to alternative points of view to consider the context from which such views emerge and to value independent thinking as the very basis of our democratic right to freedom of speech. 
The Maori Party celebrates the third reading of this very significant Crimes (Repeal of Seditious Offences) Amendment Bill as a benchmark for upholding and ensuring the rights of free speech and as recognition that more than one cultural reference point is valued across this Parliament. We will almost certainly be supporting this third reading of the bill. Kia ora.