O'Connor Damien: New Zealand Geographic Board (Nga Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa) Bill — Third Reading 
O'Connor Damien: New Zealand Geographic Board (Nga Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa) Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:647;Page:15897] 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR (Minister of Tourism) 
: 
 Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker. I have made a number of speeches in this House and I think that recently when speaking in the first reading of this New Zealand Geographic Board (Nga Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa) Bill I was criticised for my pronunciation. I apologise if I cannot pronounce Maori names properly; I do my very best. One thing I do realise in spite of my faults around pronunciation is that New Zealanders are taking a lot more pride in te reo in the Maori language and in trying to pronounce place names properly. If we come from the South Island as the previous speaker Mr Roy or I do we have not had as much practise as people who come from the North Island have had but we do try. 
I think that this bill moves us down the path of recognising our nation and its culture and heritage in a way that makes us more proud of what and who we are. We have named many many places across this nation on the back of our heritage from England from Ireland and from Europe. We have brought those names to this country and they have served us well. But looking back now we can see we are trying—as we have done for some time now—to use Maori names more appropriately where those names will mean more for local people be they Maori Pakeha Pasifika or any other cultural group in this country because we are a multicultural nation made up of many ethnic communities. However we are a bicultural nation by virtue of the Treaty and Maori people were here before the others such as my ancestors from Ireland or those people from Scotland and I think that Maori have the right to name places locations and features in an important way that recognises that cultural heritage. 
One example is Aoraki. It was Mount Cook for many of us for many years but I think that it is now appropriately named Aoraki. My home river the Buller River is more often referred to as Kawatiri. 
Shane Ardern 
: What about Greymouth? 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: I do not know the Maori name for that. Mawhera is the local iwi group down there. I think that we on the West Coast all now refer to the Mawhera Incorporation a commercial entity and that the Maori iwi and hapu groups in our region are more recognised. 
Sandra Goudie 
: I’ll bet the locals don’t use those names. 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: We use their titles with more pride unlike the member there from Coromandel who is trying to discredit the whole process. We are moving down the path to greater self-identity and take pride in who we are in a way that we should embrace and celebrate unlike the National Party which seems to be loath to make any real progress in terms of national identity. 
This Government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in building our national identity through a whole lot of means—through the promotion of the country offshore through culture art and heritage and through film. We are trying to build an identity for New Zealand Aotearoa. I think that that has been an invaluable process and one that the National Party has always failed even to recognise in terms of its value. National members do not know where they are on this bill. They do not recognise that changing and modernising a bill from 1946 is progress. It is something we should celebrate. 
The bill allows us to have a better system of naming places around this country. I must refer to what is a difficult and challenging issue in my own electorate—that is an issue in the very small and very proud community of St Arnaud by Lake Rotoiti. Those people are going through the process of deciding whether they should move forward to call their community “Rotoiti”. That is the view of a number of people. However there is confusion—and there would be of course—in identifying a South Island community as opposed to a North Island community where there is also a Lake Rotoiti. But the issue is that there is growing enthusiasm to use Maori names—names that identify a place as being in New Zealand and as being part of New Zealand—and that is very important. 
Sandra Goudie 
: Now he confirms this is what’s driving it. 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: I encourage that member who is now criticising the process to embrace the direction the Government wants to move us in—that is to be a proud New Zealander someone who is proud to determine his or her own destiny and to invest in his or her own future which is something that the National Party seems loath to do. The National Party seems open to any sort of outside influence. In fact as we should be reminded on a regular basis it would have had New Zealanders in Iraq because it does not believe enough in our own identity to think that New Zealanders should make a decision for themselves. Labour on the other hand made a decision to stay out of Iraq because we are New Zealand Aotearoa and we make decisions for ourselves our people and our future. This is unlike the National Party; at that time when Simon Power was speaking in Nick Smith’s electorate in Nelson he said that we should be going to Iraq too. We would have been doing what our friends in the US told us to do. I am afraid that that displayed a complete lack of judgment from Simon Power from Nick Smith who supported him and from John Key on occasion. 
Sandra Goudie 
: Is this the best he can do? Goodness me—spare us! 
Hon DAMIEN O’CONNOR 
: The member there is wondering why. It is because the lack of pride in our New Zealand identity means that the National Party does not know what it stands for who it stands for and when it should stand up for New Zealanders and for New Zealand. Well we have no hesitation in this area; we believe that we must get on. We must update the 1946 legislation by way of this bill and better enable us to identify New Zealand as an independent nation using its own language and its own terms and titles so that we and others around the world clearly know te reo whenever possible even though many of us cannot pronounce it properly. We clearly identify with being New Zealanders. 
I think this is good legislation and I cannot understand why the National Party will not celebrate its progress and passage through this House. But that is typical of National members because they really do not know who they are they do not know what they stand for and they really do not know what sort of policy they should have for New Zealanders—full stop. I look forward to the day when we can debate policies or debate anything of substance with National members because in fact they are not anything of substance.