Turei Metiria: General Debates 
Turei Metiria: General Debates 
[Volume:617;Page:12645] 
METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
: 
 We have a leadership crisis in our country. What nation’s leader of a modern democracy with any self-respect could possibly say in public and with a straight face that she prefers the company of sheep to that of her constituents? What nation’s leader could accuse thousands of her constituents those who have supported her and her party for nearly half a century who have welcomed and awhi-ed her on to their marae of being “haters and wreckers”? That comment was made by someone who knows in her heart that what she is doing is wrong. New Zealanders are ashamed to have those comments made in their name. 
Outside the walls of the House today we have thousands of people on Parliament grounds. Those people are from all walks of life—young elderly Maori and Pakeha. They have travelled hundreds of kilometres from both ends of the country to be here today. They are here to legitimately demonstrate their absolute opposition to the confiscation of land and abrogation of customary rights perpetrated by the Prime Minister and the Labour Government in their foreshore and seabed legislation. They are here to protest the utter contempt shown to them by this Labour Government and the other political parties that support this legislative confiscation because the foreshore legislation is fundamentally wrong. It is legislation that discriminates on the basis of race as it applies only to foreshore and seabed areas that may belong to Maori as customary land. And of course we know that customary land is a form of title that only Maori can have under the law. The legislation overturns internationally recognised common law and breaches our own New Zealand Bill of Rights Act as well as international human rights conventions. This legislation is unjust and utterly unnecessary. 
Throughout the debate over this legislation Maori have repeatedly argued that the concerns of the Government are entirely resolvable by good-faith discussion and negotiation. The Waitangi Tribunal also clearly identified areas of common interest that could form the basis of a good-faith discussion. I went to almost all the hui on the foreshore legislation and heard at hui after hui the offers of Maori to sit down and work through cooperatively with the Government to come to a solution that everyone could live with. But instead of taking up the offer at least to try to work through the issues the Government chose to resort to the patronising attitude of our colonial past to legalise illegitimate policy to alienate thousands of Maori and Pakeha to extinguish legal rights to confiscate land and to put our foreshore and seabed at serious risk of future alienation and environmental degradation. 
Under the bill the foreshore and seabed are more vulnerable to sale than ever before. There is no provision to enhance or promote the sustainable management of the foreshore. The failed abusive process up to this point weakens any future prospects of cooperative development of marine reserves and coastal protection initiatives. On top of that Maori are treated as second-class citizens to whom the fundamental principles of justice do not apply. 
The Green Party supports those Maori and Pakeha who have gathered today at Parliament and in their local communities around the country to oppose this legislation. We agree that there is no excuse for this raupatu and that there are viable alternatives that are just. We agree that this country needs a solution premised on Te Tiriti o Waitangi that respects the needs of the whole community and the integrity of Tangaroa for his own sake. All it would take is a simple and respectful acknowledgment from this country’s leader. So I implore Helen Clark to go outside and meet her constituents to go outside and meet with the people who have supported her and her party for decades to go outside and say: “We didn’t get this right this time round. Let’s put it on hold come together and work out a solution.”