Flavell Te Ururoa: Business of Select Committees — Appointments 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Business of Select Committees — Appointments 
[Volume:654;Page:3184] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Whip—Maori Party) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Deputy Speaker. Kia ora tatou katoa ano e te Whare i tenei po. On initial appearances the first item on the Order Paper—to consider Government notice of motion No. 2—could seem to be just a matter of procedure and the routine business of the House. Indeed issues of representation of democratic participation and of inclusion should be at the very least the core business of this Parliament. Democracy is best realised when there is an opportunity for all members to have equal access to decision making and when all members are enabled to participate. 
In order to give the House a real insight into political participation I say there would be few amongst the members of this Parliament today who would not appreciate the historic impact of the United States elections last year and the symbolic crumbling of the walls of discrimination division and segregation to be replaced by the call for unity for change and for hope. As we of Aotearoa have faced our own newly erected barriers against the ideals of democracy and equality I was inspired to read a comment by an Obama supporter the civil rights activist and former politician the Rev. Jesse Jackson. He said this: “Deliberation and debate is the way you stir the soul of democracy.” I will say again that deliberation and debate is the way we stir the soul of our democracy. 
That concept fits pretty well with Te Ao Maori as well. We have a saying that goes: “He aha te kai o te rangatira? He korero he korero he korero.” In other words what is the food of the leader? It is knowledge it is communication it is discussion and it is talk. It is deliberation; it is debate. It is because we understand the importance of korero in Te Ao Maori that the Maori Party will support this motion. 
Let me make it quite clear from the outset that our vote of support for urgency to occur and for the new committee to be established is not and should not in any way be misinterpreted as a vote of support for the super-city bills that are to come before the House soon. Our vote to allow this motion to proceed is purely and simply about the mechanism for deliberation and debate to occur as has been referred to by the Hon Rodney Hide. In case there is any doubt I say we do have an agenda. It is to stir the soul of democracy through our participation on this important committee. 
We ask the House to consider the wider issue of representation not for ourselves but for tangata whenua throughout the land. Decisions that we make today and tomorrow in this House will have major ramifications and major implications for future relationships between the Treaty partners. I note with some distress that in the explanatory note of the Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill we are told: “Auckland is home to some of the most important commercial educational and business organisations in the country”. Yet the explanatory note appears to either wilfully or erroneously overlook the fact that Auckland is also the largest Polynesian city in the world. One in four Maori lives in the region of Tamaki and one in three Maori is under the age of 15 years. The question is: where is the guarantee that the voice of Maori as the indigenous people of this land—te iwi taketake—will be heard? The soul of democracy is about having a say. In the bills that are to come before Parliament under urgency that sort of wisdom seems to have been rejected but it is very positive to see that the value of inclusion rather than exclusion is promoted in this motion. 
There is much that we will have to contribute to the debate around the governance of Auckland as hopefully this Parliament expects—in particular about how tangata whenua can expect to be involved when there is no attention given to representation issues. We were greatly pleased that a royal commission was established for such an important inquiry at the one into Auckland governance knowing that royal commissions are established under royal prerogative and bring with them a very clear set of expectations. Royal commissions are the product of legislation. The powers they have are delegated by the Crown and therefore the Treaty obligations should reside there as well. 
We held great faith in the stature of the recommendations that would evolve out of the royal commission into the arrangements in Tamaki-makau-rau. The royal commission did not disappoint us. There was a specific Maori consultation process implemented from the outset of the review not as a desperate afterthought later. The commissioners were also supported ably by Professor Wharehuia Milroy a Maori academic a Tuhoe kaumatua a Waitangi Tribunal member an assessor for the Maori Land Court and a consultant across a wide range of agencies and sectors. So when the recommendations from the royal commission included the specific advice to provide for three Maori councillors—two elected from the Maori roll and one appointed by local iwi—we felt confident that the commission was basing its recommendations on good authority. We believe that such recommendations were based on solid foundations of justice. They were seen as explicit signs of a commitment to improve Maori representation in Auckland. 
All of us in this House know that the existing mechanisms in the Local Government Act have proven to be rather ineffectual in providing for Maori representation across the motu. Yet I am sure that all in this House would also say that Maori need to participate in decision making across the full breadth of local and central government—specifically in this case in Tamaki-makau-rau. 
As the local member for Waiariki I can say hand on heart that the Bay of Plenty Regional Council tried to do things differently but that was done through special legislation not the existing Local Electoral Act processes. The enactment of special legislation in the Bay of Plenty came after longstanding concerns expressed by iwi about the lack of Maori representation on its 11-member council. The council and iwi engaged in robust consultation across the community and eventually three seats were established—Mauao Maori named after Mount Maunganui; Okurei Maori named after the point at Maketu; and Kohi Maori named after a point in Whakatane. Councillor Raewyn Bennett for the Mauao Maori constituency was a keen supporter of the concept. She believed that having established seats meant there was certainty over representation for Maori. This is a crucial aspect that underpins the movement for participation in democracy. If we understand the connection between political power and well-being we will understand that having specific provision in place creates the certainty that there will be at least a discussion on how to advance the well-being of the community. 
The challenge of course is how well councillors can work together across their communities how they can facilitate relationships between iwi and councils and how together the people can work for the betterment of their communities. This is about the relationship between kawanatanga and rangatiratanga. We need mechanisms that honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi not just through effective consultation but also in taking opportunities to improve Maori involvement in governance. This is a very important time to be considering any moves we can take at a central level to encourage greater civic participation and particularly to ensure adequate Maori representation in the rohe of Tamaki-makau-rau. In fact the decisions in Tamaki-makau-rau will no doubt have a ripple effect across the whole of the country. 
The Maori Party has pleasure in announcing that Mr Hone Harawira whose Te Tai Tokerau electorate constituency encompasses Maori living in the broader Auckland region will represent us on the special select committee. We have every confidence in his ability to live up to the aspirations of fellow activist Jesse Jackson when he talked about how to stir the soul of democracy. Kia ora tatou.