Davis Kelvin: Waikato-Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Bill — In Committee 
Davis Kelvin: Waikato-Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:662;Page:10480] 
KELVIN DAVIS (Labour) 
: 
 We have a tendency to overcomplicate some of these issues. The Waikato-Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Bill is about restoring and protecting the health and well-being of the Waikato River not just for this generation but for the generations to come. Why are we doing that? We are doing it because right now the river is polluted. It has had years and years of herbicides pesticides and effluent dumped into it. That has made it unsuitable for swimming and for gathering food. Maori cannot gather their traditional food sources. That is the reason we are here debating this bill. What is the alternative? Is it to continue to dump herbicides pesticides effluent rubbish and goodness knows what into the Waikato River? That is not an option. That is why we are here debating this bill. 
I really struggle to see what the ACT Party has against the bill. The bill talks about a single co-governance entity. Well what is wrong with that? The bill previously provided for a number of entities to look after the river which would have led to confusion and ambiguity over roles. It would not have led to the river being cleaned up. What is wrong with having a vision and strategy for the river? What is wrong with having a vision of a river where our kids can swim without jumping into a pile of rubbish and where native eels are not overrun by exotic species? There is nothing wrong with having a vision for the river and putting in place a strategy to ensure that that vision is fulfilled. 
What is wrong with having the Waikato River Clean-Up Trust a group to sort out the clean-up of the river? What is wrong with iwi participating in the resource consent process concerning the Waikato River? The attitude that Maori should not have the right to be involved in that process is wrong. That sort of argument builds up resentment and anger within Maori because we have been excluded from decision making over our resources for way too long. I believe that this whole bill is long overdue. What is wrong with having joint management agreements? What is wrong with sharing the decision making? There is nothing at all wrong with it. It is long overdue. What is the problem with recognising customary activities? 
When the Maori Affairs Committee was at Hopuhopu I recall a farmer who spoke about his farm which was next to a lake. Over the years the water level of the lake had been reduced and he was able to get a whole heap of extra land for his farm so he could raise more cows or do whatever he did. He had absolutely no concern about the rights of iwi to continue to fish for eels in the swamps that had been drained and to gather food in the traditional Maori way. He could not see that an injustice had been done to Maori. He believed that his method of growing food and gathering food was far more important than the way in which Maori had gathered food traditionally over the years. He just did not care that Maori rights the Maori way of doing things and our lifestyle had been diminished and harmed. What is wrong with a cultural harvest? In the legislation there is a provision that talks about cultural harvest. 
Let me tell all the Tainui-Waikato people listening to this debate that I had a friend who was a navy diver and he had the job one day of swimming into the intake pipe that goes from the river under the road into the Meremere power station. His job was to clean it. He told me that as he was swimming up the pipe to clean it—and he is a naval diver; he has been in many dangerous diving situations—the moment he was the most fearful was when he swam into a nest of blind eels. “Talk about pollute the Waikato River!” he told me—not in those words. At the moment he swam into that nest he did in fact pollute the river. It was the scariest moment of his diving career. 
There are many eels and other native organisms and species that Maori have had access to over the years and this bill will help Maori to reclaim that access and be able to continue with those traditional practices. 
I will address finally what Rodney Hide spoke about the other day. Rodney Hide was not speaking about the principle of “one man one vote”. He was speaking about the hocus-pocus—those were his words—of the Maori understanding of and the Maori relationship with the Waikato River. He does not believe—and that is fair enough; that is his right—that the Waikato River is an entity. He does not have that emotional cultural and spiritual connection with the river. [ 
Interruption 
] I am not from Waikato-Tainui; I am from up north. I have a spiritual cultural connection with the Taumarere River up there but those two rivers do have a connection in our family whakapapa and history. That is because of a place in the Waipa tributary a place called Te Rore where my tupuna Pomarenui met his Waterloo. 
Te Rore was the place where he camped overnight and unfortunately for him a few of his Tainui enemies caught up with him and happened to kill him. It was said that when they were preparing him for dinner they found corn kernels from his morning meal inside his stomach. They planted those kernels and from there the corn crops around Tainui and Waikato grew. 
Hon Shane Jones 
: Cultural harvest! 
KELVIN DAVIS 
: So there we are; we are talking there about a cultural harvest. 
But the point I really am trying to make is that Maori have an emotional spiritual and cultural connection with our rivers with our mountains and with our lakes. It is because over the centuries things have happened that tie us and bind us to these particular features. It reminds me of mountaineers. When they go climbing mountains they say one has to respect the mountain. Commercial fishermen out on the sea say that one has to respect the sea. That concept is similar to the concepts Maori have in respect of our rivers our lakes and our tipuna maunga. 
So with that I thank you Mr Chairman for the opportunity to speak on this bill. I say again that I cannot understand why the ACT Party is so opposed to all these different opportunities to co-manage and clean up this river so that our kids can swim our people can gather food and all the pollution which has had a negative effect on the river can be cleaned up. Kia ora.