Clendon David: Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Clendon David: Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:670;Page:17332] 
DAVID CLENDON (Green) 
: 
 Kia ora koutou katoa. I am pleased to take a call on the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill. It is the first call I have had the opportunity to take having been out of the House for the last several days doing work elsewhere. Although I have not had the opportunity to speak in the House I have had ample opportunity to speak outside of the House. As this bill is being debated here—in particular tonight the question of the test of proving customary right—so too is it being debated around this country. I have been around the country quite extensively in the last week or so. At every turn people have been focusing on this debate. This debate is being watched; it is being participated in. It is an important debate for that reason alone. 
I was asked yesterday whether there is anything good about this legislation. Could I find a positive thing to say about it? The best I could come up with was that this bill is likely to be the low point of this term of Parliament. It is unlikely that we will see a more offensive piece of legislation come into this House any time soon. It is a low point. It is an offensive piece of legislation. It manages to offend liberals. It manages to offend conservatives. It manages to offend Maori and non-Maori. At every point on the political spectrum there is opposition to this bill. The only difference about the debate within the House and the debate that is occurring outside of the House is that within the House it is still possible to find a few people who will stand and support the bill. In my experience that is almost impossible to find outside. 
Much of the debate revolves round this test this so-called test which actually is an exclusionary statement. It seeks to exclude Maori from proving customary right and therefore having their rights respected. At the time of the signing of the Treaty a number of our tupuna were persuaded to sign that document because it was put to them that signing the Treaty gave the shadow of the land to the Crown but the substance remained with nga iwi with the hapu and with the whanau. This bill very effectively reverses that. At best Maori will have the shadow of a right. They will have the reflection the memory of a right. They will not have the substance of that right. This legal fiction this nonsense of non-ownership puts ownership control—real control— firmly in the hands of the Crown and denies it to Maori. 
This bill joins a shameful list. It may be instructive for even members within this House and certainly for people outside to go to the Treaty Resource Centre website which has a very well-collated list of legislative transgressions of Te Tiriti. This bill most certainly will join that list if it is in fact passed into law. Since the early 1840s very shortly after the signing of the Treaty legislation has been passed that has transgressed the spirit the letter the principles and whatever of the Treaty and this bill will add to that list. 
The notion of exclusive undisturbed use and occupation is foreign to Maori in the sense that Maori are a generous people a hospitable people. Hospitality and the display of generosity is respected and adds mana to individuals to hapu and to iwi. The notion of exclusivity and the demand that exclusive use must be demonstrated is anathema to that notion of hospitality of generosity of sharing and indeed of cooperation Maori share resources routinely within and between hapu and iwi and share access to resources at given times of year— 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Come on this is 2010 not 1845! 
DAVID CLENDON 
: This is indeed 2010 2011. The principle of reciprocity of generosity has not gone away at least for the Maori I know and respect. My whakapapa my interests and my preference take me to Tai Tokerau—take me to that place. From my discussions and my interactions in the north everywhere I go I hear opposition to this bill from Maori and non-Maori alike. Those who suggest Hone Harawira is representing his own view or the view of a small bunch of radical activists are 110 percent wrong. Everywhere and anywhere from the most moderate Maori through to the most radical non-Maori this bill is being opposed in Tai Tokerau.