Harawira Hone: Reserve Bank of New Zealand Amendment Bill Racing Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
Harawira Hone: Reserve Bank of New Zealand Amendment Bill Racing Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
[Volume:634;Page:6105] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Kia ora Mr Deputy Speaker. Kia ora tatou katoa te Whare. The next time we see a 5c coin we might want to grab it because it will probably be the last time we handle Aotearoa’s unique and threatened tuatara. We had better be quick because we have only 7 more days to see the coin that features our taonga species before it is dumped by the Reserve Bank. Although I am sure that the Reserve Bank has perfectly good reasons for getting rid of the old silver coins it is sad that our oldest and most unevolved species—outside this House of course—will no longer be seen on the face of our currency. 
The survival of this unique living fossil prompted NgatiKoata to join with NgatiKuri Ngati Wai Te Rarawa NgatiPorou and Ngati Kahungunu to challenge the Crown’s failure to protect the exercise of tino rangatiratanga and kaitiakitanga over indigenous flora and fauna. This is a far-reaching claim lodged with the Waitangi Tribunal and known as Wai 262 which asserts rights to indigenous flora fauna Maori traditional knowledge intellectual and cultural property rights and authority in environmental resource and conservation management. 
This legislation refers to addressing a problem facing the racing industry with the dumping of the 5c coin but in truth nothing is ever so simple and we would do well to consider the big issues at stake here. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand Amendment Bill is supposed to promote better regulation of the trans-Tasman financial sector as part of a single economic market agenda. The Maori Party again questions the view that Maori and New Zealand’s economic future should be forever tied to Aussie apron strings. These last few weeks the Maori Party has been raising issues about the outsourcing of Air New Zealand’s finance work to Fiji Telecom’s shifting of its call centre work to the Philippines and other developments that show how control is fast moving offshore. We cannot help but express concerns regarding our own sovereignty and our capacity to participate fully in the developing economy. 
Perhaps now is also the right time for Maori to be considering the nature of profit and risk that may come from doing business abroad. The growth of land-based businesses across international boundaries may indeed enhance an iwi’s ability to serve its beneficiaries and the Maori Party is interested to hear what iwi think about the implications of the single economic market. I know that regulating bank activity in Aotearoa and Australia can reduce bank operating costs and help financial stability and I have no doubt that those improvements will help create better economic conditions for Maori commercial entities and better prospects for their beneficiaries. 
Maori have made great strides in developing economic opportunities and economic independence and we see how that growth is clearly noted year after year in the positive results of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor reports which provide a detailed view of a major source of economic growth in the world across 35 countries. The most recent study released earlier this year showed that one in three Maori between 35 and 45 is an entrepreneur that Maori have the highest informal investment rate in the OECD that Maori have doubled the rate of informal investment of other Global Entrepreneurship Monitor nations and that Maori have higher growth expectations—12.3 percent of Maori entrepreneurs believe they will create 20 jobs in 5 years compared with only 8 percent of the general population. 
That entrepreneurial talent also has a positive crossover to exercising judgment identifying opportunities and handling market swings. Indeed Treasury says that entrepreneurial success encompasses risk taking innovation resource reallocation and coordination. These factors provide fertile ground for exploring economic options and in the particular context of this legislation the benefits that may come from cooperation between our Reserve Bank and Australian financial authorities. Of course the big question is whether the obligations that will be expected of us will be matched by those in Australia. All this remains to be seen but we are willing to support this legislation at third reading in order to enhance economic vision and opportunity for Maori and all other New Zealanders. 
In speaking of that vision I want to return again to our humble currency and to acknowledge the recent accolades from the Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind for the Reserve Bank’s efforts to ensure the new coins are cool for blind people. I see that a fortnight ago the Reserve Bank of New Zealand got the “extra touch” award from the Association of Blind Citizens of New Zealand in recognition of its commitment to ensuring the new coins would be easily identifiable by blind and vision-impaired people. Of course our view is that the unique form of the tuatara would have made it just as easy for blind people to tell the difference but perhaps that is something we can leave for the Wai 262 claimants to consider. 
The Maori Party will support these bills at third reading as part of its commitment to supporting financial stability for all indigenous peoples in Aotearoa Australia and the rest of the homeland we call the Pacific—as well as supporting the Labour Government. Kia ora tatou. 
Bills read a third time.