Flavell Te Ururoa: Local Government Law Reform Bill — First Reading 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Local Government Law Reform Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:630;Page:2519] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki): 
 One would think that as the member for Waiariki I would be very proud to think that the centres of Maketu and Kawerau yesterday hit the world’s news-stands. Instead it is a matter of great shame that the Crown has been called to account for its treatment of Maketu and Kawerau by an international human rights expert Professor Rodolfo Stavenhagen. The report from the special rapporteur recommended that the Crown should take an active interest in supervising the compliance of the paper company in cleaning up the waste site at Kawerau and the waste disposal build-up at Maketu. 
These are not new issues. The Kaituna claim was first lodged back in 1978. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member is to speak to the bill. 
TE URUROA FLAVELL 
: I am leading to that. Our people have consistently presented their objections to the environmental abuse the contamination and the waste disposal build-up that is occurring at both Kawerau and Maketu over generations. 
I turn now to my northern whakapapa. We learnt today also of the situation of Ngati Wai who are suing the Minister of Conservation Chris Carter and the Department of Conservation for their handling of the consultation issues in Northland about marine reserves and offshore islands. Ngati Wai elder Hori Te Moanaroa Parata had this to say about the nature of the Crown’s consultation: “DOC and the Minister think they have been consulting with us. What they have been doing is insulting and almost assaulting us.” This simply cannot go on. How many international experts reports from United Nations committees and special rapporteurs and damning releases from iwi leaders can this Government simply disregard as the view of one man or respond to by saying that nothing much will happen? Remember Shrek and the “haters and wreckers”? Well it is all coming home to roost. 
The special rapporteur has brought to international attention the marginalisation of tangata whenua from local governance. His report states that little more than 5 percent of members elected to local councils are Maori. The special rapporteur reported how many Maori legal authorities had advised him that they consider it constitutionally improper to force claimants to waive their entitlement to the protection of the courts when they negotiate settlements especially as it is achieved through coercion. 
What we are getting as the kaumatua from Ngati Wai himself points out is that despite the willingness of people to engage in constructive dialogue and to work with the Government in the interests of responsible local governance and marine protection the Government continues to pull the rug from under their feet. Here we are again today with this minority Labour Government trying to coerce this Parliament into accepting an enormous omnibus bill amending the Rates Rebate Act 1973 the Dog Control Act 1996 the Litter Act 1979 the Local Electoral Act 2001 the Local Government Act 2002 the Local Government Act 1974 the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002 the Auckland War Memorial Museum Act 1996 and the Land Transport Act 1998. 
The Maori Party will continue to voice the views of our people outside this House and inside on the critical matters of local government and of rating and as we mentioned in our speech during a previous debate on dog control and dog tax. We want to make special mention of the ratings issue included in this bill. The bill amends the provision in the Local Government (Rating) Act in relation to the information a local authority is required to include in its rating information database. We have to ask this House what purpose this information will be put to and whether it will be in the interests of Maori landowners. 
Members of this House will of course be aware that the imposition of rates on Maori land from 1871 until the Ratings Act 1908 was resisted. Speeches by Maori members of Parliament as each piece of legislation was introduced continued to articulate that resistance. Even as recently as 10 years ago in 1996 the Labour member for Southern Maori the Hon Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan continued this theme of resistance to imposed rating changes: “I am pleased that any thought of coercing or insisting on the Maori Land Court making charging orders over Maori freehold land to cover rates arrears was not imposed by the committee.” Mrs Tirikatene-Sullivan made reference to Lake Rotokawau and the Ngati Rangiteaorere people within my electorate who were forced by the pressure of some local body members—that those Maori owners pay rates—to take their case to the Maori Land Court to seek a special exemption then to go on to the Waitangi Tribunal. Our people are often forced into unreasonable situations coerced into the courts and forced to file papers for judicial review when all that may be required is the recognition of rights of roles of mana whenua. 
I turn again to the north. Professor Margaret Mutu’s 1991 report on the rating and valuation of Maori land in Te Tai Tokerau stated that all the tribes from the area had longstanding grievances over the effects that rating and valuation have had on their ownership and occupation of their ancestral lands their whenua tupuna. Professor Mutu saw that the manner of levying and collecting rates was a clear breach of the treaty and that valuation processes failed to take account of “Maori cultural and spiritual values which are an integral part of all such land.” In her opinion this only served to exacerbate the problems faced by Maori landowners still further. 
This issue continues in Te Tai Tokerau where for example unemployed Maori returning to tribal lands to make a new life encounter rating problems and a lack of services. The Hon Dover Samuels when chairman of the Far North District Council’s Maori Affairs Committee is quoted in the  
Northern Advocate 
 on 21 August 1993 as saying that Maori believe ancestral land should not be taxed. Perhaps one more example might help. The Maori Party has been advised of record rating increases currently being imposed on residents in Te Tai Tokerau the East Coast. One property currently holding a land value of $13000 was revalued to $48000. Another property has a current land value of around $13000 and has been valued at $35000. Maori ratepayers who have approached our office have advised us that such an enormous rating increase is indicative of a cynical piece of land evaluation and potential rates extortion. 
There is a proud history in this land of tangata whenua advising local authorities of their concerns with local government decisions of their desire to retain management and authority over their tribal lands and of their frustration—in some cases fury—at being ignored sidelined or marginalised in the consultation process. Although attempts are being made to make the resource management legislation work for Maori the local government aspect the critical relationship with mana whenua has not been sorted out first. It was from that context of those wide-ranging and universal concerns that the special rapporteur recommended first that the MMP electoral system should be constitutionally entrenched to guarantee adequate representation of Maori at regional and local governance levels and secondly that iwi and hapu should be considered as likely units for strengthening the customary self-governance of Maori in conjunction with local and regional councils. Those are recommendations that respond entirely to the situations of our time. They reflect the aspirations and dreams of tangata whenua throughout Aotearoa. 
Te Tiriti o Waitangi requires a more direct relationship between local government and mana whenua. There needs to be a commitment to working with Te Ao Maori and we want to encourage constructive dialogue healthy relationships and debate—not coercion or relations built on insult or assault. The Maori Party believes that we need to address the issue of rating Maori land within the Treaty framework. The current bill does not go anywhere near this; instead it seeks to increase rates through introducing lump-sum payments or face paying certain targeted rates. 
The difficulty with the grab-bag pick-and-mix approach to legislation like this throwing everything together into the wash is simply not good enough. To that end the Maori Party will be moving to oppose this bill. We do so simply because along with the issues I mentioned earlier it will not advance and enhance the relationships between regional local authorities and mana whenua. 
Tangata whenua are watching the response of this Government to the United Nations report with great concern. The special rapporteur concluded in his report that the inherent rights of Maori were not constitutionally recognised. Whether the Government reacts to that finding with a calm considered response or a response that denies discredits or dismisses the validity of the analysis within it will be a matter of great import for tangata whenua and indeed for the nation as a whole.