Jones Shane: Climate Change Response (Moderated Emissions Trading) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Jones Shane: Climate Change Response (Moderated Emissions Trading) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 24 November 2009. Volume:659;Page:7995. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon SHANE JONES (Labour) 
: 
 Kia ora ano tatou e te whanau. Tena koe e te Heamana. There is a famous story in Te Ao Maori. It is about a kahawai—not unlike the Maori Party—and a great white shark. The great white shark said to the kahawai: “Let’s learn to live together. Let’s swim in a common current and get the feel of the environment.” So the kahawai joined the shark and they were swimming cavorting etc. But the shark got tired of that and said “Let’s get even closer.” The kahawai came closer and said “How close?”. The shark went “Gulp!” and said “That close!”. This is the day the great white shark consumed the Maori minnow. 
As the Maori Party minnow disappears down the long throat of the great white shark we can hear the shrieks of anguish from its membership. Some of those shrieks have been brought to our attention. Supporters are leaving the party as the real issues behind this legislation are becoming known by the wider public. This legislation could spell the end of the Maori Party. Actually that happened when the Maori Party entered into a tawdry deal to reward the gentrified 1 percent of Maori with a foul settlement with a narrow group in the South Island leaving the vast majority of Maori taxpayers to bear that burden for 40 50 or 60 years. Does the member for Te Tai Tonga think she will not go the way of Tutekawa Wyllie who pulled a similar stunt believing that he would save the interests of South Island Maori by going against the interests of wider Maori? He disappeared in 1999 never to be heard of again. That road lies before that member because of this dreadful sell-out in this House. 
Fortunately the amplification of the Maori Party’s perfidy has captured the attention of the media. The supporters of Hone Harawira have now got hold of the guillotine he brought back from France and they are applying it to the real culprits in this wretched affair—the leadership of the party who have taken the proud name of Maoridom into this House and debased it. They have debased it through supporting this dangerous anti-Maori anti-public emissions trading legislation. That point needs to be made because the burden for bearing the costs of this wretched scheme does not fall on the gentrified elite. It falls on the hard-working garden-variety living in “Struggler Gully” Maori families who can ill afford to bear the burden of those expenses whilst at the same time finding dough for whanau ora finding the money for hospitals and finding the money for education which has been slashed. 
It is bizarre. The Maori Party is willing to acquiesce and bring this legislation into the House that is an embarrassment for our entire country internationally. It defeats and negates every single ethic of kaitiakitanga. How dare those members stand and use those proud Maori terms in this House whilst their actions indicate that although the mouth might say something—kei nga ngutu he korero engari kei raro te rahurahu—every other element of their anatomy is doing the opposite. That is what we have seen today. 
This is a very sad day not only for the country and not only for taxpayers because it is a reversion to the terrible days when taxpayers subsidised negative producers in the economy; this is the day when Maori voters realise they made an egregious error when they placed their trust in that party which for a trivial amount of money something like $25 million has turned round and imposed $110 billion worth of bills on future generations. Why did those members think the proud legacy of Maori environmentalism stewardship and belief in future generations should be passed off for such a trivial miniscule amount of money? Up and down the country people have viewed the emissions trading scheme as something that is largely international and hard to understand but boy they smell betrayal and they recognise treachery when they see it. This bill as a consequence of this new development shows that that party has decided to be treacherous to the interests of their own people to not stand for the legacy of Maori environmentalism and to sell out their own people. 
History must record that even if this bill does pass it passes because of an act of deceit an act that abrogates the very reason that Maori were sent to this House. They were not sent to this House so that the people who are ruining the environment can be paid to do so. They were not sent to this House to turn their backs on struggling families struggling youth and communities looking for a remedy to climate change. No they were not sent here to do that but that is what we see today. 
It is a sad development that the Treaty of Waitangi settlement process has been held to ransom and actually lacerated as a consequence of this legislation. When society invests goodwill and trust into the process of settling historical grievances it wants the nation to move on from that epoch and for all of us to be able to absorb and stand in the face of our international competitors as equally patriotic. Why should the Maori Party go around listening to the mischief-making lawyers and their deluded gentrified Maori clients—a very narrow band who have no concern whatever for the majority of Maoridom and are concerned only for their own specific agenda? They have ruined Maori credentials of a patriotic nature. When we stand as Maori with our fellows whether they are Pakeha Asian or whatever their ethnicity we should all face equally the obligations of meeting our international duties and we should not use the Treaty of Waitangi to deepen and feed the mentality of victimhood and grievance. 
The whole theory and the spirit underlying the Treaty settlement process is for Aotearoa to move on but National was keen to open that wound again. It was keen to use simple trinkets hiriwa pieces of gold and silver miniscule in form to open up the prospect that there can never ever be full and final settlements. Whenever a Government feels that it is expedient to go back and open up those historical wounds it will do it. National does this to the shame of Doug Graham and to the shame of Jim Bolger who took heroic steps. They never lied to Ngai Tahu; this nonsense that there was a great conspiracy to devalue their settlement to defraud them of their assets etc. is absolute rubbish. Dr Cullen himself hired an eminent Queen’s Counsel and not a skerrick of evidence was found that that level of larceny or villainy might have taken place. Doug Graham was a proud and honourable man unlike members on that side of the House who on this particular issue use grievances as a crutch deepening the grievance mentality that keeps the Maori Party alive. 
Craig Foss 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. The member is in full flight but he did question whether members across the House were honourable and I take offence at that. 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: I used the context of this issue. However I am pleased—no drama—to withdraw and apologise. The point is taken. 
Not only is the Maori Party membership abandoning the Maori Party because it does not listen to its members; unfortunately for its leadership its only member of Parliament who at this stage is listening to the membership is the person it is trying to sack. But no doubt he will be back. I predict that if that party survives that man will take it over. Then we will see. [ 
Interruption 
] We are hearing profane emissions from the descendant of Ngai Tahu over there but that is another matter. I will leave Mr Harawira and the Maori Party to the side and I will come back to the bill. 
The emissions trading legislation in the unlikely event that it does pass will not stand the test of time. It will be taken internationally as a watered-down hackneyed version of something that could have been created had there been a grand coalition. Our colleagues made multiple entreaties. They were rejected at every particular point in the process. That is why this legislation not only is bad for the Treaty of Waitangi not only is bad for Maori but in particular is fatal for the Maori Party and the sell-outs from National.