Henare Tau: Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill — Second Reading 
Henare Tau: Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:670;Page:16999] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 Mr Deputy Speaker nei te mihi aroha ki nga morehu o te ru whenua ki Otautahi me o ratou nawe awangawanga mamae. 
[ 
I make a sorrow-filled acknowledgment of the survivors of the Christchurch earthquake and their concerns distress and pain 
.] 
I want to turn my eyes to the passing some weeks back of a lady I held in great regard Professor Judith Binney. I wanted to take the first opportunity I had to mihi ki a ia me tona mahi i roto i a Ngai Tuhoe. 
[ 
acknowledge her and her work within the Tuhoe people 
] 
I thank Tariana Turia for sticking to her guns and for disagreeing with her party by going out on a limb for one particular kaupapa. I have a whole lot of notes here and a whole lot of speeches to make that will not fit into the measly little 10 minutes we get for a speech. 
When we ask ourselves whether this legislation should go through should we not ask the party or the person who actually laid it on the line who gave up her seat for that particular kaupapa—the repeal of the 2004 Foreshore and Seabed Act? Would we not ask ourselves on our travels where the 50000 people are who congregated outside these halls back in the day against the 2004 Foreshore and Seabed Act? Where is the apology? Not one of the Labour members has got up and apologised on behalf of the Labour caucus for what it did to Maori. 
Labour members have had the temerity to get up in the House and talk as if from some sort of sanctimonious pixie-dust position saying they want to engage in a political process. The fact is they are not the Government any more. The fact is we are the majority. That is how things work. Why are they so opposed to that when they are the minority? But they use those tactics when they are in the majority. 
I start by reading something from the report by the special rapporteur to the United Nations. It states: “The new Marine and Coastal Area Bill that is currently being considered within Parliament represents a notable effort to reverse some of the principal areas of concern of the 2004 Foreshore and Seabed Act.” Where else should we start? There was a complaint about our nation that went to the United Nations. The special rapporteur came out here and wrote a report and nowhere in the report does it say that there is anything wrong with this bill. What it sets out to do is exactly why the Maori Party came to fruition: it was for the repeal of that nasty legislation. 
I turn first to my colleague my whanaunga—taku tuakana—Hone Harawira who says it is a racist bill. If he says it often enough he will start to believe it he and his five or six friends. There is nothing racist about this bill. Do members know why? Because it actually returns a human right—a civil right—to a group of people. But that right was taken away from a people because of who they were—because of some fear that judges might say they agreed with those people. The 2004 legislation was based around a fear of what might or might not have happened and Labour members were responsible for that. 
I turn now to my mate Mr Deputy Speaker’s mate everybody’s mate: Winston Peters. He was a consummate leader at garnering racial tension but I tell the House that he has nothing on John Boscawen and the members of ACT. They have not only lied but lied through their teeth over this issue. They have gone around the country and they have asserted that the Maori Affairs Committee is a racist committee a committee that should not hear submissions on a piece of legislation about Maori—or Pakeha actually or Europeans or anybody else. They assert that we committee members are not good enough to hear submissions. So I say to that member over there who creates racial tension out in our communities that it is time that extremists on both sides of the argument went away. It is time they took a slow boat to China or to wherever else they wanted to go because 90 percent of us in this country black and white want to get on with our lives and want to get on with each other. That is what this issue is all about; that is what this foreshore and seabed Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill is all about. 
Parekura Horomia said that this bill was nothing more than a disgrace. Well people need to look in the mirror—or two mirrors depending on who they are. Metiria Turei got up in this House and said that this bill was about the confiscation of Maori land. I do not know what sort of planet that lady is on but I can tell members that it is not Earth. This legislation is about nothing more than returning a people’s right to take an issue to court and to ask the judge whether they own something. It is as simple as that—as simple as that. There are other things that this bill does. It guarantees access to the beach access to the foreshore and seabed access to the coastal and marine area—access to the takutai moana. 
You know John Boscawen gets up in this House and rabbits on about the Coastal Coalition. I have been inundated with emails from the so-called Coastal Coalition. It is nothing more than the membership list of ACT. That is all it is. We in National are not afraid of making progressive legislation with a very very progressive party—the Maori Party. I have to tell my whanaunga Shane Jones and his mate Hone Harawira that the days of smart alec slogans on behalf of our people are gone. This Government is about moving forward together not some smart-ass— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Order! 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: —sorry smart alec—[ 
Interruption 
] Oh goodness me! For goodness’ sake the member comes from Rotorua. Smart alec slogans will not win Mr Jones or Phil Goff the Treasury benches in a few months’ time. What will win the Treasury benches is hard work and having the nose to the grindstone as we go about repairing the damage of 9 years of that Labour Government. 
I say thank you to Paul Quinn who was the only member to read 500 pages in 4 days. It beggars what Mr Parker said—that he did not have enough time. Mr Parker said that he did not have enough time; well Mr Quinn did and we have had the benefits of his reading capabilities.