Harawira Hone: Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
Harawira Hone: Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
[Volume:654;Page:3268] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Chairperson. Kia ora tatou katoa e te Whare. First of all I thank Su’a William Sio for his contribution earlier this morning. Of all the speakers today his speech touched most closely on the sorts of people who will be completely missed out under the Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill. So mihi atu ki a koe e Su’a mo tena korero. 
[ 
I acknowledge you for that statement Su’a 
.] 
A bill that will directly affect one-third of the population of this country and 50 percent of the Maori population of this country should not be rushed through the House under urgency. There is no rationale whatsoever for this bill going through the House in that way particularly given that the next stage is for the special select committee to go to Auckland where its business will drag out for weeks and weeks. It makes no sense to rush the bill through the House now. 
I also note that as we get closer and closer to the anniversary of the Bastion Point protest and to the possibility of a hikoi I have heard that word coming from nearly every speaker on the Labour benches in the last couple of hours. Yet when Ngati Whatua first called for a hui to talk about the possibility of taking action and announcing a hikoi nobody from the Labour Party was there at all. Not one of Labour’s MPs was there. It is not that only Maori Party MPs were there; National Government MPs were there as well—and this is a bill they support. 
Hon Member 
: The Green Party was there. 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: The Green Party was there yet still the Labour Party did not turn up. In fact at that time Labour did not even have a position on Maori representation. It has come to a position since that time because I suspect it is trying to maximise the opposition to this bill. 
The Maori Party opposes the bill because Maori representation is missing completely from it. We oppose it because mana whenua do not have seats at the top table under this legislation. I do not need to put up an amendment to this bill because my whanaunga Shane Jones will put one up. He and I have already discussed it and I will be happy to support his amendment. 
The reason we support the mana whenua and the hikoi—and it is not a Maori Party hikoi—is that mana whenua themselves believe that it is important that Auckland the jewel of the Pacific the city with the greatest Polynesian population in the whole world deserves the opportunity for the tangata whenua to be represented at the top table. The people of Tamaki-makau-rau have been giving land for the development of the Auckland settlement for more than 200 years. For those members who do not know when Ngati Whatua ki Orakei got back the last little bit of land they owned Bastion Point they offered to share the management of that land with the Auckland City Council. For that reason because of the willingness of the tangata whenua of Auckland to continue to share that city and to give land to that city we believe that Maori seats should be mandatory and should be part and parcel of the make-up of the new Auckland City arrangements. Whether Auckland becomes a super-city is another story but if the hikoi provides the opportunity for mana whenua to have representation at the top table we will support it all of the way. 
I congratulate Rodney Hide and the National Government on at least trying to do something about Auckland. It has been talked about for a long long time. I suspect that the previous Labour Government did not do anything about it because it was not up to copping the flak that would come with it. Our position in opposing this bill is a matter of principle not a matter of money. We support the right of mana whenua to have seats at the top table. We support the right of all citizens of Auckland to make a choice as to what their city will look like.