Harawira Hone: Property Law Bill — Third Reading 
Harawira Hone: Property Law Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:642;Page:12119] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Deputy Speaker. Kia ora tatou i te Whare. I asked to be on the Justice and Electoral Committee because I have a genuine interest in understanding how Parliament deals with bills that may impact on Maori rights and the rights of others in Aotearoa. I note the committee’s comment on this Property Law Bill: “We are disappointed at the paucity of submissions we received for the bill especially from the legal fraternity. The bill represents the largest single change to property law in the past 55 years …”. I ask myself what it was about the 365 clauses 7 schedules and 55 years of history that meant we received only nine submissions and heard only six. I mean what is there not to get excited about when considering the changes to clause 60(2) to refer to “the time” fixed for a lease rather than “the date” or the movement within the subclause of clause 267A(1)(a) to give more priority to the wording “on reasonable terms”? Seriously when the legislation is as riveting as this is it any wonder nobody bothers to write in? 
If this bill had taken a look at the property law references in Article 11 of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples it would have been a matter of great interest. Article 11 of the declaration states: “Indigenous peoples have the right to practise and revitalize their cultural traditions and customs. This includes the right to maintain protect and develop the past present and future manifestations of their cultures such as archaeological and historical sites artefacts designs ceremonies technologies and visual and performing arts and literature. States shall provide redress through effective mechanisms which may include restitution developed in conjunction with indigenous peoples with respect to their cultural intellectual religious and spiritual property taken without their free prior and informed consent or in violation of their laws traditions and customs.”  
Now that makes a lot of sense to me. So I had a look to see how the Property Law Bill stacked up with the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. To no one’s great surprise it does not. A search of the 284 pages of the bill does not come up with too much on intellectual religious or spiritual property interests except for a reference to Maori cultural values in Part 6 clause 331 on page 205. Funnily enough on the day the Government announces initiatives on climate change we find that the word “cultural” pops up in this bill around trees—specifically under clause 328 which requires that a court have regard to Maori cultural values when determining an order for the removal or trimming of trees. Now that may seem kind of minor but in fact it is a radical and significant step coming as it does from a Government that stole the foreshore and seabed from Maori cancelled support for Maori students took the Treaty of Waitangi out of the curriculum voted to delete Treaty principles from legislation passed laws to take Maori off various boards and voted against the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.  
Being Maori in the new millennium is tough when all of your cultural values are being subjected to ridicule from rednecks and rejection from the Government and there is no support whatsoever from Maori MPs in Government either. Long-held concepts about our connection to the forests through our whakapapa connections to Tane Mahuta are difficult to promote in an environment where members of the Labour Maori caucus are happy to dismiss those very concepts and to laugh about indigenous rights. We need to hold on to those concepts because they give us a deeper sense of who we are where we have come from where we are today and where we might be tomorrow. They give us a deeper sense of our obligations and responsibilities to care for this world because we are an integral part of it and not just the rapacious landlords that Western culture might have us believe. 
It is important that we as Maori recognise and pay due respects to our origins and to our place in Aotearoa and to the stories that tell us of Tane Mahuta separating Papatuanuku and Ranginui so that our world might have light; of Tane Mahuta providing sustenance through food shelter and clothing; of the importance of trees for whakairo and as the source of rongoa; of the traditions rituals and ceremonies for selecting and removing trees; of protecting and preserving the tapu associated with particular trees; of the need to take seriously our responsibility to treat the resources of the forest with the care and respect they deserve; and of course of the great father of the forest the 4000-year-old kauri named after Tane Mahuta himself. 
Unfortunately however this Property Law Bill has precious little else of direct relevance to Maori until we get to schedule 7 and see the amendments to a whole host of Maori Acts related to housing and lands such as Te Ture Whenua Maori Act and the Maori Trustee Act. But instead of protecting Maori property rights these amendments unsurprisingly continue down the path well trodden by colonial Governments of doing their best to separate Maori from their land. I note that under the suggested amendments in this bill if a whanau decided to mortgage their Maori land and failed to make payments a mortgagee sale would be carried out as if it were general land. In this way the restrictions on the sale of Maori land under Te Ture Whenua Maori Act to keep Maori land from being lost to Maori hands would not be able to be used. 
In the same way that it is often difficult to talk about Maori cultural values in a world attuned to disrespecting anything Maori so too is it difficult to talk about Maori connection to land in a place where land is nothing but a consumer item to be purchased and sold to the highest bidder. So I will not. In closing though I will say that in a Parliament where the Government refuses to honour its obligations to Maori in Aotearoa and to indigenous peoples anywhere else in the world the Maori Party accepts with great humility its role of defending Maori rights and promoting Maori interests for the benefit of all who live in Aotearoa. The Maori Party will support this bill at third reading because for all its flaws it is compatible with our commitment to kaupapa Maori and our responsibility to uphold the rights of indigenous peoples with respect to their cultural intellectual religious and spiritual property. Tena koe; kia ora tatou te Whare.