Flavell Te Ururoa: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — In Committee 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:657;Page:6431] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Kia ora ano tatou katoa. We know obviously that the Maori seats—or at least mana whenua seats—are an issue for this Parliament and I want to continue around that theme and perhaps put some questions to the Minister in the chair Rodney Hide as I thought that his korero earlier this morning at least gave an overview as to where he is at. 
In terms of the discussion of the Maori seats in Auckland governance there was overwhelming support from the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance. All the mana whenua groups in Auckland the two major iwi groups in Auckland 100 percent of the Maori submitters to the Auckland Governance Legislation Committee on the Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill 80 percent of the non-Maori submitters to that select committee the majority of the Auckland councils most of the Auckland mayors and three of the five major parties in Parliament were in support of mana whenua seats. Hone Harawira told us last night that every intelligent political commentator in the country says it is OK to have mana whenua seats. In response the Minister of Local Government has said that if the people of Auckland choose to have reserve seats—Maori seats that is—they can do so under the Local Electoral Act. Indeed the council itself can choose this if it wants to. Those are big ifs. The Minister suggested that if Maori really want separate seats they should vote for mayoral candidate Len Brown as the first mayor of the united Auckland City. 
If we get organised as a people we might be able to put up candidates and vote accordingly but the track record suggests that it does not all happen like that. Despite all the support the select committee elected not to recommend that the bill provide for Maori seats on the proposed Auckland Council. I suppose that the good thing about all those entities I mentioned earlier is that they accepted the notion that it is OK to have mana whenua seats—Maori seats. The royal commission accepted the principle for goodness’ sake! That is what I was asking the Minister earlier this morning. I asked him to explain that he accepts the principle under the auspices of Te Tiriti o Waitangi that having mana whenua seats—not necessarily Maori seats—is appropriate in today’s world. 
We in the Maori Party are obviously pretty disappointed that we have not been able to get our way but we will continue to fight it through. But it calls into serious question the fundamental basis of the parliamentary democratic process which should reflect decision making of the people and for the people. The Minister Mr Hide talked this morning about the complications of providing a mechanism that would best reflect his principles of I suppose one law for all. It seems to me that we have paid officials in and around Parliament whose job it is to come up with an idea and a system that best reflects that in practice. But we have to accept the principle first and that is what I am asking the Minister to consider. I am asking him to accept the principle that it is OK according to Te Tiriti o Waitangi for Maori to have seats set aside as of right. 
The Maori Party is not sitting back. To support our cause we are putting forward five Supplementary Order Papers to move forward the Auckland kaupapa in an inclusive way. The amendments start with what is the preferred position of mana whenua—that is two mana whenua seats with candidates selected by mana whenua and voted on by Maori—and go right across the forum if you like to the most limited option which is that of one Maori seat. In the end we are still looking for the opening that allows the Government to accept that principle. The five options that we will be presenting to the Committee are in the name of my colleague Hone Harawira and they demonstrate that a number of options were presented to Cabinet but that ultimately none was acceptable. 
I will quickly go through some of the Supplementary Order Papers. The first would insert a requirement to provide for mana whenua representation on Auckland Council as required under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.