Peters Winston: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumePeters Winston: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 03 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8548. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]5.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) to the Minister for the Environment: Does he stand by all his statements?Hon Dr NICK SMITH (Minister for the Environment): Yes and particularly my statement yesterday that the Resource Legislation Amendment Bill will help address housing it will help support job growth and it will also help support regional development in areas like Northland.Rt Hon Winston Peters: This quote “Nor do we see anything in this bill that will enable us to address the huge and growing problem of iwi holding communities to ransom and effectively asking for ‘brownmail’ in order for projects to proceed.”—which unreconstructed serial flip-flopper said that?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: I am not going to speculate except to say that we do need to ensure that our resource management laws ensure that those who have interests properly participate and equally so that we get rid of the sort of supermarket circus. That is why we made significant changes to the Resource Management Act in 2009 to stop trade competitors.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Why did he yesterday mislead the House when he said—Mr SPEAKER: Order! I will give the member the chance to rephrase it but you cannot accuse a member of misleading this House.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Sorry. Why did he yesterday tell the House that Resource Management Act legislation was introduced to the House on 16 December 2004 when the Hansard record shows that the House did not even sit that day?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: I am happy to check. What is absolutely correct is that a bill was introduced to the House in December of 2004 that provided for iwi joint management agreements and the member and his party voted for that bill.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Why did he tell the House yesterday and repeated today that New Zealand First supported that legislation when if he looks at the Hansard record on 2 August 2005 it shows clearly in the Noes votes section that there were 13 votes from New Zealand First against it? Why did he tell a lie? [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! The question has been asked.Hon Dr NICK SMITH: My understanding is and the Hansard record that I had checked is—here is the answer—that when that bill was introduced in December of 2004 Winston Peters and New Zealand First voted for it.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Why has he gone from saying in 2004 that giving iwi greater powers under the Resource Management Act is “a revolutionary constitutional change” to now supporting it wholeheartedly? Has he himself been a victim of the very “brownmail” that he warned us about in 2004?Hon Dr NICK SMITH: The bill that I will be introducing to the House has iwi participation agreements in it. This was in the discussion paper that my very capable colleague Amy Adams put out for public consultation in 2013. The real strength of that mechanism is that it enables iwi to identify with their council what the resource issues are in the area that they do need to be consulted about and equally those ones that actually add little value and just add bureaucracy to the process.