English Bill: Foreshore and Seabed Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
English Bill: Foreshore and Seabed Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:621;Page:17095] 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (National—Clutha-Southland) 
: 
 This is easily the most cynical part of this legislation and the fact that we are debating it does an injustice to this Committee. This whole business of the foreshore and seabed is being taken seriously by everybody in New Zealand who knows that it is going on. Fifteen thousand Maori appeared on the front lawn of Parliament because they took the issue so seriously. But in Part 4 there is the ultimate expression of political cynicism in a deal that has been cooked up between Dr Cullen and Mr Peters. This part is no more than playground politics. We all know that as we sit here in the Chamber and read through it in order to try to understand why there is a jurisdiction of the High Court in respect of customary rights and when members have just finished the debate about the jurisdiction of the Maori Land Court. It is for the very simple reason that our favourite political show pony Mr Peters will be able to stand up in front of his Grey Power audiences and say: “One law for all.” That is the only reason for this part. There is no other reason. As the ACT MP Mr Prebble pointed out the Auckland regatta does not need this part; it never has needed it and it never will need it. Dr Cullen put this part in as a show of the desperation that the Government had about getting the numbers for this legislation did he not? He must have been really pushed if he had to introduce a whole new jurisdiction that to all intents and purposes will never be used.  
I did though wonder about one opportunity to use it with regard to sites of significance. There are any number of burial places around New Zealand that have been used consistently by communities since 1840. I would be interested in whether the Minister in the chair Dr Michael Cullen can tell us whether for the purpose of protecting such a site a community could go to the High Court for a customary rights order equivalent to what would apply to wahi tapu. My guess is that one can do that so that is one way in which the part could possibly be used. However we are casting around and trying to find ways to use this part to do things that we have always done without any question over their legality or probity.  
There is another aspect of this part that I think is worth commenting on. The clauses in this part outline the conditions under which a customary rights order may be issued. As I looked through and checked it out I found that they match pretty much the clauses under the Maori Land Court jurisdiction and that the hurdles in the part are fairly high. In order to get one of those orders one has to demonstrate continuous activity and that will be difficult. When I listened to Mr John Tamihere’s jocular explanation of the whole thing I wondered whether he was underestimating the seriousness of his position because there is absolutely no doubt that the Maori MPs in Labour have utterly failed to meet the expectations of the 15000 people who turned up at the hikoi. I do not think that there is any doubt about that. As I read through this part it struck me pretty forcefully that that is the reason Dr Cullen did the deal. He wants Winston Peters as well as John Tamihere to go out there and sell this legislation.  
There is no doubt that Labour let the genie out of the bottle over Maori expectations on ancestral connection. Those expectations have been running wild for the last 6 or 9 months among Maoridom and the Labour Maori MPs have delivered nothing like the expectations of their supporters. That is why Tariana Turia does not have to take a call tonight. She knows that she is winning huge ground over this legislation. [ 
Interruption 
] That member should know if he did not know this already that he is losing huge amounts of ground over it. I challenge the Maori MPs to get up in the Chamber and say the same things that they said in front of the hikoi.