Flavell Te Ururoa: Public Works (Offer Back of and Compensation for Acquired Land) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Public Works (Offer Back of and Compensation for Acquired Land) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 21 July 2010. Volume:665;Page:12556. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 I move  
That the Public Works (Offer Back of and Compensation for Acquired Land) Amendment Bill be now read a second time 
. Hoi ano kia ora tatau e te Whare. I te tuatahi hei wawahi i waku korero ka huri te titiro ki a koe kai taku rangatira e Tau kua hoki mai koe ki to Whare. Nau mai hoki mai me to ate hou hei whakahihiko i te ngakau ka mutu e hari koa ana kua hoki ora mai. Nau mai hoki mai. Otira ki a tatau e hoa ma mo te ahuatanga o nga mate o te wa waiho ratau kia moe. Anei tatau kua hoki mai ki roto i nga pakitara o te Whare tena koutou kia ora tatau. 
Ko taku i te tuatahi he mihi kau atu ki te komiti na ratau tenei pire i titiro i nga marama kua hipa. Ka mihi ra ki te Local Government and Environment Committee 
. 
 E hoa ma tena koutou katoa. Ka nui te mihi ki a Chris Auchinvole te tiamana o taua komiti i whakatuwhera nei te kuaha kia tae atu ahau ki te whakatakoto i nga korero e pa ana ki tenei pire. Ki a au nei i ahua areare mai nga taringa ki te tikanga o taku pire ka mutu ahakoa he ahua uaua ki etahi. Ko te mea nui i tae mai nga tangata o te motu ki te whakatakoto i o ratau whakaaro ki mua i te komiti ka mutu i rongo te komiti i nga korero. Te ahua nei e kore pea e eke ki te taumata i wawatatia mai ai i nga marama kua hipa engari ko te mea pai i korerohia i wanangahia. No reira ka nui te mihi ki a koutou katoa i kaha rongo nei i te tikanga o tenei pire. 
[ 
So greetings to us the House. First of all I open my address by looking in your direction Tau my honourable member; you have returned to your House. Welcome back with your restored heart that makes you vibrant within. How happy I am that you are back and alive. Welcome back welcome back. In respect of the departed fellow members allow them to rest there. Here we are back within the walls of the House so greetings to you collectively and to us all.  
First I want to acknowledge the Local Government and Environment Committee which considered this bill in the past months and the members on it. To you the committee members thank you. To the chairman of that committee Chris Auchinvole I greatly appreciate the opportunity you provided that enabled me to appear before the committee to make personal representations on this bill. I feel that the purpose of my bill struck a chord somewhat with those who listened even though some had difficulties coming to terms with it. The important thing is that the people of the country came before the committee to present their views and ultimately the committee heard them. I get the feeling however that what I desired in the past months will not be achieved but the best thing that has come out of this process is that it was addressed and debated. So I appreciate greatly all of you who listened intently to the purpose of this bill. 
] 
The Waitangi Tribunal’s  
He Maunga Rongo: Report on Central North Island Claims  
of 2008 stated that the taking of lands in the central North Island was “a major grievance” and that “the compulsory taking of land and resources—without consent and sometimes without compensation by legislation unsanctioned by Maori communities—has given rise to an enduring and powerful grievance.” This bill which I have put forward responds to that challenge to address the enduring and powerful grievance of the legislative history that has been unsanctioned by Maori communities. 
Maori land has over the years both been taken under the Public Works Act for a specific purpose and purchased by the Crown for specific purposes. In most instances land sold to the Crown for a specific purpose has been sold by Maori for only that specific purpose and for no other. With that principle in mind this bill which I have had on the books for some time proposes either that land sold to the Crown should be offered back to the original owners and/or their descendants or that compensation should be offered. That is the point of the bill. 
We have a legacy of Waitangi Tribunal reports in this land that suggests the Crown has historically failed to honour its obligations and responsibilities as articulated in article 2 of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Those reports have said in the strongest terms that the Crown has an obligation to protect Maori land for use by Maori for as long as Maori wish. We know too that the evidence of these words is revealed by the amount of land taken from Maori by the Crown and its agencies using the various tranches of the Public Works Act over successive generations. 
During the select committee process submitter after submitter when describing the way in which Maori land has been taken in a disproportionate manner over the decades told us that the Public Works Act 1981 creates discrimination. Atareta Poananga shared her views on the way in which the Waitangi Tribunal’s reports have dealt with public works takings and talked about the fact that they have described what she called “a crucial insight into the human cost of Crown policies and practises … In the Turangi Township Report for example the Tribunal described the statutory powers of the Crown as ‘draconian’ and that many ‘suffered grievous spiritual loss the scars that remain today’.” She reported that “The Crown operates from a world view that assumes the inherent superiority of certain values and beliefs which are firmly rooted in Western Law.” Her challenge to the committee was that “Tikanga Maori should be elevated to the same status as Tikanga Pakeha”. 
Atareta Poananga also advised the select committee of the view of Te Roopu Arataki a group of Maori who were considered to combine a specialist technical focus with knowledge of tikanga. Te Roopu Arataki assisted Land Information New Zealand on policy development for a review of the Public Works Act. It was their unanimous opinion that “not one more acre of Maori land should be taken for Public Works purposes.” 
I might add that this is the phrase that my colleague Hone Harawira has upheld in the last couple of days. In fact he has breathed new life into that phrase which originated in the Maori Land March to Wellington 35 years ago. The march had as its slogan as I say “Not one more acre” because Maori were scared about how much Maori land was being gobbled up by the Crown. Such is the passion that many of our people have in wanting to retain their land. This bill is related very much to the passion that our people sang about and continue to sing about and in some cases even march about. 
My view is that this bill has the most honourable intentions. The bill proposes amendments to the Public Works Act 1981 specifically section 40 in order to ensure firstly that the former owners of land who have been deprived of that land by the Crown for the purposes of a public work are given the right of first refusal to purchase that land when the Crown no longer requires it for the particular public work for which it was originally acquired. Secondly the bill would ensure solatium payments for the former owners of land who have been deprived of their land for a public works purpose for which the land was never actually used. Thirdly it would ensure that where the former owners are deceased the descendants of the former owners can exercise the rights set out in section 40(1). 
I have read the view of Land Information New Zealand that the purpose of the bill is already met through the current mechanisms for redress compensation and offer-back available through the court system and te Tiriti o Waitangi settlements process. But I put it to the House that the very solid evidence that came out of the approximately 71 submissions on the bill was that all the legal and Maori submissions were actually in favour of the bill’s proposals. I understand that the select committee does not want the bill to proceed; that is a little bit disastrous. That is its view and there is little that I can do about it unfortunately. But I strongly recommend that section 40 of the Public Works Act and the incidental sections be reviewed. 
It is my strongest view that the Crown has an obligation under te Tiriti to protect preserve and promote the retention of Maori land by Maori by adopting policies and practices that facilitate that obligation. Given the major role that the Crown has played in the dispossession of Maori of their land the Crown must have a major role in rectifying the critical land-loss situation that Maori confront in 2010. The dispossession of land from Maori is an indictment on the Crown. We will never forget that where Maori once held 660 million hectares now in 2010 Maori control less than 6 percent of the land mass of Aotearoa. We say “Not one more acre”. 
The Public Works Act as a whole was often used in unscrupulous ways. Against that background although the members of the select committee understood that the intention of the bill was laudable the practicalities of such legislation were clearly a bridge too far to cross. 
Finally I submit that the failure of the Crown to protect Maori land as agreed to within article 2 of Te Tiriti o Waitangi is a blatant breach of its obligation to Maori. I stand on notice before the House to say that if this bill does not proceed today the Maori Party will nevertheless continue to uphold and be dedicated to our commitment to protect and preserve the whenua that is still in our hands as tangata whenua and for the generations to come. 
In closing I thank in English the select committee for giving solid time to the bill and for listening carefully to my submission. I thank the select committee for giving time to all of the many submitters and I publicly thank the submitters who took time out to provide information to the select committee. That was really well appreciated and I am hopeful that in the end a review of the Public Works Act may well be a positive outcome. Kia ora tatou.