Fox Marama: Resource Legislation Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFox Marama: Resource Legislation Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 03 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8573. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARAMA FOX (Co-Leader—Māori Party): Tēnā koe e Te Mana Whakawā. Firstly I want to talk about the irrational fear that comes from having greater Māori participation in bills such as this. I have heard the cries that Māori are going to be “brown-mailing” the Government—“brown-mailing”; seriously. That is the opinion that was held over the foreshore and seabed; that oh my goodness if you give Māori the rights you cannot go to the beach any more. I will not be able to wear my bikini and sunbathe—and frankly that might a good thing. But I want to allay those fears.Many people think that RMA simply means Resource Management Act. But I want to try something else. Does RMA now mean “Realising Māori Acumen”? Because there is no fear here—Māori have been doing this for a very long time now. There was a lot of conversation when the bill first came in many years ago about whether Māori would be holding things up because of the taniwha in the creek. Māori have been working in a voluntary capacity to come up with solutions. We know the art of compromise in order to achieve real outcomes and real benefits for all people. Iwi participation agreements should not be feared; they should be embraced. Having Māori tikanga support the development of this country is value added to this country and not something to be feared. Continuing to protect clauses 6 and 7 of this bill ensures that kaitiakitanga the principles of tikanga and Māori aspirations can be upheld. There is no fear there. In fact environmentalists across the country say: “Thank you very much. You are our last-stop hope to protect that river this river.”I want to reflect on that freshwater argument at the moment since it has been brought up recently in the House. In 1957 when the allocation of water happened Māori lived beside awa in its pristine state and for 60 years we have simply been observers to the allocation of water for the corporate benefit of people who gain from that allocation. While we have been observers to that we have seen the degradation of our rivers. This is a place where we can realise and have true Māori acumen come to the fore to aid and value New Zealand and the benefit of this Act. That is what we have been fighting for throughout the negotiations to date.We are not happy with all parts of this bill. I want to applaud the Minister for the Environment. The Minister has in good faith been negotiating with us. Some of the things we were able to get out right at the beginning were bottom lines—“We cannot move on this unless these things are in place.” Others we will continue to have negotiation over because we do recognise the value of this. Actually I want to thank the Minister for understanding our place as Māori in this country to have that conversation to realise the value of doing this together.And so we come to the first reading. Many people did not think we would get to this point. But we are happy to support the bill to the select committee because the whole of New Zealand now needs to have their say. It is a complex technical bill and it will benefit from the submissions that will come from all of local government and the other community organisations and peoples who have an interest in protecting the resource. This is not the silver bullet for all housing issues but it may help if we get the balance right. So I want to assure the public of New Zealand that the Māori Party’s getting it to this stage has been through good-faith negotiations and we will continue to push for that going forward beyond and through the select committee. If those things are supported and strengthened then we could see the bill supported—but only if and when. Thank you.