Fox MaramaMARAMA FOX (Co-Leader—Māori Party): Tēnā koe e Te Mana Whakawā and I would like to thank the previous speaker David Parker for his contribution. In fact I quite like David Parker. I am not one who is into pointing fingers and saying horrible things about people so I am going to say the wonderful things I like about Mr David Parker. I agree with him that he is a valuable man. He has given good input in his speech across a broad range of things that we actually agree on.We come to this House and we come to the Resource Legislation Amendment Bill because we think we try to provide some balance to that. We have managed to maintain kaitiakitanga. We have managed to maintain the place of hapū and iwi in the management of the resources under this piece of legislation. We believe that protection and enhancement of the natural world can only be achieved when tangata whenua are involved in decisions about sustainable management and economic progress. We have this belief. It is also the belief of the Iwi Chairs Forum whose technical advisers worked with us in negotiations with the Minister to carve back some of the things that the Hon David Parker—is he honourable"? [Interruption] Yes he is honourable—mentioned in his speech.I mean that we want to be involved in a very real way and to this end we have supported the call of Ngāti Tama who have sought from the Minister for the Environment a water conservation order over the Waikoropupū Springs. We do this because it has been the experience of Māori in regional areas under local government to come and be consulted and tick-boxed and then to be ignored when decision making is made by regional councils and local councils. I could bring up the example in my own town of Masterton where the iwi were consulted about whether to put the overflow from the sewerage treatment centres directly into the river when the treatment ponds were full.Our objection was noted. Ngāti Kahungunu ki Te Wairarapa and Rangitāne ki Wairarapa said: "This is unacceptable. You cannot do that. You have another option available to you and we think you should do that." The local council said "Thank you very much for your consultation." and did it anyway—to the point where that river is now so degraded that a farm dog drank from the river not far from where that sewage outlet flows into the Ruamāhanga River and died. That is right. That is how clean our rivers are. So yes we do believe that being given an increased say through the Mana Whakahono a Rōhe arrangements for hapū and iwi with their local council is an important step and it is a huge leap of faith for it to be legislated in law that they must do it because it is variable around the country as to how much local government interacts with their local Māori.Some people have called that separatism. Some people have said that that is special rights for Māori. Some people have said that that is privilege.Denis O'Rourke: That's what it is. That in fact is what it is.MARAMA FOX: I will tell you what that is. That is correcting the imbalance. That is correcting the imbalance of a guarantee that was given to Māori under the Treaty of Waitangi and we have sought to ensure the guarantee to all their resources to all of their lands to their rivers to their fishers—Denis O'Rourke: That's a different issue.MARAMA FOX: Oh is that a different issue? I think not thank you very much. So our concept of guardianship and kaitiakitanga which embraces the spiritual and cultural guardianship of Te Ao Māori is a responsibility derived from whakapapa—whakapapa that links us to our ancestral mother Papatūānuku. That is our right and that is why we stand up and fight for the right of Māori within this piece of legislation.However let us get to the GE-free debate that has been going on recently. I would like our public and our whānau to know that the Māori Party has been a supporter of GE-free Aotearoa since 2004. It has been in our policy manifesto. It has been in our relationship agreements with the Government. And based on this there are some things that we would still like to negotiate with the Minister because the drafting does not completely match the anticipated decisions that we came to and the agreements that we came to around policy.So in good faith we are going to vote for this today on the guarantee that we continue to have those conversations in order to put forward the policies of not just the Māori Party but yes regions such as the Hawke's Bay regions such as Te Tai Tokerau and regions within Te Wai Pounamu which are advocating for a GE-free stance.The Māori Party will protect the natural environment and the ecological system. This comes straight from our policy. We will support Aotearoa remaining nuclear free and work towards achieving a GE-free New Zealand. That has been our policy for ever. It is not because people are jumping up and down. We have met with our GE friends throughout the entire process as we have sought to reduce the wide-ranging powers of the Minister.You might have noticed that there used to be a section 360A section 360B and section 360C as well as section 360D and they have now gone because that is what we have negotiated. We do that because we speak on behalf of the people whom we represent and their technical advisers were completely involved throughout the entire process to ensure that we could get the best outcome for Māori. And guess what? They agree. That is exactly what we have done. We have secured gains for kaitiakitanga in this bill. If the New Zealand First Party members have a problem with that they should speak to a member of their party who was the chief Treaty negotiator for our Kahungunu settlement in which they were trying to get back the lake and the rivers and have equal management over those resources. He can tell them all about what that means to Māori and that is exactly what we have sought to do here—so that you can not be just consulted but up front at the beginning you are able to engage in a Mana Whakahono arrangement with your local council to determine in what areas you would like to have notifications around consent.So no maybe iwi do not need to be consulted about a window in a building or a street that is going to be built in an area that has already been subdivided but they may want to be consulted about a wāhi tapu a sacred spring a place that has been a gathering place for their people for centuries. That is exactly what happened with the springs that we talked about earlier the Waikoropupū Springs.We are willing to support this bill today on conditions. This is what we say to the Minister. We have been working in good faith with him and we have made some gains for Māoridom within this bill for the betterment of the whole of Aotearoa because kaitiakitanga linked through whakapapa to our Earth Mother is the way that we ensure that our environment is maintained in its not wadeable not swimmable but in its pristine state. Our policy is not for swimmable rivers; it is for drinkable rivers or at least drinkable where they should be drinkable and not in the middle of Rotorua when there is bubbling mud coming up through the water—but in its pristine state. So we stand today to say that we give support. We give support to this piece of legislation at its second reading but we are looking forward to the Committee of the whole House stage at which any further negotiations that we may be able to get through to further protect the environment will be put through.Denis O'Rourke: Leaving it a bit late.MARAMA FOX: It is never too late. It is not too late until the fat lady sings and I have not started singing yet. So the next stage the Committee of the whole House stage is the stage where we can bring Supplementary Order Papers to the House—the opportunity to make amendments if we are able to do that and let the rest of the House decide whether those things are appropriate for this piece of legislation or not.This bill does not become law until it passes the third reading. That is the time at which you should measure how voting is cast—because I understand that has been raised in recent times about the Māori Party being the Māori branch of the National Party. Well let me just clarify before I finish: if I wanted to wear blue undies I would be. I am not. Therefore we seek to have an independent voice and we can bring independent voice to this bill. We bring independent votes to this bill. We seek to uphold the wishes of our people who have put their trust in us and that is what we are doing. Thank you."