Flavell Te Ururoa: Mount Maunganui Borough Reclamation and Empowering Act Repeal Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Mount Maunganui Borough Reclamation and Empowering Act Repeal Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 17 October 2012. Volume:684;Page:5911. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Speaker. Ka nui te mihi ki a koe i tenei ahiahi otira ki a tatau o te Whare Paremata. 
[ 
Thank you Mr Speaker. I acknowledge you greatly and us indeed of Parliament House this afternoon. 
] 
I move  
That the Mount Maunganui Borough Reclamation and Empowering Act Repeal Bill be now read a second time 
. The Mount Maunganui Borough Reclamation and Empowering Act Repeal Bill is an important bill on two counts if I can start that way. Firstly there is a local nawe an issue of local concern to the people of Rangataua Bay and more broadly across Tauranga Moana. The second note of significance is the national picture—how the legacy of this bill will we hope influence greater power-sharing with Maori right across the motu. 
If I can turn your attention firstly to the local perspective and give some background to those listening this bill repeals the Mount Maunganui Borough Reclamation and Empowering Act 1975 so it has been around for a while. The area we focused on in the bill was taken by the Mount Maunganui Borough Council for the purposes of establishing sewage ponds at the eastern end of Rangataua Bay Te Tahuna o Rangataua in my electorate of Waiariki and in the Tauranga area. In essence the 1975 Act gave the Bay of Plenty Harbour Board the authority to transfer part of the seabed of Tauranga Harbour to the Mount Maunganui Borough Council and then to add insult to injury authorised the council to undertake reclamation of that part of the harbour for sewerage and other purposes. 
Nga Potiki as the local iwi and individuals like the late Wiremu Ohia Chair of the Tauranga Moana Maori Executive and Paraone Reweti the MP for Eastern Maori at the time were very very vocal in protesting that the area was a source of food for the people and had an important history attached to it. In the submission to the Local Government and Environment Committee their point of view is clearly outlined and I quote from the submission: “For Nga Potiki and indeed Tauranga Maori the discharge of human waste into the pristine Te Tahuna o Rangataua that had served as a pataka kai … for centuries was and remains utterly repugnant.” So you can understand that Tauranga people were not happy. 
What was particularly disturbing for Nga Potiki was that the outfall pipe was going to head to the ocean by way of an urupa and wahi tapu—in other words a cemetery and some sacred sites. This was their ancestral landscape confirmed by the awards of the Papamoa Block to Nga Potiki by the Crown commissioners in the late 1880s. During the select committee what I found of particular interest was that the objections of that day were not voiced just by Maori alone. Indeed the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Ministry of Transport also opposed the proposal to reclaim the foreshore and the seabed. At the same time an environmental impact report established in 1974 concluded that “a flourishing ecosystem on the tidal flats would be lost” through reclamation. The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment concluded that the reclamation could not be justified because of the impact on the area and the possibility of other sites being used. So all parties if you want to put it that way were agreed that this was an area of significant environmental and cultural value. Yet despite all of these objections the Parliament of the day went ahead anyway. And 37 years on here we are and we are finally listening to the wisdom of those who have gone before us. 
It has not just happened overnight and I want to firstly acknowledge those people who some 13 years ago started taking direct action to restore the land to its essence. I want to be clear that the relationship that we are repairing in this legislation is not just between mana whenua and the respective council; it is actually also about Nga Potiki and its close relationship to the land—in particular Te Tahuna o Rangataua. We are recognising a history honoured through oral tradition through waiata pepeha and whakatauki proverbs. 
This relationship was constantly referred to in the evidence submitted by Nga Potiki kaumatua to the Waitangi Tribunal held at Mangatawa Marae in 1999. At that time the people unanimously resolved to establish the trust to be known as the Nga Potiki-a-Tamapahore Trust to represent and advocate Nga Potiki’s interests with the Crown. In 2000 the Tauranga City Council started a consultation process establishing the Tangata Whenua Tauranga City Council Standing Committee to facilitate improved engagement between Maori and the council. Four years later the Tauranga Moana Tangata Whenua Collective was established bringing together representatives of all 15 iwi and hapu resident within the boundaries of Tauranga City Council. Thirteen of the 15 have protocol agreements with the council which outline how they will work together. 
 So if we fast track back from then to this bill I want to commend the Tauranga City Council for its recognition that although it has inherited an area that is still being utilised a significant portion of the land originally taken will not be needed and so it has moved to hand it back to the people—awesome. For me it is great to see that the council and iwi are working together and I cannot work out how this has not happened far more often. When it does happen it usually removes the angst by iwi hapu and whanau about not being engaged and involved in decision making as tangata whenua and yet we saw with the  
Rena 
 disaster that a unified approach is always the best approach.  
Finally this is where I want to focus on the broader and nationwide issues that this bill represents. The Maori Party has always advocated for local government that it should—and must in fact—successfully engage Maori and secure full confidence trust faith and participation in decision-making processes. We invested considerable effort in the last term of Parliament in establishing the Maori Statutory Board in the Auckland Council. We see mana whenua statutory boards as an important mechanism in power sharing with Maori. I see what happens in this bill as another important step in assisting local government to be accountable and responsive when working with mana whenua. And I have to say how great it was to read the submission—and there was only one submission on this bill—which was yet another example of a truly collaborative approach. I want to commend the Tauranga City Council for its declaration that it has no intention to further reclaim land in Te Tahuna o Rangataua. 
Finally my thoughts return to those pakeke those kaumatua from Nga Potiki who protested against the original Act and indeed the representatives and advocates from local government and across the community. The repeal of the 1975 Act will I hope go some way towards healing the hurt caused by the impact of that legislation. I am proud to have been the sponsor of this bill in its healing capacity. 
I want also to acknowledge the very real potential there is as an important consequence of this legislation to strengthen and inspire a constructive and ever-growing respect between Nga Potiki and the Tauranga City Council. The pathway has been set and I truly believe that there is a positive way forward. That has been acknowledged both by the city council and by Nga Potiki and hopefully on the broader issue across Tauranga Moana. I note that in the select committee report there was just one small amendment around a sunset clause which seems appropriate under the conditions simply to try to tide the bill over to allow for the enactment of the bill if you want to put it that way. Over and above that with the one submission that came in to basically tie the two parties together it seems to me that there should be unanimous support across the House for this bill to pass as it sits with the addition of a sunset clause which would basically tidy it up and allow the iwi to have their land back or at least an acknowledgment that the land was wrongfully taken—it should never have been taken—but that the bridges have been built to bring the parties together. I will leave that with the House. Ka nui te mihi ki te hunga o roto o te kaunihera ka mutu ki a Nga Potiki mo te kaha ki te whakatutuki i tenei kaupapa. Tena koutou tena koutou kia ora tatau katoa. 
[ 
I acknowledge those in the council greatly as well as those of Nga Potiki who worked hard to complete this proposal. Congratulations and well done to you collectively and to us all 
.]