Heatley Phil: Maori Purposes Bill — First Reading 
Heatley Phil: Maori Purposes Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:632;Page:3966] 
PHIL HEATLEY (National—Whangarei) 
: 
 I take this opportunity to address the House on this very important Maori Purposes Bill. It is important because three Ministers are involved—the Minister of Justice the Minister ofand of course the Minister in charge of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations. This evening they sent out their messenger the Minister of Maori Affairs with his script as to what he was to put to the House tonight on the range of issues that this bill addresses. I was very interested in Mr Flavell’s articulation of how he foresaw events unfolding with this bill because the issues addressed are very wide ranging. The Minister of Maori Affairs—the messenger boy for the Minister of Justice the Minister ofand the Minister in charge of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations—came into the House tonight and told us that this bill amends four statutes. It amends not just one statute not just two statutes but four statutes. He said that the bill will go to the Maori Affairs Committee and be dealt with there. That is the only committee out of the committees that deal with justiceand treaty negotiations that has a Government majority. 
The four statutes to be amended include Te Ture Whenua Maori Act of 1993. The number of judges in the Maori Land Court is to be raised from eight to 14. I acknowledge what Judy Turner says—that the number may not be raised by six to 14 immediately—but I think most listeners and most members of this House will appreciate that when the bureaucracy whether it is the judicial bureaucracy or anything else is given a cheque or a resource it is used to the fullest extent. I ask only that in this case when it is used to the fullest extent we see efficiency due consideration given to claims and so forth. 
Further in relation to Te Ture Whenua Maori Act we see a retrospective validation of decisions made by a Deputy Chief Judge that were made without a valid judicial warrant. That is of huge concern to us simply because the Deputy Chief Judge has issued hundreds of judicial orders without proper jurisdiction—approximately 300 from December 1999 to March 2004 alone. The practice dates back to the 1980s. The Deputy Chief Judge then asked Judge Norman Smith to serve as a temporary judge without a valid judicial warrant empowering him to do so. In other words the issue here is that no valid judicial warrant was present when those decisions were made. 
Even in a simple situation whereby someone who purports to be a justice of the peace receives and witnesses a signature or declaration and that goes forward that declaration is effectively null and void. We see much more serious and far-reaching matters here where a Deputy Chief Judge actually passed on responsibility to a temporary judge who had no jurisdiction or warrant and he made decisions on far-reaching and serious matters. This Minister—“the messenger for Maori Affairs”—comes to the House tonight to ask us to say that is OK. Well National says it is not OK. We are willing to send this bill to a select committee but we will be digging deep and looking at the situations where no warrant was present when decisions were made. We will be asking what each of the decisions was how far-reaching the decisions were and what the parties affected by the decisions think of this bill. 
The third statute to be amended by this Maori Purposes Bill is the Maori Fisheries Act of 2004. The processes are clarified for the allocation of fisheries assets. The fourth statute is the Maori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement Act of 2004 and the amendment clarifies the processes for the allocation of aquaculture assets. 
Interestingly in relation to the second statute to be amended the Treaty of Waitangi Act the Government is looking at saying that claims submitted before 1 September 2008 can be amended in any way after that date—there is to be no certainty. On one hand the Government is saying that all historical claims under the Treaty of Waitangi must be submitted before 2008. So it has done a bit of a land grab there—a land grab for National policy because we have basically said for the last 3 years and certainly said leading up to the last election that enough was enough. Maori have enough history with a good 100 years and more since European settlement to understand the issues the injustices that were done—and clearly there were a fair few of those—and what the traditions written and oral are. Surely they know what the historical claims are in substance. They can articulate the particulars of them and they can present them to the judiciary with a fair degree of knowledge and detail. Surely Maori can do that. Well the Government is giving them until 2008 to do so. For us that is probably not soon enough to end that process but we will support that part of the bill. 
But on the other hand here is the flick in the tail the twist: the Labour Government is not satisfied with that. It says here that yes all Treaty claims must be lodged by 1 September 2008 but that they can be amended in any way after that date. So Parekura Horomia’s voters could go to him a couple of months before the election and say they know he needs their vote and they would like their claim to be amended. It could be like one of those Michael Cullen dinner parties with Air New Zealand where a deal is done and no one is any the wiser. So I say of Parekura Horomia—nod nod wink wink; say no more—that when we see a Treaty claim that in itself may dislodge other Maori claimants in the same area he will let that go through. That simply says to Maori that the Government will fiddle around with the process. They will not have any certainty. More and more the clamps will go on and there will be less and less justice. 
The Labour Government also says that it will aim to settle all claims by 2020. I do not know what that says about the process. I think it is acceptable that claims are put forward before the date in the legislation—by 2008. As for the time frame for claims to be resolved—Labour is saying they are to be resolved by 2020—I will be interested to hear at the select committee what submitters on the bill say about that. 
The fourth statute that is to be amended is the one that interests me the most because I was here in the House when the Maori Commercial Aquaculture Claims Settlement Act was passed. Parekura Horomia and other Ministers tossed around the figure of 20 percent of new aquaculture space being set aside for Maori but people will remember that that was just a quid pro quo for Maori silence—Maori caucus silence in the Labour Party—over the seabed and foreshore issue. Michael Cullen and Helen Clark did not want Parekura Horomia to get all upset about the foreshore and seabed so they went to him was a quid pro quo deal saying they would give Maori 20 percent of the aquaculture space if he would just shut up. So the Minister of Maori Affairs Labour’s whipping boy went back to his Maori caucus colleagues and told them to keep things down because there was a quid pro quo deal. He told them Maori would get 20 percent of aquaculture space if they just shut up about the seabed and foreshore. That was the deal that was done—a dirty deal done dirt cheap—under the noses of Maori. 
Now we see no new aquaculture space being developed. Maori therefore are not getting 20 percent of the space because they cannot get 20 percent of nothing. They were to get 20 percent of new aquaculture space but there is no new aquaculture space. Maori are not getting 20 percent of anything; they are not seeing anything from that dirty deal done dirt cheap. They saw nothing in the seabed and foreshore legislation and here the aquaculture legislation is back before this House and soon to be back before the select committee. The Maori Purposes Bill will deal with the aquaculture issue that was passed in legislation less than 18 months ago so that is appalling legislation. 
We support this bill going to the select committee. It will receive the fullest scrutiny by National and we will add balance to the debate on this legislation.