Mapp Wayne: Transport Legislation Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Mapp Wayne: Transport Legislation Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:621;Page:16905] 
Dr WAYNE MAPP (National—North Shore) 
: 
 I want to turn to a specific issue contained in clause 30 “Who must be consulted about land transport programme”. As has become the habit with this Government once again we see separatism creeping into legislation where it has no place at all. Yes that is extraordinary. New subsection (4A) of section 15 inserted by clause 30 states that the following entities and people must be consulted when a land transport programme is being prepared: Transit regional councils; territorial authorities; every affected approved organisation—as opposed to unapproved organisations—the Ministry of Health the Accident Compensation Corporation the Commissioner of Police the Secretary for Transport the Ministry of Justice land transport users affected communities Maori and the public. 
I have to ask the Government—it is a serious question—why Maori have been put in there specifically separate from the public. I thought Maori were part of the public. When we talk about all New Zealanders being treated equally under the law we are talking about the public of New Zealand. That seems a reasonable proposition. 
Hon Parekura Horomia 
: The legal counsel did a very good job. 
Dr WAYNE MAPP 
: I guess that the Minister of Maori Affairs Parekura Horomia would admit that yes he is a member of the public of New Zealand. He would be consulted in that capacity. He is also a member of his local community up on the East Coast in Ruatoria I guess and he would be consulted as such. If there is a land transport programme that proposes a new road bridge or something of that nature in his area he will be consulted firstly as a member of the public from that area secondly as a member of the affected community and thirdly as a Maori person with a different interest I guess from either his interest as a member of the public or his interest as a member of an affected community. 
I wonder what particular thing the Minister of Maori Affairs would say he would be consulted on as a Maori. Would it be his concerns about taniwha? As a member of the Maori community would he have major concerns about the new bridge to be built in Ruatoria? The Minister seems to be acknowledging that he has serious concerns about taniwha in Ruatoria. Well maybe he does. Would he be consulted on his spiritual needs on the wairua of this land transport programme? Would he as a Maori person also be consulted on the basis of tikanga Maori? On the issues of land transport programmes there is simply no case for Maori to be consulted separately and apart from their capacity—the Minister included—to be consulted as members of the affected community. They have the same interests in land transport as everyone else in the community. Similarly they have the same interests as members of the public. 
One of the things that National is very committed to is ensuring that our laws apply equally to all New Zealanders. That is a fundamental platform laid down by our party. It was set out in the Orewa speech as clearly as anything could be. New Zealanders in their hundreds of thousands have responded to it and the Government seems to have listened to that response in some respects. There is huge public yearning that we all be treated equally. Is that not what last week was all about—the whole issue of the Unknown Warrior of all of us recognising that sacrifice? Despite all of that today yet again we see in general legislation—