Ririnui Mita: Local Electoral (Repeal of Race-Based  Representation) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Ririnui Mita: Local Electoral (Repeal of Race-Based  Representation) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:635;Page:6776] 
Hon MITA RIRINUI (Minister of State) 
: 
 I would say that tonight Tony Ryall’s greatest fear is that this bill will go to a select committee. That is his greatest fear and I will say why. He fears that if it goes to a select committee then he will have to front up to the people of the Bay of Plenty who voted in favour of this legislation. 
Judge Peter Trapski conducted an inquiry into Maori representation on the Bay of Plenty Regional Council and also into the establishment of Maori wards. You see the member is telling only part of the story. He has a very selective memory. He also knows that over a period of 9 years prior to 2000 the people of the Bay of Plenty—the Bay of Plenty Regional Council its councillors all 33 iwi the four tribal confederations the 133 hapu—met to talk about the issue of Maori representation at a local level. 
Why was that such an issue? It is simple: the Bay of Plenty at that time was the fastest growing region in the country and Maori landowners owned 52 percent of the land available for development. Maori people in the district also owned the greatest percentage of fisheries assets in the region. Maori were the fastest-growing economic force in the region. 
Mr Ryall talks about councillors but he forgets to talk about the people—the people who should be making the decisions about the development of their areas. He also forgets to say that most of the Maori members on local authorities at the time were seconded. In the whole country Maori members made up only 5 percent of numbers on councils and the majority of those were seconded. Yet Mr Ryall comes into this House and says that the representation is race-based. Well he would rather that the people who own the land the resources and the assets had no say at local government level. That is how the man thinks. I describe this bill as “Orewa revisited”. 
Paula Bennett 
: Oh! 
Hon MITA RIRINUI 
: Listen to Paula Bennett! She has been in this House only 5 minutes. She would not have a clue about the issues on the ground in the Bay of Plenty. She is a puppet to Tony Ryall’s bill. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Her family’s from the Bay of Plenty. 
Hon MITA RIRINUI 
: I do not care where she is from. The people I am talking about are the ratepayers the landowners and the business people of the area—the people who make a difference in the area not the people who skive around elsewhere. 
It is incredible that when Tony Ryall hears the word “Maori” he panics. I will give members an example of his panicking. Only a couple of months ago in this House he made an issue of primary health organisations in the Bay of Plenty conducting health programmes targeted at people at risk. In this case the primary health organisations in the Bay of Plenty had targeted Maori men between the ages of 35 and 45 who were at great risk of coronary disease. The primary health organisations went out of their way to identify the people of that particular age group and ethnicity. Tony Ryall was not too concerned about the age group or the type of disease those men were at risk of; he was concerned about them being Maori—and he proved it in this House. His own view was that Indians should be considered as well. I wonder how many Indians go into his electorate office in Te Puke? I tell members now that the answer is none. He locks the door when they walk past. That is a fact. For Tony Ryall it is not about who is right and who is wrong; it is about who is brown and who is not. That is his problem. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: What’s your majority in that area? 
Hon MITA RIRINUI 
: He talks about his majority. All he is worried about is his vote. He has not once mentioned the people in the Bay of Plenty who really matter—the people who own the land. All the district councils and local authorities in the Bay of Plenty can see that further development requires Maori to free up their land. The great eastern highway between Tauranga and Whakatane requires a lot of Maori to free up their land. The developments in Papamoa Te Tumu Tauranga and Katikati require Maori to free up their land so that development can take place. Tony Ryall wants them to do that but he does not want them to have a say in the environmental issues. He does not want them to have a say. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: What’s your mandate? 
Hon MITA RIRINUI 
: Would the member like to hear about my mandate? When we went to the Maungatapu school 125th anniversary who did they talk about? They talked about five generations of my family. Who was Tony Ryall? Someone who wandered in from Whakatane. That is who they thought he was. [ 
Interruption 
] It is incredible that during the debates we had on the Bay of Plenty Regional Council (Maori Constituency Empowering) Bill the best contribution that “Hone” Carter could make was to tell the House that he had two Maori mokopuna. 
John Carter 
: One. 
Hon MITA RIRINUI 
: Well he misled the House at that time. But that gave him good reason to oppose the Bay of Plenty’s wishes. I guarantee that when his mokopuna turns 18 and becomes an adult that mokopuna will enrol on the Maori electoral roll. I guarantee it. Even Hone Harawira will attest to that. 
John Carter 
: You don’t even know what an electoral roll is yet. 
Hon MITA RIRINUI 
: Neither does the member by the sound of things but I will get back to the bill. 
The explanatory note of the bill is interesting. By his own words Tony Ryall is fearful of Maori representation at local level. I say again that he has no problem with Maori freeing up their land but he does not want them to have a say in what happens to it. 
 I do not have too much to say about this bill but I think Tony Ryall should reflect on his words this evening and also revisit the statements that were made by the communities of the Bay of Plenty when the Bay of Plenty Regional Council (Maori Constituency Empowering) Bill was passing through this House. The bill itself was well debated at the select committee hearings in Whakatane and of the 78 submissions that were made to the select committee 75 percent were in favour of the legislation. So what does that tell us? 
Dr Richard Worth 
: That’s not right! 
Hon MITA RIRINUI 
: Richard Worth should go and do his homework. That example tells me there was overwhelming support for Maori wards at that time. 
I ask myself what Tony Ryall’s problem really is. His problem is with Maori. He does not like Maoris; he is fearful of them. He has gone around a corner and I have heard him utter a couple of Maori words: “Kia ora” and “Tena koe.” That is all very well but one has to be genuine with what one says. 
I do not have much more to say about this shameful bill—as I shall put it. I heard Harry Duynhoven say earlier on that some people in this House have made landmark speeches. I think that Tony Ryall has made another landmark one in the expression of his great fear that Maori in some way are claiming their tino rangatiratanga—that they will have a strong voice at local government level and be a strong economic force in the region. If that is so they will work collaboratively with all communities particularly business communities. So I say to Mr Ryall that he should get on board wake up and learn what is happening in his electorate and then maybe he will be a better person. Kia ora.