Turei Metiria: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Turei Metiria: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:621;Page:16891] 
12.  
METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
 to the  
Deputy Prime Minister 
: Is the Government satisfied that the Foreshore and Seabed Bill will provide for public access to and public ownership of the foreshore? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN (Deputy Prime Minister) 
: 
 I am satisfied that the Foreshore and Seabed Bill will provide for public access to and public ownership of the public foreshore and seabed. 
Metiria Turei 
: Why then does the Foreshore and Seabed Bill contain a provision hidden away in schedule 3 that removes the requirement to provide public access over reclaimed land and therefore allows wealthy yachties such as those at Bayswater Marina to privatise the foreshore and exclude the public? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: I suggest the member waits to see how the Supplementary Order Paper emerges on a number of these matters. 
Metiria Turei 
: Is it not the case that even with legal requirements to provide public access local councils like the North Shore City Council find it almost impossible to get marinas like the Bayswater one to provide those mandatory marginal strips and is not this bill simply making it easier for the wealthy to privatise the foreshore? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: No absolutely not. There are of course always limits on the level of public access even in public areas. I am sure the Green Party would be opposed to people being able to drive their private bulldozers down on to the beach and digging it up. 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: Does the clause 21 that we have not seen yet provide the same as what the clause 21 in the bill as introduced did which is what went to the select committee—namely that restriction and prohibition of access to the public foreshore and seabed can be provided with the proviso that Maori can be exempted from that restriction on the basis of customary right? Is that still in the bill as it stands now? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: The member will find that the access provisions have been clarified in the bill that will be dealt with in the Committee stage. I can assure the member that from my estimate of the timetable that we are on he will have the Supplementary Order Paper long before we get to the Committee stage. 
Metiria Turei 
: Is the Minister aware that wealthy landowners such as some on Waiheke Island and elsewhere have already used reclamations to exclude people from access to the beach; why is he supporting the rights of wealthy people to privatise the foreshore over the rights of tangata whenua? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: I am not but what the member’s case does highlight is the danger of allowing more private ownership of the foreshore and seabed as she is proposing when her party started off proposing that it should be held in the commons. 
Metiria Turei 
: Has the Minister received any reports that make him confident that he can get support from the New Zealand First Party to pass schedule 3 which allows wealthy yachties to privatise the foreshore by reclaiming land? 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. That member has put up the same proposition three times. She has been wrong three times. 
Opposition Member 
: That’s not a point of order. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: That was OK. It will be a point of order when I have finished if the member will keep quiet. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: There will be no interjection while there is a point of order. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: My point of order is that having put up three fallacious propositions she now seeks to link New Zealand First with it. She cannot do that in any shape or form. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member can ask the same question and the Minister can give the same answer. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. She cannot when it comes to New Zealand First and he cannot either when it comes to New Zealand First. That is my point of order. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That particular part of the member’s question was correct. The first part was in order. She referred to the Hon Dr Michael Cullen and did not specifically refer— 
Metiria 
Turei 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am sorry but I am unclear as to what parts of my question you might be ruling out of order. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Those in relation to the matters that are quoting New Zealand First. The member may ask questions of the Minister about the bill but not about New Zealand First. New Zealand First members are responsible for their policy and the Minister is responsible for his. The member can restate the question. [ 
Interruption 
] I am allowing the member to restate the question. 
Metiria 
Turei 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I would like you to take into consideration with all due respect that the question concerned whether the Minister had received any reports about this issue and was not asking him to make any comment on New Zealand First policy. Rather it was about whether he had received reports that made him confident that he could get support from that party for that clause. It was not about New Zealand First policy at all. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That point now having been made and I have taken advice on this the member is correct. The Minister may answer. 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: I can confirm that I have support to pass the Government’s Supplementary Order Paper which of course is the result of negotiation between the Government and New Zealand First. I am very grateful for the assistance of Mr Dail Jones particularly on some of the technical aspects around land law on those matters.  
Metiria 
Turei 
: I seek leave to table two documents. The first is an article from the  
Nelson Mail 
 of March reporting on Kerry Bateman’s legal action. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that article. Is there any objection? There is. 
Metiria 
Turei 
: The second document is a letter to the Minister of Conservation in which the Mayor of North Shore begs him to withdraw the repeal of that section of the Conservation Act that gets rid of marginal strips. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that letter. Is there any objection? There is. 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. A matter arose in that last interchange that I think needs some clarification. You made the point that the Government is responsible for its legislation and that Mr Winston Peters is responsible for his policy. That would be the normal situation where a Government bill has come to the House but we know that what we are going to see later this afternoon is now an amalgam of the Government’s bill and Mr Peter’s input. In the light of that I think your comment was rather harsh; members should be able to ask where there is an amalgam of those two positions. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Minister can be asked whether he has support for his bill; to that extent I agree with the member. 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. We have had an interesting time in question time. We have been assured by Mr Peters that he has seen the bill and the Supplementary Order Paper and we have been told by the Minister that we can have the Supplementary Order Paper as soon as it is available. I guess the Minister is waiting for a full printed version. We all know Mr Peters; I cannot believe that he would have agreed to something that he had not seen in print. Can we at least have what Mr Peters had seen as that would give us some time to be able to read it before we are supposed to debate it tonight? I would like to make that request through you Mr Speaker to the Leader of the House. If it is good enough for Mr Peters is it good enough for the rest of us? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: That is a reasonable point of order. I ask the Minister to respond. 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: Mr Peters has had all those documents along with Mr Jones and their colleagues no doubt because they have been involved in discussions about the detail. Some of them obviously consisted of handwritten amendments to the point of consideration by Mr Peters. I am not making those available. We will table at the proper time the fully printed Supplementary Order Paper and I will be seeking— 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: Proper time? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: I said before that I have made special efforts even though the select committee failed to produce a proper report to have printed a redline version of the bill which will considerably aid members’ understanding of what they are actually looking at in the Committee stage as opposed to our trying to put together the Supplementary Order Paper and the original bill. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Notwithstanding the general attitude that is being conveyed by the Leader of the House which we find unacceptable he did indicate before that according to a timeline he had been provided with the Supplementary Order Paper would be available to the House in good time prior to it going into Committee. I wonder whether he might indicate when that time will be as he seems to know it. 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: I do not know the time but I am an experienced member of Parliament and we have a Committee stage coming up with three questions—  
Gerry Brownlee 
: Three now! 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: The Transport Legislation Bill has three questions in the Committee stage—Part 1 Part 2 and the preliminary clauses. That obviously will take us some little time—I do not expect the Opposition to be rushing it. We are already at 20 past 3. Therefore it seems likely that we will enter upon urgency some time in the evening. We will have a full second reading debate; I understand there will be some moves to try to extend the length of that debate. The House will lift at 10 o’clock. It therefore seems likely that we will get to tomorrow morning before we actually start the Committee stage of the Foreshore and Seabed Bill. New Zealand First and the Labour Party have been staying up late at night working on the bill and I now recommend that to other parties as well.  
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Quite simply does that mean we will see the Supplementary Order Paper today? 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: Yes. I am expecting from my latest information that the member will see the Supplementary Order Paper before teatime. 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. That of course requires further clarification because if we go into urgency later this afternoon it will still be “today” on Thursday. So I would like to know whether we are going to get it on Tuesday Wednesday or Thursday. 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN 
: I said “before teatime” and as the member can see from my slightly expanding girth I am not likely to wait till Thursday for my next teatime. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: To me that meant “today”.