Henare Tau: Maori Purposes Bill (No 2) — Second Reading 
Henare Tau: Maori Purposes Bill (No 2) — Second Reading 
[Volume:646;Page:15681] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker. Nga mea tuatahi. Ki a koutou aku rangatira tena koutou tena koutou. E te tuakana e Hone mihi au ki a koe me o korero mo nga totara nui i roto i te wao nui a Tane. No reira e korua Alec me Mahinarangi haere atu ra haere atu ra haere atu ra. 
[ 
Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. First things first: to you my leaders greetings greetings. To you Hone the elder relative I acknowledge your reference to the great totara trees of the vast forest of Tane. So to you two Alec and Mahinarangi depart depart farewell 
.] 
I too want to pay my respects and pass on my condolences to the families of Alec Phillips and Mahinarangi Tocker. I also take this opportunity to pay my respects to our retired judge Dame Augusta Wallace. 
This is basically a very small minor amendment bill that fixes up a number of issues with the Maori Trust Boards Act 1955 the Maniapoto Maori Trust Board Act 1988 the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 and Te Ture Whenua Maori Act 1993 and its amendment Act of 2002. But let us cut to the chase. Let us get down and dirty. Let us get to where we should really be speaking tonight. 
When the Minister of Maori Affairs tried to introduce this bill the first time there were five parts to it. The diligent National members on this side of the House pointed out to the Minister—and he has been the Minister for only 8 years—that he should in no way use the structure of a Maori Purposes Bill to force through very very controversial legislation namely the Maori Trustee Act 1953 and its pilfering plundering and filching of $35 million from the general purposes fund. That is what was on the Order Paper. Here is the briefing paper. The Minister set about trying to get the support of this House— 
Hon Georgina te Heuheu 
: Our support. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: —and National’s support for that. I am grateful to my colleagues Georgina te Heuheu and Christopher Finlayson for helping us point out to the Minister that he was on very shaky ground indeed—very very shaky ground indeed. 
Hon Shane Jones 
: Ngai Tahu liked this bill. Ngai Tahu liked it. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Oh absolutely. I think that now the bill has gone through the process of being vetted by the incoming Government now that it has been through the excellent Maori Affairs Committee it is a more— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: You were asleep. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: That member wants to talk about going to sleep. Well my name is not “Parakuihi”. I will leave that for the Minister of Maori Affairs to talk about. Surely to goodness after 8 years the Minister would have learnt a valuable lesson that the structure of a Maori Purposes Bill should be used to run through some minor amendments that the whole House can agree on. But he did not do that. What he tried to do—and it was only by some pushing and shoving— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: You’d know about that. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Absolutely I know about pushing and shoving because I have been in the horrible union environment that that member comes from. 
Like I said now we have a very very non-controversial bill. It has gone through the select committee process and I am pleased to say that there was not too much hassle in that process. National is totally in support of the moves to tidy up a number of pieces of legislation. We are especially in support of the change to the Treaty of Waitangi Act to increase to 20 the number of members of the Waitangi Tribunal. 
But getting back to the fight that is to come part of the original idea of the bill was the purloining filching and stealing of $35 million out of the general purposes fund. That is where this election will be fought. This election will be fought on issues just like this where in the dead of night the Minister of Maori Affairs can purloin filch— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: You’re asleep in the dead of morning. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Oh no that is not me. That is the Minister of Foreign Affairs mate. That is not me. The member has us mixed up. I know that can be an easy mistake to make but the member has it wrong again. That $35 million—[ 
Interruption 
] Well actually let us talk about that. No we will not. The $35 million would have been taken out of Maori money—that is what it is. It is not Government money. It is money derived from interest from the beneficiary money. 
Hon Shane Jones 
: Back to the bill! 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Mr Jones says I should go back to the bill. I have a piece of paper here printed in that lovely green that the Minister of Maori Affairs is fond of using and it says in respect of the Maori Purposes Bill 2007 that there are four—oh no five—issues that we need to talk about in this briefing paper. 
If Mr Jones had been listening and not sitting there trying to get a few pointers from poor old Clayton Cosgrove he would have found out that if it were not for National this House could have been signing away $35 million—the $35 million this Government attempted to pinch for no other reason than to set up a slush fund on the East Coast for the Minister’s mates—the few he has left. 
Craig Foss 
: Fox-hunting. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: It is for the “Fox-fighting Fund” as it is now known. National is totally in support of the bill. We do not see too much wrong with it. I congratulate the Maori Affairs Committee and I must say we had a bit of a heart flutter over the Maniapoto Maori Trust Board. A couple of submissioners told us that what we were doing was wrong but we managed to get the Te Puni Kokiri officials up there to see what was going on and they allayed any fears we had. 
All in all this bill is a good attempt by the Minister of Maori Affairs—after 8 years—to introduce his maiden piece of legislation. Kia ora.