Flavell Te Ururoa: Protection of Personal and Property Rights  Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Protection of Personal and Property Rights  Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:642;Page:11978] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
Tena koe Mr Speaker. Kia ora tatou. When I rose to talk on the Protection of Personal and Property Rights Amendment Bill at its second reading I shared with this House my own personal experience and that of our whanau as we had been through the care and looking after of the welfare of my late sister Hine. I talked about the responsibility of making decisions for someone who has entrusted faith in you to act on his or her behalf. I believe that the concept of an enduring power of attorney fits pretty well with the values and principles that express a Maori world view. The values that I talked about in that last speech are things that we reflect on in terms of our commitment to kaupapa—such as manaakitanga whanaungatanga kotahitanga kaitiakitanga whakapapa and rangatiratanga. These are all essential means of protecting and preserving personal care and welfare. They are values which we in the Maori Party at least consider to have universal application. They are values that if respected and applied will lead to spiritual intellectual emotional and physical well-being. 
It is against all of this background that I must talk about two concerns that have arisen about these values during the life of this bill. The first one is the revelation of the incidence of financial abuse and social neglect that Age Concern has identified many older people being subjected to. What we are talking about here is our kuia our koroua—the older people. These are the ones whom we turn to for guidance who maintain our tikanga and dignify our ceremonial protocols; they are the keepers of our culture. These are our leaders who are supposed to protect and nurture our young who identify potential and who sustain and give life to our hauora—our spiritual health. It is not on from my perspective that our koeke should suffer from abuse and neglect at a time in their life when they should be cared for. 
 The second shocking statement that came through in the course of this bill was a comment made by the member for Rotorua Steve Chadwick in response to my korerolast week. That member suggested that Parliament could not legislate for manaakitanga or kaitiakitanga and that what was needed instead was trust. OK well that is a view but I believe that this bill in drawing upon the strength of whanau in making explicit the obligations of attorneys to act in donors’ best interests and in motivating attorneys to encourage donors to exercise their own competence regarding their personal care welfare and financial affairs is all about manaakitanga kaitiakitanga and trust as well. Those concepts are not mutually exclusive. One can follow kaupapa and tikanga Maori and recognise Western values of mutual respect all without conflict. It should not be a case of either-or. 
This bill provides us with an opportunity to put into statute what Pakeha academic Jane Kelsey described as her vision for the nation in an address on Waitangi Day 2006. In her speech at Te Tii marae Professor Kelsey stated: “Annie Mikaere has argued that tikanga Maori with its ethical foundations in whaungatanga manaakitanga and kaitiakitanga should provide the basis for law in this land. That makes perfect sense. … As Pakeha we need to take responsibility for tilling that ground in our families communities and institutions where we have power. … Despite the Maori-baiting of the major political parties there is an enormous amount of goodwill and a shared commitment to building a Tiriti-based future in this land.” Building a Tiriti-based future in Aotearoa may very well come about by the type of legislation we see here today in protecting personal and property rights through the enduring powers of attorney provisions. 
The central issue surely is how we put legislation in place that better protects vulnerable people. These vulnerable people may be differently abled they may be Maori they may be elderly or they may be unwell. What will be common to all is that their state of general health and well-being leads them to being incapable of making or communicating decisions. The impact of abuse and neglect which is both hurtful and hidden can occur to anyone of any ethnicity any age or any social grouping. Against all of these variables the protection and promotion of the rights of people who are not able to manage their own affairs must surely be our united priority. Whether we consider the quality of care we are seeking to encourage as manaakitanga or whether we consider it as trust is really not relevant. What is relevant surely is that we commit to doing something to make explicit the desirable standards and relationships that put quality care in place. 
A value basis to the decisions we make in this House has never been more apparent than that following the recent killings across the country. Wayne Moore the acting headmaster for Auckland Grammar school told the thousand-strong congregation that had gathered to mourn the death of Augustine Borrell: “Our government and politicians they seem to lack the collective moral strength to be effective to bring about changes … moral fibre is judged on how well society upholds the dignity of life in the womb in the home and on the streets.” I say that the concept of an enduring power of attorney if operating according to tikanga Maori is all about demonstrating the collective moral strength the collective moral fibre to put into practice policy and procedures that give dignity to human life. 
 There were two other events of recent occurrence that I think have some relevance to the debate we are having on the protection of personal and property rights for those who may be compromised or vulnerable through health and personal conditions. The first was the announcement of a stab-resistant flame-resistant fabric being modelled at this year’s Fashion Week. In describing the AgResearch initiative the selling point was that the fabric is able to resist penetration by a knife and is “developed to protect the wearer from the ever changing and sometimes hostile world we live in”. 
The second event of relevance was the release yesterday from the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee issuing a new draft code of welfare for dogs which outlines the minimum standards of welfare and best practices for anyone responsible for dogs. So if I am reading it right in the last 24 hours the nation has responded to the crisis emergency of recent stabbings shootings and gang and street violence with the news of a stab-proof vest and a code of welfare for dogs. I am not criticising either of these two initiatives much but I am repeating what Wayne Moore has challenged us to do—to make the commitment towards creating the quality of moral fibre to uphold the dignity of life in the womb in the home and on the streets. Manaakitanga kaitiakitanga whanaungatanga kotahitanga and rangatiratanga are all elements along the journey towards achieving the moral strength that we require as a nation to know we are committed towards making the changes necessary to bring back the concept of collective caring. 
In regard to tiakitanga the Maori Party suggests that the amendments made in this bill strengthen the legislation on paper so that the personal welfare and rights of vulnerable people are better protected. But what we need to see in person is support and promotion to enable proper protection of the personal and property rights of persons who are not fully able to manage their own affairs. 
We in the Maori Party fully support the provisions set out in this bill. The provisions address all of the five types of misuse identified by the Law Commission and in doing so make clear the obligation of the attorney to act in the donor’s best interests. The key challenge facing us all is to ensure that whanau and family relationships are sufficiently strong enough for the task we are setting to be effective and to make the change and difference. It is a task that we in the Maori Party truly believe that Maori and Pakeha alike are up to—that we can draw on our cultural values our unique concepts of care and our traditions to ensure that we give priority to the well-being of all.