Turei Metiria: Foreshore and Seabed Bill Resource Management (Foreshore and Seabed) Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
Turei Metiria: Foreshore and Seabed Bill Resource Management (Foreshore and Seabed) Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
[Volume:621;Page:17192] 
METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
: 
 Let me first acknowledge all of those who are in the gallery today to witness this travesty; those who are outside the Parliament in protest; those who are listening to this debate in their homes in sorrow; those who made submissions against the legislation; and those who were part of the amazing hikoi to Parliament in May. I also acknowledge NgatiApa NgatiKoata Ngati Kuia NgatiRarua Ngati Tama Ngati Toa and Rangitane who all took the NgatiApa case through the Court of Appeal and now are about to have their lawfully acquired rights destroyed by legislation. It is with the deepest sadness that I stand at the third reading of this legislation.  
When I was given the honour of becoming a member of Parliament I looked forward to trying to find ways to make real changes that would benefit my people. The tangata whenua in this country have worked incredibly hard to combat the personal and structural racism that has been a blight on the colonisation of this land. Much of that racism has been expressed in legislation like the Maori Prisoners Act which dispensed with trials for Maori prisoners; the New Zealand Settlements Act whereby 3 million acres of land were confiscated; the Native Reserves Act which took even more land in confiscation; and the Native Health Act which made it illegal for Maori women to breastfeed their babies and adopt under the whangai system.  
In the face of that racism—the legislation that has confiscated our land undermined our tikanga and abused our people—we have nonetheless become very successful. We have held on to our tikanga our values and our identity. We have advanced and developed them. We have been successful in business education law and politics. We have successfully supported our communities. We have achieved in all walks of life and taken on the challenges levelled against us. Our tenacity in our commitment to the restoration of our rights on our own land is exemplary.  
In attempting to restore our confiscated land rights we have used every forum available to us—every commission and every court since colonisation took place right up to the present day. We like other citizens have relied on the honour of the State. In using the forums of the State to assert our rights we have relied on the Government to honour its own processes. In the 3rd millennium after all this work one would expect that our right to be Maori in our own land would be undeniable and that our role as parliamentarians now would be to build on that work to advance the social economic and constitutional position of the tangata whenua.  
But no I find that in accepting this privilege to be in Parliament instead of working effectively for the progression of my people I am thrust back in time 150 years and returned to the struggle against colonial power the struggle to hold up the rights that tangata whenua had even under the colonial common law—fighting the same arguments over the confiscation of land objecting again to parliamentary sovereignty flexing its muscle against tangata whenua regardless of the justice of the issue fighting the same manipulation and deception and fighting the same arrogance and paternalism. No by this legislation this House is returned to the same indecent fight: the fight to be Maori in our own land. This legislation is a direct descendant of the racist legislation of our colonial forebears and to our shame it is done in the name of all New Zealanders. I know from my travels around this country from the submissions from the hui that I have attended from those who travelled on the hikoi and from those outside and on Parliament grounds right now that thousands of New Zealanders are crying out: “Not in our name. No raupatu in our time. No raupatu in our name.” I am proud at least to be here on behalf of the Green Party of Aotearoa / New Zealand to join our voices to those of the thousands of New Zealanders who object to this unjust confiscatory legislation.  
The Greens oppose this legislation because we are committed to justice and we are prepared to stand up for that principle. We have been tireless in our advocacy for the protection of Maori customary rights. The Government has tried to justify its abuse by saying that Maori customary rights are protected but no amount of intellectual pretzelism nor media spin will change the fact that Maori customary rights are extinguished and that the foreshore and seabed remain under the threat of exploitation damage and—still—sale.  
We have been tireless in our advocacy for the protection of the ecology of the foreshore and seabed; our precious coast. This legislation perpetuates bad environmental management of the coast. Raw sewage is still being pumped into the sea; fragile dune ecology shellfish beds and nesting grounds remain vulnerable to four-wheel drives and other damaging human activity; and inappropriate sale coastal subdivision and commercial development on historical headlands like Tauroa Point still continue. The poisoning of our communities families and children continues unabated in places like Whakatane because of the dumping of toxic mill pulp on the foreshore and the failure of any authorities to take responsibility for cleaning it up.  
Our coast is at real risk. We rely on coastal communities of all kinds taking responsibility for their areas patrolling and protecting the coast and conserving and replanting. Those communities rely on good relationships and cooperation. How are they rewarded by Parliament? Their communities are divided by racist legislation their work is undermined and their commitment is left unacknowledged and uncertain.  
So many hapu and whanau take direct responsibility for the awhi of the coast exercising over decades their tupuna-derived kaitiakitanga. How are they rewarded for their work? They are viciously punished for exercising their tikanga their rights are stripped away and they are treated as pariahs in their own country.  
We make a final plea to this Government: “Just don’t do it.” This Parliament is at a pivotal moment in our nation’s history: to return to our paternalistic past or take the path of justice and peace and we are about to blow it. We will blow it on greed on the desire for power on intellectual fallacies and on political expediency. All New Zealanders will hold this Parliament to account for the wrong that the Government is about to commit. For Maori we have been here before and no doubt we will be here again defending our right to be Maori in our own country. We welcome our Pakeha friends and colleagues who object to this raupatu in their name to join us in this struggle. Together we will continue to seek justice and peace in our country—ka whawhaitonumatouake ake ake. 
[ 
We will fight on forever and ever 
.]