Calvert Hilary Jane: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Calvert Hilary Jane: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Advance Copy - Subject to minor change before inclusion in Bound Volume.] 
HILARY CALVERT (ACT) 
: 
 It is good to be back in the debating chamber for what promises to be an interesting year. I hope all members had a great Christmas and New Year break and are feeling refreshed. The parliamentary year has barely begun but we have already witnessed plenty of drama and sideshows. We cannot let what the media deem important distract us from the reasons we are here. We should not worry about catwalks and campaigns but about how to enable the conditions whereby all New Zealanders can get ahead. 
ACT and National have worked well together in many areas. We in ACT are pleased to have ensured a stable centre-right Government since 2008. We are a party of principles and when we see National stray from its principles it is our duty to call it out on that. A key principle for ACT is one law for all New Zealand—that is one law for all regardless of race religion income or location. We thought that that was National’s view too but since 2008 we have seen National under the influence of the Maori Party move us further down the path to separatism. 
One such example is the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill which is scheduled to replace one racist piece of legislation with another. The Prime Minister promised to replace the Foreshore and Seabed Act only if there was widespread support for doing so but it is plainly obvious that the new bill is massively unpopular with almost everyone. The bill divides up our coastline minerals and access along tribal lines. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I know this is slightly unusual. The Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill is not actually on the Order Paper but we have had an assurance from the Speaker that the bill is a matter that is now set down because it has been reported back. If that is the case then it is a breach of the Standing Orders for the speaker to anticipate an order of the day. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker) 
: The member is technically correct but it is a breach only if it can be reasonably expected that debate on the bill will be reached on the same sitting day. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Well come on. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker) 
: Excuse me. There is no chance that we will get to that bill today so it is perfectly in order for the member to make reference to that particular legislation. I invite Hilary Calvert to continue. 
HILARY CALVERT 
: If one is not in the right iwi one misses out. National says that up to 10 percent of our coastline could wind up under customary title. We could ultimately have a situation where our entire coastline—just like our longest river—is under co-governance. Some may ask what is wrong with that. The Treaty of Waitangi which was signed a little over 171 years ago promised that all—Maori and non-Maori—would be equal before the law. Everyone would have the same rights and responsibilities as one another. That promise has long since fallen by the wayside. The Treaty has been twisted into a form that pits them versus us. No longer is it about equality of opportunity for all; instead it is now focused on taking what we have and divvying it up along racial lines. 
For ACT one law for all goes beyond race. It is about empowering all New Zealanders to get ahead and better ourselves. It is about acknowledging that focusing on equality of outcome is impossible and irresponsible but that we can and must work to ensure equality of opportunity. We see children trapped in bad schools ill people forced to linger on public waiting lists and the jobless lost in an archaic welfare system. As our leader Rodney Hide said ACT finds unacceptable the thought of 12000 new entrants per year ultimately leaving school functionally illiterate. It is abhorrent that those in the central North Island cannot get the same level of chemotherapy treatment as those in other parts of New Zealand and locking our young people out of the workforce through impossibly high minimum wages borders on criminal. 
The current system locks too many into a lifetime of inferiority and missed opportunities. ACT has policies that will enable people to choose the education and health systems that suit them best. We are desperate to lower barriers into the workforce that past Governments have been only too happy to erect. We want an economy that rewards those who raise our living standards through hard work and innovation. We will fight against the divisive Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill and fight to restore the sanctity of property rights for all regardless of colour and as determined by centuries of common law. That is what one law for all New Zealanders means to me and to the ACT Party. We look forward to continuing to work with National where our principles match and to speaking out when they do not.