Horomia Parekura: Foreshore and Seabed Bill — Procedure Second Reading 
Horomia Parekura: Foreshore and Seabed Bill — Procedure Second Reading 
[Volume:621;Page:16937] 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA (Minister of Maori Affairs) 
: 
Tihei mauri ora! Ki a koutou katoa e tae akeanoi te rongo e Paora koutou katoa e mihi kauana tena koutou. E ngamatawaka a-iwi a-whanau a-hapu hoki tena koutou. Kaua koutou e maharahara e awangawangaraneimo o koutou mana narangatiratanga hoki no te mea kareenei e muruairaroi te Pire o te Takutai Moana. Ka mautonuenei mana moaketonu. Mateneipireina ka whakamanatia e tiaki o tatau mana tipuna ki ngatakutai moana. Ahakoanoateneipire kei te watea te huarahi ki te korero tahi mai te Karauna. Kia ora tatou katoa.  
[ 
Behold the breath of life!  
To all of you Paora who have arrived to listen your presence is acknowledged. Greetings to you all.  
Greetings as well to the ethnic groups tribes families and subtribes. Do not be anxious or uneasy about your authority or independence as well because these will not be confiscated under the Foreshore and Seabed Bill but will be retained forever. This bill should it be passed into law will protect our ancestral rights to the foreshore. Despite this bill the pathway is clear to dialogue alongside of the Crown. Greetings to us all 
.] 
Greetings to the many tribal waka inclusive of whanau and hapu and to those who have turned up here tonight. I say to them not to be fearful or concerned about the protection of their mana and sovereignty because they will not be affected under the provisions of the Foreshore and Seabed Bill. Such rights will endure in perpetuity. This bill when enacted will protect our ancestral associations and mana to the foreshore and seabed. Under this bill the way is still available for iwi to negotiate with the Crown. That is the norm.  
Gerry Brownlee 
: Oh! 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: Greetings to Mr Brownlee! I am pleased to speak in support of the second reading of the Foreshore and Seabed Bill. It has been a long journey getting here. We had to sit in front of the hikoi and we had to go around the marae when everybody else went away. We went there.  
The bill is a product of extensive discussion and consideration. It has generated considerable comment from Maori and non-Maori sector groups local government and recreational groups. 
Rodney Hide 
: Who wrote this? 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: Before I go any further it is important for that person who is yelling to understand—and I stress yet again the need for this House and for all New Zealanders to understand—from the outset that there is a tangata whenua in this country and that is Maori. That factor is most relevant to this bill and it has been at the forefront of the Government’s Maori caucus’s journey in trying to defend that and ensure that we get there. In line with the Government’s view the perspective in this bill is about protecting what was tuku-ed to us. It is about passing on those inherited rights privileges and interests that were passed on to us. It is quite clearly about kaitiakitanga and guardianship o Tangaroa and not about the pervasive perverted speechmaking sessions such as we heard in Orewa.  
This Government has not swayed or moved away from recognising the customary rights of the people who are tangata whenua in this country. We are a Government that is prepared to do the hard work. We confront the issues in this bill. As Maori members in the Government we need to understand some things in the sense of what is relevant to Maori and in the sense of being a mokopuna. As a mokopuna I went around the rocks with my nan to rukupupu—to get kai moana—two or three times a month every month through most of my childhood. I appreciate what the takutai moana has in store for us. It is clearly something that has been passed on to us by our tupuna and we want it to last.  
The way things were heading our kai moana would have lasted but a few years. Our fridge and our covenant are being ravaged pillaged and sold on the black market even as I speak. There are people in this country who want to forget about the tangata whenua; who want to leave things as they are. The great leader from New Zealand First alluded to that—to those on the gravy train and to the great Government contracts with the elite the privileged and the cunning. Most of the members behind that were from that Opposition party over there. We do not want that carry-on.  
In 1992 the customary right was put in a regulated framework. That is where the fishing right went. It was done without consultation. It was done in the dark. It was done in Wellington. It was done by that person and that Opposition. At least we have brought the issue out into the public arena. We stand by what we have done.  
The Government has consulted widely on this bill. I am pleased that by the end of the week traditional Maori rights and interests will be protected guaranteed and enhanced in perpetuity with the passing of this legislation.  
Rodney Hide 
: Who says that? 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: I say that as a Maori and as a member of the tangata whenua of this great country. I am confident that this bill will preserve the rights of all New Zealanders Maori and non-Maori over the foreshore and seabed. The foreshore is that strip of land between the high-water mark and the low-water mark that people boogie board on that Pakeha go to to make themselves look darker like me that people walk the dog on and that we get kai from. We want to look after that and respect it. When people go to the beach at Christmas—like my former party member friend over there—they will appreciate the serenity and the right that everybody has to that area.  
When this issue first arose the Government developed principles to guide the development of this bill: access regulation protection and certainty. This bill must proceed if we are to have a lasting and certain solution to this issue. The bill will be a lasting solution because it lives up to those four principles. It protects what all New Zealanders want to see protected: public rights of access and navigation on the one hand and Maori customary rights on the other. Maori have nothing to fear with the passing of this legislation. Customary rights and the interests of whanau hapu and iwi are acknowledged and protected. There are those who say we should leave things as they are. I disagree.  
There are those who are muscling up to create fee simple which quite simply is about purchase and sale. If one buys someone’s house or car and sells it kei te pai—that is OK. But some are selling tuku-ed whenua. At the moment there are Maori who are selling whenua that was tuku-ed to them that they inherited that they never paid a cent for and that was a lifetime interest gifted to them due to their genealogical whakapapa connection. Other races are encouraging them to pillage the kai moana and sell it in Auckland in the dark. I want to make sure that my mokopuna—and Mr Brownlee’s if he has any—can go to the beach and get kai when they grow up; that they can go there and get suntanned if they want. If the status quo were to remain they would be denied all those simple niceties that New Zealand people want to participate in.  
This bill will vest the full and legal benefits of the public to the seabed and foreshore in the Crown and will provide for the recognition and protection of ongoing customary rights. It will also prevent the creation of new private foreshore and seabed titles that could be sold off which that person on the Opposition benches helped to organise.  
This bill makes the public foreshore and seabed inalienable except by special Act of Parliament. It gives protection to Maori as much as to everyone else. I thank the members of the Fisheries and Other Sea-related Legislation Committee and Russell Fairbrother. I especially thank our Maori caucus members on that committee and the other members for the effort they put in and for the heavy flak they had to take. It is regrettable that the select committee was not able to reach agreement on the bill—that is Parliament; that is MMP—despite the effort it made to consider a vast number of written submissions. Even though the committee was not able to reach agreement the Government has heard what submitters were saying. It was not realistic to do away with the bill altogether as some suggested but amongst the raruraru—the concern we heard from a few—many of the submitters made useful constructive suggestions on how to improve the bill. That is what this Supplementary Order Paper is about.  
I will not comment on the amendments because the bell has gone but I will say a couple of other things. If Maori groups get a territorial customary right finding this amendment will give whanau hapu and iwi the powers to manage the foreshore. The foreshore and seabed reserves have been designed especially for this bill. It is not too different from marae—the hundreds and thousands of them around this country are reserved. My learned pakeke Dover Samuels alluded to that. On those reserves our connection to those marae and those meeting houses is through our genealogical and hapu connection. That is a reserve. We can do all those things. We do not pay rates but we certainly cannot build an ablution block without the consent of the local authority. We certainly cannot do all of those things. The reserves are not a new thing in that sense. It is well practised in Maori. We manage them well as Maori. We are respected generally when people go to them.  
There are different tribal cultures and tikanga even with the foreshore. There are no generic models generic aspirations or generic rights that will put everything right. Maori like the National Party at times put things asunder amongst themselves. Maori are familiar with marae reserves. Like those guardians of the foreshore we will continue. We want this to be flexible. I want to remind Opposition members about retention. Quite simply that is what this bill is about. Most of the Maori land that is still intact now was put into a regulated framework by Ta Apirana Ngata and it has stood the test of time. Whether it has been used or has been lying idle it has stood the test of time and we Maori still have it. It is still in our possession.  
That is what this bill is about. It is about looking forward with our young population which does not have all the tikanga skills that people have said. Much of the land that was left out of the regulated framework was pillaged by people who came as visitors to this country.  
 It was ransacked. We were haemorrhaged by it. It was disgraceful. It was not only the visitors who sold our land.  
Hon Ken Shirley 
: Oh so it wasn’t only them? 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: No it was not only them. Our own people have sold on in recent times whenua that was tuku-ed to them—whenua that was gifted to them through their ancestral connection and their genealogical ties. It was given to them by our ancestors. As I said we have to ensure that we have documents and policies like this that will protect all New Zealanders especially the tangata whenua’s right in this country. I have no hesitation in supporting the second reading of the Foreshore and Seabed Bill. I want to thank New Zealand First especially Winston Peters—like me a seafaring person—for coming along at this late stage and helping us to get on with it.