Harawira Hone: Lawyers and Conveyancers Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Reading 
Harawira Hone: Lawyers and Conveyancers Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Reading 
[Volume:648;Page:17637] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Tena koe. Tena tatou katoa e te Whare. When I first looked over this bill with Angeline Greensill the Maori Party candidate for Hauraki-Waikato she reminded me of one of the findings of the Waitangi Tribunal’s 1997 Muriwhenua report Wai 45 which mentioned the importance of decision makers giving equal weight to the Maori world view the Maori values system and Maori law and policies. The Treaty of Waitangi of course is based on the protection of Maori custom and cultural values and indeed the guarantee of rangatiratanga recognises the right of Maori to own and control their assets. Those principles are always at the forefront of our thinking in the Maori Party whenever we consider any legislation including this bill the Lawyers and Conveyancers Amendment Bill (No 2). 
So when we look at this bill introduced some 5 years ago to make the legal profession more accountable give clients more protection and enable lawyers employed by organisations to provide services to their members Derek Fox the Maori Party candidate for Ikaroa-Rawhiti said we should always look to see whether Maori are given the opportunity to actively participate in defining the law whether Maori are encouraged to take responsibility for their own affairs whether Maori will benefit from transparency in the legal profession and whether this bill will realise the promise of article 3 of the Treaty by enabling Maori to be as involved in the legal profession as any other Kiwi. 
When the law was first changed it meant that lawyers employed by unions or employer groups could act only for the organisations themselves not for the members. So this bill is necessary to enable those lawyers to provide legal services to the members of those groups and to allow members access to legal advice on issues such as liability competency and employment and industrial law. Rahui Katene Maori Party candidate for Te Tai Tonga tells me that everyone no matter his or her background should have access to good legal advice and that this bill will enable those who can ill-afford it to get access to quality advice particularly workers in today’s increasingly difficult and legalised work environment. 
Ms Katene also pointed out a very serious flaw in the bill relating to Maori: that it had been drafted specifically for individual members and not for claimant groups. She insisted we record our concern that claimants before the Maori Land Court and the Waitangi Tribunal will not be disadvantaged by the passing of the Lawyers and Conveyancers Amendment Bill (No 2). Ms Katene also challenged the Minister to urgently review the legislation to ensure that claimants are not disadvantaged. 
Finally I cannot help but notice that the bill seems to have rocketed up the Order Paper particularly during these turbulent times of controversy swirling around the Chamber debates descending into nasty and vicious attacks and questions about the Government’s credibility. One would have thought a vote on confidence and supply would immediately put an end to questions about the Government’s inability to deal with the financial shenanigans of coalition partners. One would have thought the Government might settle this controversy once and for all by calling for a vote of confidence in the Government’s access to money by putting the Appropriation (2008/09 Estimates) Bill up for a vote—unless of course the Government were scared that it might lose the confidence motion and be forced to either call a snap election or turn power over to another coalition of parties. That would be a very interesting day in politics indeed. Instead these innocuous little bills get shunted up the programme. 
This is the second amendment to the original Lawyers and Conveyancers Act. We respectfully suggest that in future the Government gets greater consultation on its bills so that we do not have to do paper-over jobs like this one. 
The Maori Party will support this bill at third reading but with a challenge that claimants before the Maori Land Court and the Waitangi Tribunal not be disadvantaged. Kia ora tatou.