Harawira Hone: Sports Anti-Doping Bill — First Reading 
Harawira Hone: Sports Anti-Doping Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:628;Page:992] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Madam Speaker tena koe. Nga mema o te Whare Paremata tena hoki tatou katoa. 
[ 
Greetings to you Madam Speaker and to us all as well members of Parliament. 
] 
I rise today to support the Sports Anti-Doping Bill. I do so because the Maori Party is committed to the notion of fair play and supports the principles of people competing on a level playing field. We also support the values embodied in the International Charter of Physical Education and Sport of Unesco. While this discussion is about principles in sport I note also that they are principles that apply to all situations in our society—honesty fairness respect courage commitment and unity. Ki a matou o te ao Maori me pono me tika me tuturu me pakari me whakawhaiti. 
 [ 
To us of Maoridom one must be honest correct genuine mature and to the point. 
] 
We also support activities that encourage whanau to take part in community activities that encourage healthy active lifestyles and that recognise national Maori sports organisations. There are many sporting activities in which Maori have gained international recognition including Maori golfers Philip Tataurangi Michael Campbell and now Bradley Iles; surfers like Daniel Kereopa; the whole of the New Zealand basketball team; and waka ama as well. In fact we are privileged to host the world waka ama championships at Lake Karapiro in March 2006. Every 2 years countries from all around the world unite to determine who are the best waka ama paddlers in the world and next year it is being held here. 
Darren Hughes 
: Otaki will win this time. They are ready to go. 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: I say to Darren Hughes that if that happens it will be a laugh. I wish them all the best but I suspect that the winning teams are probably going to come out of the Tai Tokerau. All these sporting activities encourage healthy living in an environment without those substances that enhance performance. Indeed Maori have a proven record of achievement at the highest level of international sport competing and winning on the world stage. The Aotearoa Maori women’s sevens team for example have won the Hong Kong Sevens on the three occasions they have participated. The Aotearoa Maori rugby team beat the British Lions and everybody else in the world. There are also the Aotearoa Maori women’s and men’s touch teams. None of them needed performance-enhancing drugs to achieve their goals. They did not need to cheat on themselves let alone the opposition. 
It does concern me though regularly to hear our sporting commentators referring to people who cheat and get away with it condoning the behaviour because they simply were not caught. It is kind of an irony that this game of rugby which our nation reveres so much has its origins in a classic legend of cheating dating back to before the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. A young man by the name of William Webb Ellis at a school called Rugby broke the rules cheated picked up a ball and ran with it. We have even named a world cup after him. Yet here I am speaking about integrity and honesty in sport when our national sport traces its origins from a cheat. It makes me wonder albeit just briefly whether I should withdraw our request to host the Rugby World Cup final in 2011 in Kaitaia. 
Seriously though the Maori Party is of course committed to the game of rugby and indeed we look forward to our own Te Ururoa Flavell captaining the 2006 parliamentary rugby team which will also no doubt be dope-free although probably not free of dopes if Darren Hughes chooses to play. 
I come back to the bill and say that it is good to see that cheats are starting to get the message that it is not worth it and that they will get caught. I congratulate the Government on introducing this legislation and signing up as part of the international coalition of the willing opposed to the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs and prepared to implement the Copenhagen Declaration on Anti-Doping in Sport. 
 We in the Maori Party also compliment the New Zealand Sports Drug Agency its board and its staff on being so resolute in advocating the apprehension of those who aim to cheat their way to success through the use of performance-enhancing drugs. 
Sport is a megamillion-dollar business as is the manufacture of illicit drugs. Mix the two and you see the ends to which greed will go to avoid detection. I disagree with the Minister for Sport and Recreation and I agree with the Executive Director of the New Zealand Sports Drug Agency Graeme Steel. He wants the World Anti-Doping Agency to take cannabis off its prohibited substance list so it can concentrate on catching cheats who use performance-enhancing drugs such as steroids human-growth hormones and erythropoietin. We also agree that the Sports Drugs Agency with its limited resources should not get sidetracked away from its primary role of being focused efficient and quick to respond to the key doping issues. We do not agree with sportspeople being stoned or drunk while participating in sport but we also recognise that neither of those drugs enhances performance. Much time and resources can be wasted on policing the use of recreational drugs whereas the use of performance-enhancing drugs is not getting the attention it should. 
What is more there is no evidence of widespread use of cannabis amongst New Zealand’s elite athletes; and we congratulate them because there have been no positive cannabis tests in our top-level professional sports teams like the All Blacks the Warriors the Kiwis and the Silver Ferns. Resources are best put towards the catching of those cheats who use sophisticated means and sophisticated substances to escape detection. 
The Maori Party does not believe that the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs is rife in sport in Aotearoa. We also believe that more would be gained by encouraging athletes to not use recreational drugs rather than use punitive measures against them. But we note too that society must always be vigilant. The Sports Drug Agency is a small body and I note that it is expected to draft the rules once the bill becomes law. Although I am advised there is a high degree of cooperation between the Sports Drug Agency and organisations like Sport and Recreation New Zealand I would support consideration being given to extra resourcing to help the agency in drafting those rules. In conclusion I again commend those responsible for this bill. The Maori Party will be supporting it. No reira hurinoa tenatatou katoa.