Flavell Te Ururoa: Hawke’s Bay Regional Planning Committee Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFlavell Te Ururoa: Hawke’s Bay Regional Planning Committee Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 04 November 2014. Volume:694;Page:593. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TE URUROA FLAVELL (Minister for Māori Development)on behalf of theMinister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations: Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Kia ora koe mō te whakatika i tērā kōrero ā tēnā koe tēnā tātau katoa.[Thank you for correcting that statement and greetings to you and to us all.]I move That the Hawke’s Bay Regional Planning Committee Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Māori Affairs Committee to consider this bill.I recognise that other iwi are in the House this morning some moving on. Ko ētahi kai te puta i Te Whare ko ētahi i tae mai i mua i tēnei o ngā pānuitanga tuatahi. Hoi anō ko tāku he mihi kau atu ki a tātau ngā mema Pāremata Māori e puta nei ka mihi rā ki a tātau te tikanga ia ko tēnei te wā tuatahi kua noho pēnei tātau i roto i tēnei Whare. Ka mihi ki ngā iwi kei roto i Te Whare Pāremata i tēnei ata. Tēnā koutou kai aku rangatira haere mai rā ki roto i Te Whare Pāremata. Ka mutu kai te mōhio tonu au kua ea te wāhi o ētahi o ngā pire i te tau kua hipa otirā i mua i tēnei rā ka mihi rā ki tērā āhuatanga me te mōhio anō hoki i tēnei rā ko Tainui tērā e tangi nei mō tā rātau tangata a Eru Tāmihana. Ko ia tērā kua riro ki tua o te pae o maumahara. Nō reira ko tāku he tāpiri atu i ngā mihi katoa ki ngā mate huhua o te wā. Koutou ki te pō haere koutou e moe okioki mai rā. Tātau te hunga ora tēnā koutou kia ora tātau katoa.[Some are leaving the House and some got here before the first reading of this bill. Therefore my part is merely to acknowledge those of us members leaving the Chamber. It is appropriate that I should do this because according to procedure this is the first time we have met in this manner in this House. I acknowledge the presence of the tribes in the House of Parliament this morning and furthermore I am fully cognisant of the fact that parts of some bills have been fulfilled last year before today but mindful at the same time that Tainui is presently mourning the loss of their man Eru Tamihana. He is the one who has traversed beyond the horizon of remembrance. So I add my condolences to all of those to the many deaths of the moment. You the deaths depart sleep and rest there in the void and to you the living I acknowledge you all. Congratulations to us all.]I just want to join with other speakers this morning who have acknowledged those who have passed on. I recognise that some of the tribal members in our gallery bring with them those who have passed on and I recognise this morning Eru Thompson who passed away—nō roto i Tainui waka [from within the canoe of Tainui]—as well as the many others. So we think about them.I want to extend a warm welcome to the representatives of the Hawke’s Bay and of course the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council which is involved in this bill and who have joined together today. I understand that the interim chief executive of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and the chair of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council are also in the House today. I welcome them along with obviously others who are in the House. I also extend a warm welcome to Fran Wilde—tēnā koe—who was the chief Crown negotiator for the Ngāti Pāhauwera negotiations where this bill had its origins. She is also in the House today.This bill is the outcome of a lot of hard work and cooperation amongst all of the parties involved. It represents a positive approach for the future engagement between the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and iwi in the Hawke’s Bay region. It is a constructive relationship which has taken time and dedication and a lot of work was put into making a real difference. Can I acknowledge the commitment and dedication of all of you who have come to the House today in advancing the bill to this particular phase.When I was at St Stephen’s School—when I was highly academic and highly sporting and in the kapa haka team—one of the songs we always used to sing was one by Canon Wī Huata of Ngāti Kahungunu. This song is always sung in Ngāti Kahungunu land. He was an Anglican minister and a military chaplain. I did not realise this but he wrote a song whilst he was with his family at Lake Tūtira north of Napier. The song—and I am sure even you have heard of it Mr Assistant Speaker—is “Tūtira mai ngā iwi”. I would ask you to sing a few verses but it will be all right—I will let you off. It goes something like this:Tūtira mai ngā iwiTātou tātou eTūtira mai ngā iwiTātou tātou eOh that is enough—that is enough. It might be matatini. I think that is a good song for today because it basically epitomises this bill with iwi working alongside local councils and ending up in Parliament to actually adjust how we do things and the relationship between all parties. If you did not know “Tūtira mai ngā iwi” means “Bring everybody together; line everybody together—all of us together.” So I think today it is a pretty appropriate occasion to sing that song. If you were to ask me to carry on Mr Assistant Speaker I would have but you did not so I will not.This bill is a modern-day application of those lyrics as I say with the council the iwi and the community lining up and coming together. The origins of this bill take us back to July 2010. At that time I am told Cabinet agreed to establish by legislation a planning committee of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council. The Ngāti Pāhauwera deed of settlement committed the Crown to establishing a committee comprising equal numbers of council members and representatives of iwi to have input into natural resources planning processes that affect the region.Originally the legislation was to establish the Hawke’s Bay Regional Planning Committee by Supplementary Order Paper to a Treaty settlement bill. However there was no suitable settlement legislation to which such an amendment could be applied. As a result this stand-alone Government bill has been drafted to establish the committee. The bill is necessary to ensure that post-settlement governance entities and Crown-mandated entities are entitled to appoint representatives. It is about recognising authority and sanctioning the iwi mandate. The bill also ensures that the committee cannot be disestablished unilaterally by the council despite the provision of schedule 7 of the Local Government Act 2002.In practical terms the committee has been in operation as I understand it for over a year and each group has nominated and appointed its own representative to the committee. For this reason the bill provides for appointer rights to be extended to those iwi with Crown-recognised mandated entities as well as post-settlement governance entities. This gives legislative effect to the practical arrangements already in place. You would say that it is highly sensible and that it makes a nice change to see legislation taking account of the practical realities of the everyday context.The purpose of the committee to be established by this bill is to oversee the development and review of the regional policy statement and the regional plans for the Hawke’s Bay region which will be prepared in accordance with the Resource Management Act 1991. The broader intention behind all of this is to improve engagement between the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and iwi in relation to resource management matters. This is obviously going to be a contentious issue in the foreseeable future.The planning committee is an excellent example of tangata whenua and local government working together. The planning committee includes representatives of Hawke’s Bay Regional Council; Ngāti Pāhauwera; Maungaharuru-Tangitū who are also here; Mana Ahuriri Inc.; Ngāti Hineuru Iwi Inc.; Ngāti Ruapani; Te Tira Whakaemi o Te Wairoa; and Ngāti Tūwharetoa—which is a pretty big spread of iwi. Ngāi Tūhoe and He Toa Takitini also have the option to join.By introducing this bill in the House today we give effect to the commitment made by the Government in the Ngāti Pāhauwera deed of settlement. The bill goes one step further and represents the agreements recorded in the Maungaharuru-Tangitū hapū deed of settlement to work with iwi hapū and the council in order to agree on the detail of the Hawke’s Bay Regional Planning Committee in order to introduce this legislation.This form of Treaty settlement redress is consistent with the Government’s overarching position on natural resource management and the settlement of historic Treaty settlement claims. So I believe that the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council and local iwi are leading the way in the management of natural resources. I commend the vision and leadership of tangata whenua and this council in establishing the planning committee. I consider that the bill should proceed without delay to the Māori Affairs Committee and I commend this bill to the House. Tēnā tātou.