Harawira Hone: Crimes (Repeal of Seditious Offences) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Harawira Hone: Crimes (Repeal of Seditious Offences) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:643;Page:12596] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Kia ora Mr Chairperson. Kia ora tatou katoa. In rising to speak to Part 1 it has just occurred to me that I may be the only one in the House who has actually been charged with sedition. The charge was laid in this House when Ross Meurant came to Parliament fresh from his dastardly deeds as head thug for the Red Squad. He warned the country in his maiden speech of a small group of Maori—10 of us—who he said had plans to overthrow the Government who were seditious. Well I was one of those he named and he was right actually. The overthrow of the Government was exactly what I had in mind in those days. It is still what I have in mind today and it is the promise I intend to carry out. Back then of course Mr Meurant was trading on his reputation as a hard man to try to cast us in a seditious light. But I note that the tough guy got all quiet when he was asked to repeat his charges outside the House. 
The charge of sedition is a strange one and I am glad we are getting rid of it because it is a contradiction. The contradiction of course in repealing this so-called seditious offences legislation is that the act of sedition—“To bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against Her Majesty or the Government”—should even be considered an offence at all. People who have been charged with sedition are often our sharpest citizens who are passionate about their causes and patriotic about their country. They are the peacemakers the protestors the movers and the shakers of Aotearoa. 
The Minister himself like others in the Committee has already mentioned the names of our most celebrated prophets of sedition and I would like to do so again. They are Erueti Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kakahi who in 1881 were both charged with “wickedly maliciously and seditiously contriving and intending to disturb the peace”. Despite their protests and demands for a proper trial Te Whiti and Tohu were held in custody in New Plymouth for 6 months before being shunted off to the South Island with many of their followers. Then in another contradictory and self-serving act of legislative juggling the Government passed the West Coast Peace Preservation Act in 1882 so that Te Whiti and Tohu would not be tried for sedition but could be detained indefinitely as the Government thought fit. 
Dr Ranginui Walker explained this best when he stated in  
Ka Whawhai Tonu Matou: Struggle Without End  
in 1990: “It was by violence that a tribal (Maori) society was destroyed in the first instance and the (Pakeha) nation state brought into being.” That so-called peace preservation law resulted in peaceful prophets being assaulted arrested jailed without conviction and treated like animals all for daring to passively resist colonial land-grabbing. 
I will say that again: the so-called Terrorism Suppression Act last week resulted in peaceful prophets being assaulted arrested jailed without conviction and treated like animals all for daring to passively resist colonial land-grabbing. It just goes to show that even though it has happened in the past it seems we have not learnt from it. The so-called peace preservation law was in fact a declaration of war against people who were seeking nothing but peace. The so-called Terrorism Suppression Act of 2002 is in fact a declaration of war against people who also seek nothing but peace. 
Then of course there is the man immortalised in song from last century and in a three-part series of paintings by Colin McCahon: Tuhoe prophet Rua Kenana of Maungapohatu who was charged with sedition in 1916 for daring to call himself a prophet of peace for daring to call his community Hiruharama Hou—the New Jerusalem—for daring to establish a policy of non-violence and for daring to call upon his people to hold to their faith and not enlist for World War I. The police hunted Kenana down killing his son in the process and they packed him off to Auckland to stand trial for sedition. 
 Then there is the man likely to be immortalised in song and a four-part series of paintings by just about anybody: Tuhoe prophet Tame Iti of Maungapohatu who was charged under the Terrorism Suppression Act for daring to call himself a prophet of peace for daring to call on Tuhoe to be an independent nation for daring to establish a policy of non-violence within the borders of Tuhoe and for daring to call upon his people to oppose State terrorism in 2007. It is likely that the police have in fact hunted Tame Iti down—I sincerely hope they do not kill his son in the process—and I understand he is still in jail as we speak for charges that remain unknown to most of us in this House. 
Also at this end of the last century other Maori activists including lawyer Annette Sykes Mike Smith Niko Tangaroa Ken Mair and Tame Iti again were accused of sedition for their intentions to incite encourage or procure lawlessness in protesting against the creeping control and ownership of Aotearoa by foreign investors—an issue that people are only now starting to wake up to. This is the nub of the whole issue for us. Sedition has been used to quieten the natives and to suppress and oppress anyone daring to challenge the status quo. In fact even the former Prime Minister and president of the Law Commission Sir Geoffrey Palmer admits that the archaic offence of sedition is too wide and too unclear and that it has been used to muzzle unpopular political speech. 
The most recent expression of this ridiculous law of course came when Timothy Selwyn was charged for opposing the foreshore and seabed legislation and there is that contradiction again. The Government passes legislation to steal away people’s rights and then it charges people with sedition for daring to oppose such theft; for daring to speak up for the Treaty which the Prime Minister herself calls the constitutional foundation of our nation; and for daring to speak out for human rights. Selwyn made submissions he started a petition and he sent out emails but he was stymied by a Government that was determined to ignore due process to ensure it got its way. So he was forced to take more direct action and—surprise surprise; not—he gets done with a charge of sedition. 
Again I would just like to honour those who have helped to bring this bill to where it is. They are those who have suffered so we can more easily see the mean-spirited ugly demeaning and destructive nature of the charge of sedition; Idiot/Savant for drafting a bill and badgering us all to sponsor it; those who still speak against conscription and war; those who still speak out for their land rights and their Treaty rights; those who still speak out against colonisation and foreign control; those who still speak out against injustice; and those who still speak out against violence and the economic abuse of power. Theirs is a fight for freedom and we dedicate this bill to them all. Kia ora tatou katoa. 
Part 1 agreed to.