Harawira Hone: Local Government (Tamaki Makaurau Reorganisation) Amendment Bill Local Government (Auckland Council) Amendment Bill Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Bill — Third Readings 
Harawira Hone: Local Government (Tamaki Makaurau Reorganisation) Amendment Bill Local Government (Auckland Council) Amendment Bill Local Government (Auckland Transitional Provisions) Bill — Third Readings 
[Volume:663;Page:11630] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 I would like to say that I am wearing a Maori All Blacks jersey but they are too tight to share them around. 
Simon Bridges 
: I thought you were going to say they’re too tight to fit your body. 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: Oh cut that out! Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker Barker. Huri rauna. Tena tatou katoa e te Whare. 
This weekend is Matariki weekend. I hope to be celebrating it at home in the far north where the weather is always good the land is always bountiful the oceans are always warm and the people are forever beautiful. Te Tai Tokerau is a region worthy of protection and in my desire to protect the beauty of my great homeland from the ravages of the rapacious mob from Auckland fleeing to the north for the long weekend I extend a special thanks to all of those Rodney-ites who are protesting against this “Rodney Bill” by blocking the roads from Puhoi to Warkworth with a convoy of tractors. Unfortunately I suspect the message may not be very effective because long weekend journeys to the north normally begin with a 10-mile-an-hour trip from Orewa to Warkworth anyway so a reduction to 5 miles an hour behind a wheezing procession of tractors will hardly be noticed. Still I wish the Direct Action Group well although it is unlikely that the Government will take any notice. Even though it promised the Government has reneged on the deal to leave north Rodney out of the super-city. 
While I am praising those from the northern end of the super-city for standing up for their rights I also reaffirm the support of the Maori Party for the rights of the indigenous forebears of Tamaki-makau-rau to seats on any council that is charged with overseeing the development and growth of what is undeniably the jewel of the South Pacific albeit tarnished somewhat by the racism inherent in the denial of seats to those who have given the lands for the establishment of Auckland City. In this third and final reading I acknowledge the mana whenua—and indeed all Maori—for their commitment to full seats for tangata whenua at the top table and their support for a Treaty-based framework for the governance and management of the new city. 
Nobody can say that we have not tried hard to get this legislation to be consistent with the expectations of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. We attended hui right across the region. We met with iwi and not only did we march on the hikoi; we helped to organise it. We read all the letters and submissions we responded to the media and we did the behind-the-scenes negotiations with iwi and with the Crown. We tried to negotiate directly with the Ministers concerned. We attended the Auckland Governance Legislation Committee hearings to encourage Maori participation. We helped draft an alternative in the form of an advisory committee. We tabled our minority report. We tabled Supplementary Order Papers to try to inject the Maori presence right up until yesterday. We have spoken at every stage of this legislation. Yet the Maori presence and the Maori participation critical to a positive future for Tamaki-makau-rau have still been ignored. Still the fight goes on because it is a just battle for the rights of tangata whenua consistent with our status under Te Whakaputanga o Niu Tireni Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples—the declaration that guarantees indigenous people the right to take part in all decisions affecting their rights through representatives they choose by their own methods. 
It is great to hear John Banks talk about including a Maori liaison role in his office if he gets the mayor’s job just as it is great to hear Len Brown say that he wants Maori around the table if he gets the job. But I note the cautionary tale from Ngati Whatua’s spokesman Ngarimu Blair who said of the advisory board that it sits a very long way from where decisions are going to be made but that anything that gets Maori closer to the No. 1 field has to be a good thing. I remind the House that Maori aspirations are for dedicated Maori seats not for having to make do with second best. Maori do not want to be dancing monkeys at anyone’s table and we will not support the use of a Maori liaison or a Maori advisory board to deny the expectations of tangata whenua or the recommendations of any other entity representing Maori opinion. 
We are disappointed that Rodney Hide can talk so blithely and so dishonestly about the so-called integrity of one person one vote when his party has five seats in this House because New Zealanders have the right at national elections to one person two votes. We are disappointed that Mr Hide cannot bring himself even to encourage Maori participation in Auckland by allowing them to exercise their one vote in a way that would enable Maori participation in a process that has seen only eight Maori councillors in Auckland in 150 years. We are disappointed that Mr Hide can force the Government to bend to his will by threatening to walk on the coalition if he does not get his way in blocking the Maori seats. We are disappointed that this Government can enter into a coalition arrangement with the Maori Party that says “Both the National Party and the Maori Party will act in accordance with te Tiriti o Waitangi” and then so easily give way to Rodney Hide’s demand that it ignore the agreement. 
Ours is not a call for special privilege for Maori; it is a call to recognise the under-representation of Maori at all layers of local government a call for the inclusion of tangata whenua in their own land a call for the inclusion of the special character of this nation that is found nowhere else in the world and a call for involving the special talents that Maori bring to the table in business in education in governance and in all walks of life. These talents could only enhance the future that Auckland might have had. It is for those reasons that we express again our disappointment that the Government has chosen to ignore the overwhelming support for the Maori seats of the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance all of the mana whenua groups in Auckland the two major iwi groups in Auckland 100 percent of the Maori submissions to the Auckland Governance Legislation Committee 80 percent of the non-Maori submissions to that select committee the majority of Auckland’s councils most of Auckland’s mayors three of the five major parties in Parliament and every intelligent political commentator in the country. 
According to the 2009 statistics 40 percent of Auckland’s kids are Polynesian—that is Maori and Pasifika. Failure to recognise those dynamics—by refusing to have dedicated Maori seats by refusing to plan for formal Pasifika representation and by ignoring the spectacular blossoming of Auckland as a multicultural playground to be proud of—suggests a mindset that we used to condemn in South Africa’s and Australia’s treatment of their indigenous peoples. But that mindset sadly lives on in this nation a nation that can so vociferously condemn comments about white m - - - - - f - - - - - s made by a Maori but blithely ignore comments about darkies horis and coconuts when made by a Pakeha. 
Fifty years ago Maori rugby players were excluded from the All Black tour to South Africa—a decision we condemn the South African Government for. Fifty years on Maori people are being excluded from having their own seats at the top table in their home town—a decision we condemn the New Zealand Government for. It took 50 years to get an apology for this country’s meek and cringing acceptance of the demands of a racist Government overseas. How sad it is that in this supposedly bright and shining new millennium we have learnt nothing from that embarrassing period in our own nation’s history. 
The Maori Party reiterates its commitment to fighting for dedicated Maori representation at every level of governance and we commit our support to ensuring that Maori will one day take their rightful place at the top table in Tamaki-makau-rau. Kia ora tatou.