King Annette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
King Annette: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:662;Page:10389] 
1. 
Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: On what date did Cabinet decide to support the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and what did Cabinet believe the impact of such a decision would be? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Acting Prime Minister) 
: 
 Cabinet made the decision to support the declaration on 22 March. The statements made to this House and to the UN accurately reflect Cabinet’s view that this is a non-binding aspirational document. The Government has affirmed that New Zealand’s existing legal and constitutional frameworks will define the bounds of the influence of the declaration. 
Hon Annette King 
: If Cabinet agreed to ratify the UN declaration on 22 March was it open and transparent of him to tell media in Canada on 14 April when asked whether New Zealand would sign the declaration: “I think you’re a little bit ahead of yourself. From the New Zealand perspective it’s true we’ve been looking and working on ways that we might adopt the declaration but we haven’t made an announcement and at least or until we do wouldn’t necessarily count your chickens.”? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: I make two points—[ 
Interruption 
] Yeah—a funky question. The Government has been quite open about the fact that it has been considering affirming the declaration. In fact the Prime Minister has been talking about it since April 2009 and he correctly said no announcement had been made. 
Hon Annette King 
: If the declaration which New Zealand has now ratified is symbolic and will not result in a lot of change as he has claimed was Sir Eddie Durie who is a former Waitangi Tribunal chairman and High Court judge and a man considered to be a high-powered legal expert wrong when he stated yesterday that it had important implications for the Office of Treaty Settlements the Crown Forestry Rental Trust and the Waitangi Tribunal and that “Important statements of principle established through international negotiation … filter into the law in time”? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Eddie Durie is known for the vein of his opinions on these matters. 
Hon Annette King 
: Vagaries? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Well the general direction of his opinion is always pretty predictable. What he said today on the radio was “… it is not legally binding it’s not going to tie us up” and he is absolutely correct about that. 
Chris Tremain 
: Has the Prime Minister seen any contradictory reports on the declaration? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Yes I have. The Hon Phil Goff has said “This is a declaration that says you have to restore all land that was once owned by indigenous people.” The Hon Trevor Mallard said on the same day “there is nothing in it at all for Maori.” But of course what really matters is what the Hon David Cunliffe thinks and we have not heard from him yet. 
Hon Annette King 
: If the ratification of the declaration is aspirational and symbolic as the Prime Minister has repeatedly stated why 2 days later has the first claim to the UN under article 32 of the declaration been lodged by the hapu from the Ngapuhi tribe seeking the return of 2490 acres of land known as the Treaty grounds at the Bay of Islands and does he agree with the tribal leader who says that if the land is not returned the New Zealand Government will be exposed in front of the international community and lose credibility? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The Labour Party thinks so much of Mr David Rankin who lodged that claim that it would not go near Waitangi for years. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member asked a question and the answer has nothing to do with the Labour Party. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Yes it does. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The Minister should answer the question before he makes any comment about the Labour Party if at all. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Part of the answer to the question— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I would like to draw your attention to something. I know you were looking in the direction of the Government as you were speaking to it but as you were directing the Acting Prime Minister and saying that matter had nothing to do with the Labour Party he said “Yes it does.” If we did that we would be ordered out of here. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I apologise to the member that I did not particularly note that but I remind members that when I am on my feet members will not comment interject or say anything. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The so-called claim by Mr David Rankin who I think is well known to all of us cannot be a claim. It is completely irrelevant and I would advise him not to waste the price of a postage stamp on it. 
Hon Annette King 
: Does he concur with the Attorney-General who said today that Maori who make claims about the impact of the ratification of the declaration are “fantasists and bush lawyers” and are Eddie Durie a former High Court judge Tuhoe leader Tamati Kruger and former Maori Language Commission commissioner Haami Piripi to be counted in this group? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: If they believed that making a claim under the declaration was some kind of useful exercise then the Attorney-General is absolutely correct. I say to claimants that it is a total waste of time to imagine that they can make some kind of claim under this declaration. The Government has a framework in place for dealing with Treaty of Waitangi claims and we are dealing with them much more successfully than the previous Labour Government ever did. 
Hon Annette King 
: Who met the expenses of Te Ururoa Flavell a backbench member of the Maori Party to be at the ratification of the declaration in New York on Tuesday? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The member is quite entitled to ask detailed questions about those expenses. As I understand it they were met by the Maori Party.