Okeroa Mahara: Foreshore and Seabed Bill Resource Management (Foreshore and Seabed) Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
Okeroa Mahara: Foreshore and Seabed Bill Resource Management (Foreshore and Seabed) Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
[Volume:621;Page:17209] 
MAHARA OKEROA (Labour—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
Tuatahi kei te kopikopikoai te mahunga o teneina te tamaiti o Parihaka ki te tihi o Maunga Taupiri e raukawakawaana e piuaai e nga hau e wha. 
[ 
Firstly the mind of this child of Parihaka meanders to the peak of Taupiri Mountain shrouded there by the mantle of grief and the buffeting of the four winds.] 
I stand in the House today to show my support for the third reading of the foreshore and seabed legislation. It is about protecting the rights of my tamariki and my mokopuna and of everybody else’s mokopuna because that is the litmus test. It is inevitable that one day they will ask me to tell a story—a story about the foreshore and seabed and about the challenges that I my colleagues and others overcame. They will ask me why people made such a fuss over legislation that cemented Maori rights in law and why parties tried to stop the Government from preserving the rights they now enjoy. 
More important they will say: “E koro why did you support the foreshore and seabed legislation?”. I will say to them: “Moko we fought for you. We fought for your rights. We wanted you too to enjoy the freedoms we enjoyed when we were growing up. We wanted you to be able to do the things we have always done on the beaches of Aotearoa nui atu without a worry in the world.” I will tell them we supported that legislation so many years ago so that the tikanga of our people would be recognised acknowledged and respected. 
They will then ask me: “Why did other parties try to stop you from protecting our rights to the foreshore and seabed?”. I will tell them: “My colleagues and I believed in uniting Aotearoa New Zealand. We believed that the foreshore and seabed legislation would enable New Zealanders Maori and non-Maori to feel a sense of certainty about the use of the foreshore and seabed.” I will tell them that Don Brash and the National Party just did not—could not—understand the significant relationship that we as Maori and others have with the foreshore and seabed. They did not want our rights cemented in legislation; they wanted Maori rights to disappear altogether. They ignored Maori rights. 
My mokopuna will then ask me: “E pa who was Don Brash?”. “Well moko” I will say “he was a man who had one hit one wonder speech but you are not to worry too much about the history of Don Brash because he didn’t do anything special in the short time he spent as leader of the Opposition.” 
My moko will then say to me: “Koro the kids at our kura asked us who the Maori caucus was.” I will tell them that the members of the Maori caucus in the Labour Party were people who fronted up for the rights of Maori and also for the rights of non-Maori—rights that they now enjoy. Those members did not walk away; they did not shirk the huge challenges both political and personal. The message in that is that if you are to be a politician stay in the tent and fight the good fight.” 
My moko will also ask me: “What was the foreshore and seabed legislation all about?” I will tell them that it was legislation that did more for Maori than any other legislation could ever do. I will tell them it was about finding a solution that would strengthen the whole nation and take us forward as a country about giving certainty security fairness and balance about protecting the customary rights and interests of Maori in the foreshore and seabed and about making bloody sure that everyone would still be able to have access to the foreshore and seabed. 
 Finally my moko might ask me: “Did you know the Rt Rev. Winston Peters?” and I would be taken away with a gasp. Some people may see him as that but I would have to correct my moko and say he was not the right reverend but the right honourable. They might say: “Can you tell us about him?” and I would say: “I can tell you moko that he and his party supported this legislation into law. To say otherwise moko would mean another storytelling session about the life of Winitana Peters.”