Wilson Margaret: General Debates 
Wilson Margaret: General Debates 
[Volume:610;Page:7444] 
Hon MARGARET WILSON (Attorney-General) 
: 
 We have just heard a rather feeble attempt at humour. As one would say the honourable member should not give up his day job—though we do know he seeks the cover of the night. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I am sorry. If members want to have a reasonable hearing they will allow all members to have a reasonable hearing. I intend to do that today. I could not hear the honourable Minister. I ask her to continue. 
Hon MARGARET WILSON 
: I was just making the point to the Opposition that the honourable member who spoke before me should not give up his day job. But then I understand he has been working hard at night anyway and therefore perhaps he can do both. 
The Labour-led Progressive Government has just celebrated the first year of its second term with the publication of the highlights of our achievements. That publication demonstrates that we are not just a Government of useless words and slogans but that we walk the talk and do what the Opposition National Party has been unable to do for this Government—that is demonstrate what it stands for. It has been demonstrably clear to us all that the National Party led by um the honourable member opposite me Mr English—still Mr English—has demonstrated that one cannot get credibility with the New Zealand public through a set of slogans. One of the famous slogans that reached no traction at all is that of the one standard of citizenship which is frequently heard in connection with issues relating to the relationship between Maori and the Crown and also with regard to the Treaty of Waitangi. 
I have wondered why a man who has aspirations to lead the people of this country considers that he only wishes to lead about 20 percent of the country. Mr English refuses to acknowledge that we are now a changing society that requires a sort of leadership that will acknowledge diversity be prepared to embrace and celebrate difference and be prepared to represent everyone in this country and that will not use that useless phrase of one standard of citizenship for a small group of people who are just like him—rather short rather white and rather narrow-minded. 
I have wondered and reflected upon why it is that I hear from some members of the National Opposition that they do embrace a bipartisan approach to important issues relating to the treaty yet at the same time we hear the contradiction of that coming from the Leader of the Opposition. I have wondered why Mr English has strayed so much from a path that I think summed up a very constructive approach to the treaty which was given by the Hon Nick Smith when he gave his speech in the second reading of the Ngai Tahu Claims Settlement Bill. At that point he was talking about various approaches to the treaty. I think he is worth quoting because it demonstrates how far his leader has strayed from that approach. 
The Hon Nick Smith said: “Perhaps the easiest approach is to do nothing and to sort of pretend that it never occurred. Perhaps some have thought that if we forget about it for long enough then it will just go away. The problem” said the Hon Nick Smith “is that it will not go away and it has not gone away.” He was talking about the treaty. “Alternatively” he said “we could take the Khmer Rouge approach—the year zero approach. We do not care what happened; we do not want to know what happened. We could take the approach that history is just irrelevant. The problem with that sort of approach is that we cannot divorce our future from our past.”—take note of that I tell Mr English. “Furthermore there is much that is rich and good” said the Hon Nick Smith “about both our Maori and Pakeha history. If we want to cherish and value that which is good we also have to acknowledge that which is not so good.” 
Then the Hon Nick Smith went on to the third approach the approach that was adopted by previous National Governments. He said: “The third approach that is encompassed in this Bill is probably the hardest of all but it is certainly the right approach. It involves acknowledging that some things were wrong and that some people goofed—maybe deliberately maybe through ignorance. While we cannot fix it all while we cannot unwind history we can make amends. We can acknowledge that what was wrong is wrong and that to try to put these things right is the right thing to do.” Do the right thing I tell Bill English.