Flavell Te Ururoa: Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 3) — Second Reading Third Reading 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 3) — Second Reading Third Reading 
[Volume:676;Page:21743] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Deputy Speaker. Kia ora tatou katoa. I te tuatahi hei wawahi i te ahuatanga o taku korero e hangai tonu taku korero ki te Minita ki a Honore Simon Power ko ia tenei ka riro i tana turanga i te ra nei. Ko taku ko te mihi ki a ia na runga i te ahuatanga o tana korero ka puta a ko ake nei me te mihi ki a ia mo te mahitahi me te aro mai o ona taringa ki nga korero a Te Pati Maori. No reira koia nei te mihi ki a ia me te tumanako ia ka riro ma te wahi ngaro ia e manaaki e tiaki tae atu ki nga mema ka puta i te Whare Paremata apopo. Ka nui te mihi ki a koutou katoa me ki haere e hoki ki te wa kainga kia rongo koutou i te mahana o te whanau a ka mutu kia mohio ano hoki kua ea te wahi ki a koutou. No reira e te Minita tena koe ka nui te mihi ki a koe e mahitahi me matou ka mutu ma te wahi ngaro koe e manaaki. 
[ 
Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker. Greetings to us all. Firstly and as an opener to my address I direct these remarks to the honourable Minister Simon Power in his move to other things today. I pay tribute to him ahead of his valedictory statement which he will make later on and to his ability to collaborate and to take into account statements made by the Maori Party. Thus I pay this tribute to him with the genuine desire that the origins from which all things come protect and look after him including members who exit the House of Parliament tomorrow. I wish you all good tidings. Return home to the warmth of the family knowing full well that the part you have played here as a collective has been satisfied. So salutations to you Minister. We very much appreciate you working together with us. Finally may the origins from which all things come protect you. 
] 
I just acknowledge the Minister Simon Power I wish him well as I said in Maori in his move on into other things. I also wish the same to the other speakers this afternoon but I just pay tribute to Simon Power for the work he has done with the Maori Party not only at the Business Committee I might add but also on legislation that has been pretty important to us. I wish him well. 
I will take just a brief call to look at the Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 3) which basically validates and confirms Acts that might otherwise become obsolete. As others have said the purpose of the bill is to prevent the expiry of certain subordinate legislation that lapses at a stated time unless it is earlier confirmed or validated by an Act of Parliament. Again others have said that the bill contains 13 items of subordinate legislation that would lapse unless they are validated and/or confirmed and they have also given time to the detail of the bill talking about the intricacies of the Customs and Excise Act the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Act the War Pensions Act and the Wine Act as I am told it is called. 
My small and humble contribution is really intended to step back a little bit and question the power vested in Parliament to revisit legislation—which is a pretty important issue actually; it will be an issue tomorrow—the ability of Parliament to confirm to validate and to otherwise authorise Acts on a retrospective basis and indeed the ability to make the unlawful lawful. The classic recent case of this was the Appropriation (Parliamentary Expenditure Validation) Bill which was moved through Parliament under urgency in October 2006. For those who have forgotten this shady past following the 2005 election there was widespread debate about the dubious practice by political parties of breaching election or parliamentary spending rules in some respects. So legislation was introduced to validate the invalid—to rectify the expenditure that the Auditor-General had concluded went beyond the appropriations and was deemed unlawful. 
Legislation to confirm to validate and to redress unlawful practice is not just a contemporary thing. I was fortunate to get some information about another piece of legislation so that the history of this has some whakapapa dating back to legislation called the Indemnity Act of the 1860s. For those members who do not know it basically rendered military officers and others immune from prosecution for anything done by them while they were acting under the authority of the proclamation of martial law back in the 1860s. Basically the Government of the day passed the Indemnity Act to prevent itself from being taken to court for its illegal actions in Taranaki in around the 1860s. Taranaki is where my wife and my in-laws come from. 
The tragic story of this bill can be traced through the  
Hansard 
 of 29 October 1860. It describes the events surrounding the storming of Parihaka on 25 January 1860 against the people of Taranaki who were gathered there in a state of peace. I particularly refer members to the  
Hansard 
 record of the Hon Mr Swainson who described in full the establishment of martial law in Taranaki and provided the House with this pretty eloquent conclusion. He said: “But Acts of Indemnity cannot bury our actions in oblivion nor can they shield us from the judgment of posterity … It is hard to say indeed whether to Great Britain victory or defeat would be the more painful humiliation : either result would certainly be followed by a bitterness of feeling between the two races which in all probability would never be effaced and which would too probably end in the extermination or oppression of the Maori people a lamentable and humiliating fulfilment of the proud professions with which the colonization of New Zealand was commenced.” One always hopes that we learn from our experience and that our history informs our present. 
In this Subordinate Legislation (Confirmation and Validation) Bill (No 3) our focus is mainly on timeliness: ensuring we are keeping up with the time frames established on the 13 various pieces of legislation that would otherwise lapse or fall into oblivion. My point in taking us back to 2006 and even further to 1860 was to simply encourage us to all think about the power of the executive and how we make the best use of the parliamentary authority vested in us as members of Parliament. It is a question that will no doubt as I said rise again tomorrow when urgency is once again called upon to basically make the unlawful lawful. We will see what rolls out tomorrow. Koinei taku ki a tatou kia ora tatou. 
[ 
This then is my tribute to us so thanks. 
]