Whaitiri MekaMEKA WHAITIRI (Labour—Ikaroa-Rāwhiti): I am happy to take a call on clauses 1 and 2 of the Resource Legislation Amendment Bill. Can I start with sharing a couple of documents that I received today from the Guardians of the Aquifer from Hawke's Bay. One was dated 15 November raising an issue with Minister for Māori Development Te Ururoa Flavell around drinking water versus drilling for oil and gas. In this letter it highlights where the Māori Party's position was back in November on new section 360D inserted by clause 105. Clearly for many people around this country the broad-based powers of the Minister have been a very contentious issue raised by many submitters. In this letter it urged the Māori Party to vote against 360D. In fact in this letter it acknowledged that the co-leader of the Māori Party Marama Fox actually helped write its submission which was an interesting piece of background.But if I take the Committee back to the election in 2014 another letter was written to the Minister for Māori Development Te Ururoa Flavell raising the very important issue of fracking in the Hawke's Bay and probably around the country. In this letter they ran a questionnaire that asked members of Parliament to answer two questions that the Guardians of the Aquifer asked. The questions went like this: Certain locations and regions [in New Zealand] should be excluded from hydraulic fracturing. Among them are catchment areas for drinking water. Additionally tectonically stressed areas or regions with a combination of artesian ground water and migration pathways (faults) should be excluded from hydraulic fracturing operations." There were two questions that members or political candidates were asked to answer. The first question is: do you agree with this statement? The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! I am just going to ask the member to fairly soon relate this letter and the discussion around it to the detail of the bill.MEKA WHAITIRI: Yes I will Mr Chair and—Hon David Bennett: Come on. Sit down if you can't do it. The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Trevor Mallard): Who said that?Hon Ruth Dyson: David Bennett.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! I probably should have stood up in order to speak rather than advising the member like that but I do not need advice from David Bennett of that type.MEKA WHAITIRI: Thank you Mr Chair. So the two questions: do we agree with this statement or disagree? It was circled "I agree". Will your party support such exclusion zones? Again "Yes" was ticked. That was signed by Māori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell. The point I am making is that if it was not for the Māori Party this bill would not be making its passage through this House. I have just shared with the Committee two documents where both leaders of the Māori Party have come up swinging really strongly for communities like the Guardians of the Aquifer in the Hawke's Bay.Nobody wanted this bill and it was only the two votes of the Māori Party that ensured that Nick Smith the Minister for the Environment got this bill through the House. It is clear that a secret deal has been done with this Government outside the select committee. We have been debating this bill quite rigorously for the last two evenings and I thought we would have had a bit more around what has been compromised in this bill.After months of sustained pressure from Opposition parties and high-profile campaigns run out of Hawke's Bay the Māori Party has proposed amendments that exclude genetically modified organisms. But when we look down and examine the Māori Party particularly the member's own Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 281 it was raised that her understanding of what crops covered and what we got from the Minister himself were two different things.There is this promise being made by the Māori Party members to all people particularly those in the Hawke's Bay around what they have gained not only for iwi around the country but clearly for people passionate about the environment. What has been exposed in this House through the debating of this bill is that they have walked away empty-handed.The other letter—and I will not go into it but I have got it here and am happy to table it in the House—is the statement from the Māori Party that it was the iwi leaders group that was also instrumental in providing was very instrumental in informing the Māori Party. So if we peel this back the Māori Party has not only identified its own fault in the SOP around making it really clear what crops were for our organic growers in the Hawke's Bay and in Northland and in Auckland but also thrown the iwi leaders group chairs under the bus by naming them as being very very close to the Māori Party and coming up with that SOP. We also unfortunately heard that Pure Hawke's Bay which is a reputable organic growers group in Hawke's Bay also was thrown under the bus by the Māori Party when Marama Fox last night indicated that it was its wording that went into her SOP. We all know that we all have relationships with different people—they help inform us as politicians. But one thing we do not do is we never throw those sources or those relationships under the bus.It is going to be an interesting time. As this bill passes its final reading in the House the Māori Party members will be held accountable—they will be held accountable—for their support of an absolutely flawed bill. They will be held accountable for the actions that they have taken. We look forward when we go on the campaign trail to them defending their position in supporting this bill and the so-called gains which we have uncovered are not gains at all. They have actually sold out. They have sold out organic growers in this country. They have sold out iwi Māori. They have sold out councillors. They have sold out developers. And they will be held accountable as we go on the campaign trail which is coming up shortly.This is a terrible bill. All the way through we have made it really clear on principle and on parts of the bill that do not protect our environment as we all understand the Resource Management Act was originally made for. We have now turned the tide. We have gone from protecting our environment and into economic development at all costs. There are no checks and balances in this bill. I do not commend this bill to the House. It is going to be a very strong issue as we go into the campaign this year. Nick Smith and the National Government along with the Māori Party will have to stand and be accountable for these actions."