Shirley Ken: Ngati Tuwharetoa (Bay of Plenty) Claims Settlement Bill — In Committee 
Shirley Ken: Ngati Tuwharetoa (Bay of Plenty) Claims Settlement Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:625;Page:20253] 
Hon KEN SHIRLEY (ACT) 
: 
 I share the concern of Dr Mapp. I think this issue needs to be fleshed out further and the Minister in the chair Mita Ririnui owes it to this Chamber to give a clearer explanation. This is the provision that gives effect to clause 6.3 of the deed of settlement which states that the Minister of Conservation may grant these easements. It could well be that a block of land that has been put in the land bank and passed on to Ngati Tuwharetoa Bay of Plenty may be landlocked. There are blocks of land in that situation and I do not think anybody would have too much argument with a physical access being provided by way of easement over public lands with appropriate conditions as would be expected. However I draw the attention of the Chamber to some of the huge problems that other parties have had when dealing with the Department of Conservation. I would hate to think that the people who are benefiting from the settlement will suffer those problems. 
I draw the Chamber’s attention to the Pike River coal issue in the South Island. There is a very valuable seam of coal and a company has been trying to negotiate with the Department of Conservation for about 8 years to get access to its coalmine over a very small area of land involving about 2 hectares. One would not believe the tactics that the department uses to obfuscate delay and frustrate. I would hate to think that this great department of State which I believe is out of control under this Government will also be used to frustrate the people who will become the legal landholders following this settlement. That is one side of the issue. 
The other side of the issue is a concern I have not with Ngati Tuwharetoa Bay of Plenty but with the deed of settlement that was negotiated over the bed of Lake Taupo with Ngati Tuwharetoa. In 1992 Jim Bolger’s Government signed a deed of settlement transferring the bed of Lake Taupo to Ngati Tuwharetoa with some very important conditions. One condition was that full public access for all recreational pursuits and all scientific endeavours would be guaranteed at no cost. That was a condition of the deed of settlement. The Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences had a major project studying New Zealand’s volcanology that involved the bed of Lake Taupo. It was very important work. 
In previous years a mini-submarine came out and a marvellous film  
Ring of Fire 
 was made. The  
Jago 
 a research submarine sat in a crate on Auckland wharf for the best part of 9 months at a huge cost because Ngati Tuwharetoa denied access for that scientific work in the bed of Lake Taupo. The Crown-owned institute bowed to the PC. It did not have the gall to stand up for what was a condition of that deed of settlement. I am sorry to say that the Labour Government which was the Government of the time was also not prepared to confront that issue. In other words it was browbeaten and the institute was denied what was agreed under that deed of settlement. 
There are two issues here. Firstly we are saying that Ngati Tuwharetoa Bay of Plenty will have to run the gauntlet of negotiating with the Department of Conservation—the monster department that is out of control—and there are concerns about that. I also want some sort of assurance that other conditions in any of these deeds of settlement will not block access or replicate the situation that we had with the research submarine  
Jago  
regarding the bed of Lake Taupo. 
I have spoken to those scientists and they are still extremely frustrated that they cannot do this work. They say that it is critical for their research work which is important seismological and volcanological research. They are working on the Kermadec Trench with all its brown smoke as it stretches from the Bay of Plenty virtually up to Tonga. Some marvellous work is being done there and there are a lot of new discoveries but the scientists cannot complete their work by doing important studies on the bed of Lake Taupo even though the deed of settlement signed by the National Government in 1992 assured full public access for all recreational activities and scientific research at no fee. Ngati Tuwharetoa have reneged on that deal and are frustrating those research scientists who are trying to do their work. That is why I raise these concerns. It is all very well to sign these deeds of settlements but we need Governments with the gall to implement them.