Henare Tau: Mauao Historic Reserve Vesting Bill — First Reading 
Henare Tau: Mauao Historic Reserve Vesting Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:644;Page:13930] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 After 8 years we all of a sudden have four bills from the Minister of Maori Affairs. That is an amazing stint. Why now and what is the rush? 
First of all I want to concentrate on Mauao. Myself and my colleagues the Hon Georgina te Heuheu Chris Finlayson and the local member Bob Clarkson sat down with some of the local people. We asked them whether the Mauao Historic Reserve Vesting Bill was a good thing. They said that it was but they had one big gripe. And that one big gripe was that it was a Clayton’s bill. Basically the bill says: “You can have Mauao your historic maunga but you don’t really get it; all you get is a name on a piece of paper and that is all you’re going to get.” And it says so in the bill: “the Crown for all legal purposes continues to bear the rights and obligations in respect of the reserve … as if the fee simple in the reserve were still vested in the Crown.” That is what the bill states; that is not from us. That is I suppose an issue with the local people. They still think that there could be some movement on this bill even though they and we support the Government in putting it forward. 
Members will hear from my colleagues and me that we are not opposed to this measure. What we are opposed to I suppose is the fact that these sorts of bills are becoming far too frequent—where someone is gifted something but not really. One does not really get the Christmas present. One is getting a Christmas present but Santa Claus is saying: “You can have this but not really.” 
Hon Parekura Horomia 
: Even if that is what the iwi wants? 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Oh no hang on. The Minister of Maori Affairs is saying that that is what the iwi wants. Well actually we were there. We talked to the local iwi and the local iwi said this— 
Hon Mita Ririnui 
: No you didn’t. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Oh so where were we when we met with the local people? 
Hon Parekura Horomia 
: In cuckoo-land. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: The Minister of Maori Affairs is now saying that the local iwi office is in cuckoo-land. The people in Tauranga should know that the Minister of Maori Affairs has just referred to their officers as being in cuckoo-land. 
We were there. We were even there with Te Ururoa Flavell from the Maori Party. We heard from the local people and the local people told us that they were being forced— 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: I bet he loves Gerry Brownlee! 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Oh no they were being forced to sign and agree with this. What worries me is that although it is a good thing that we recognise the historic traditional and cultural— 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: But! 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Well there is a “but” because the Crown gets away with too much. If the local people say they do not want it then the Crown walks away. It is no skin off the Crown’s nose whatsoever. But for over 100 years the local people have been saying: “Please hand back the title to this maunga.” In essence they are being told that they will get the fee simple title but not really. Everything shall remain the same even though there is a bill stating that they will get the maunga back. They cannot do anything with it. They have to work with other people. That is fine. Let them work with other people—let them do all sorts of things—but at the end of the day this bill is a do-nothing bill. It forces the local people into saying: “Yes we want a Christmas present even though we are not really going to get to play with the toy.” I just wonder whether we could have done a wee bit more than what we are doing now. 
I want to turn my thoughts now to 8 years of this administration for good or for bad— 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Mostly good. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Mostly bad thank you Darren. I want to turn my thoughts to the Minister of Maori Affairs who within the space of 24 hours will have introduced three bills into this House. One or two of his bills are controversial and one or two are purely and simply mechanical bills. Suddenly the Minister has got busy. Suddenly Te Puni Kokiri has got busy. Suddenly the Minister has looked at the calendar and thought to himself: “Crikey we’ve got an election soon. I had better get busy. I had better say to the public: ‘Look what I’ve done over the last 8 years of a useless administration.’ ”. It has been a no-hoper administration. So the Minister comes to the House in urgency just before everybody is about to go on holiday and he introduces three bills. For 8 years he has been sitting on $180000 a year and a Crown car and all he has come up with in those 8 years is three or four bills. One of those bills which we are talking about today forces the local people to sign on the dotted line. 
If that is the sum total of the 8 years in office of this Minister of Maori Affairs then the Maori community is in bad shape. I think the Maori community is in good shape despite the Minister. I think the Maori community is in good shape not because of this administration which wants to give and take with the same bill but because it wants to be in good shape and to move on. It is doing things despite this Government. It is not because of this Government that Maori are succeeding beyond people’s imagination. 
We have had 8 years of this administration and suddenly we have four bills. Why now? What is the rush just before Christmas? We are here in urgency and urgency requires that there is something urgent to be brought to the House. The word is “urgency”. I know that the Leader of the House may have had something urgent to bring to the House—or he may not have—but certainly this bill is not urgent. 
Hon Parekura Horomia 
: Oh you don’t want them to have it? 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: The Minister should ask the local people—you know the ones he said lived in cuckoo-land. It was the Minister of Maori Affairs who said that those people up in Tauranga lived in cuckoo-land. 
Hon Parekura Horomia 
: You are making it up Tau. You’re always in cuckoo-land. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: The Minister can read his  
Hansard 
 afterwards; that is fine. 
After 8 years all we have is a bill that says the local people can have something but not really. They can sit on a committee but not really. They can sit around the table and make— 
Hon Parekura Horomia 
: What did you give them Tau? You gave them nothing. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: That is what we hear after 8 years of uselessness. After 8 years of doing nothing the Minister suddenly sees the writing on the wall and he says: “Whoops-a-daisy I had better put something on the agenda so that the people out there can think that I have been doing something.” Well I have news for the Minister and it is all bad. Come election day people will not worry about the four bills the Minister of Maori Affairs tried to put up in the last days of this session. They will be thinking about the future of Maoridom and they will not be looking backwards as the Minister will be come the day after the election.