Harawira Hone: Public Works (Offer Back of and Compensation for Acquired Land) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Harawira Hone: Public Works (Offer Back of and Compensation for Acquired Land) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 17 June 2009. Volume:655;Page:4427. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker. Kia ora tatou e te Whare. Tena koutou e te whanau. The Minister for Land Information revealed today a staggering list of delays and deferrals associated with the many reviews of the Public Works Act the most recent of which attracted 90 submissions from Maori—more than 30 percent of all submissions received. This clearly shows the level of interest that Maori have in this issue and is perhaps why so many delays and deferrals have been caused by the Crown—if Maori are interested then let us do nothing. Or perhaps it is because challenging the compulsory acquisition of Maori land is an issue best swept under the carpet to be cleaned up by another Government further down the track or to be revisited when Maori are too tired to fight any longer. 
If we look through the submissions from the 2001 review we see that the concerns that have arisen from public works legislation going right back to 1864 have torn at the very soul of Maoridom and created a clear perception that the many institutions of Government have worked against Maori in the past and offer little hope for making a difference in the future. The challenge for the Maori Party was that any review of the public works legislation had to be based around the notion of redressing those injustices and re-establishing the connection between tangata whenua and whenua lost. 
The issue of protecting Maori land is not new. My thoughts go back to 1975 when Te Roopu o te Matakite was formed to fight the continuing alienation of Maori land and when Whina Cooper led the nation in a historic march from Te Rerenga Wairua to Wellington under the banner of “Not one acre more” to raise public awareness of the massive loss of Maori land and to signal the determination of Maori not to accept the continuance of that situation. I think of the 5000 marchers who carried the hopes of the Maori nation of the petitions signed by 60000 people and of the memorial of rights signed by 200 of our kaumatua and kuia. 
We all know about the Maori land struggles that have been debated in this House on many many occasions in the past. There have been countless reviews and petitions to Parliament tablings of proceedings of the Waitangi Tribunal and debates about the righteous occupations that aimed to restore Maori ownership of Maori land that was taken improperly by the Crown right throughout the country. Most notably and most recently this has occurred in Raglan Bastion Point and even more recently in Tuwharetoa Hauraki and Ngati Kahu. 
I congratulate my good Ngapuhi brother Te Ururoa Flavell on the Public Works (Offer Back of and Compensation for Acquired Land) Amendment Bill which responds to the people’s call that enough is enough that too much land has been lost into Crown hands and that it is time through this bill to begin to right those wrongs and redress in a small way that massive imbalance. The bill targets section 40 of the Public Works Act which deals with the disposal of surplus land. The current provisions of section 40 do nothing to protect the interests of those who want their land returned. Until section 40 of the Public Works Act is strengthened those interests will continue to be ignored. 
I am proud today to speak for the Maori Party to speak in support of the member for Waiariki and to speak on behalf of all those whanau hapu and iwi who have waited for generations for this issue to come before the House. I mihi to Te Ururoa Flavell for this the very first bill to be drafted and delivered by a Maori Party member in the history of this Parliament. I sincerely hope this bill will be positively received and supported by all intelligent parties in this House. 
Jonathan Young 
: That’s us! 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: That is all of us—hopefully. 
These amendments will mean that land that was taken for public works and never used for that purpose or land that is no longer needed for that purpose is offered back to the original owners in the first instance. It is simple—this is not rocket science. This is about offering back land that is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was acquired. Yes there may be issues around whether facilities originally included in the public works have changed over time but these are not insurmountable problems; they are just technicalities that can be easily dealt with if the Crown is willing. Yes there may be issues around whether compensation is sufficient to purchase replacement land of equivalent value but again if the desire for justice is there those issues too will be resolved easily enough. 
This bill is simply the application of good common sense whereby land no longer needed for the purpose for which it was acquired is offered back to the original owners. The Maori Party will support this bill without reservation. Kia ora tatou katoa.