Goudie Sandra: Foreshore and Seabed Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Goudie Sandra: Foreshore and Seabed Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:621;Page:17035] 
SANDRA GOUDIE (National—Coromandel) 
: 
 In listening to the debate— 
Larry Baldock 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I just respectfully point out that this debate is a bit like watching a ping-pong game with the calls going from one side of the Chamber to the other and back. As a member of the Fisheries and Other Sea-related Legislation Committee—and I also represent our party which is small in number—I do want to make a number of calls on this important part of the bill. I would just ask for your consideration in that. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Clem Simich) 
: I am quite aware of that. Proportionately if I had called the member United Future would have been way ahead of any other party. The member’s time will come. 
Ron Mark 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I thought I would take this point of order now so that I would not interrupt the member’s speech. I also respectfully inform you that some members who have been seeking the call have not had the opportunity to speak on this bill at all yet other members have had numerous calls. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Clem Simich) 
: I am quite aware of that. I thank the member for raising it. There will be opportunities to seek the call. Just to put the member in the picture if I had taken his call then I would have needed to give National the next five calls. 
SANDRA GOUDIE 
: I was in my office listening to the debate and I was very interested in the comments raised by the Hon Georgina Te Heuheu my very esteemed colleague. I also raise the points she referred to about access and of course I endorse the comments made by the honourable John Carter. If this was simply a matter of the Crown preserving the right of access of all New Zealanders then why is there so much paper and so many clauses? We have so much to contend with. This legislation is not simple. I find it incredible that the Government with the support of New Zealand First is trying to whitewash the New Zealand public into thinking that this legislation is simple when it certainly is not.  
There is absolutely no way that access is guaranteed through this bill. I ask members to look at new clause 115A and then refer that back to clause 6 “Rights of access”. I recall Nanaia Mahuta saying we should read the fine print. Well have I read the fine print. Clause 6(4) states: “Unless the enactment or other instrument that authorises a limit of the kind described in subsection (3) otherwise provides the limit may be applied—”. So I would strongly recommend that those guys read the fine print. If we relate that to new clause 115A “Status of existing and future agreements between Crown and claimant groups” we find there is every chance that so-called Maori reserve areas in the foreshore and seabed can accrue freehold title and access can be denied. I take great exception to the New Zealand public being misled on that score. That is an absolute tragedy when the New Zealand public relies on this Parliament to have representation. I absolutely abhor that.  
The New Zealand public relies on this Parliament to represent its interests. There is also the Waitangi Tribunal to represent the interests of some other members of the New Zealand public called Maori but New Zealanders generally do not have the opportunity to take their grievances to the Waitangi Tribunal. They are denied that opportunity so where else would they go for the settlement of the grievances that are established? The foreshore and the seabed has been vested in the Crown since the 1890s and that is the understanding that many New Zealanders have had—that that has been their common law right established for over 100 years and that access is part of their common law right to the foreshore and seabed. So who is actually representing their right? I absolutely abhor the way that this Government supported by New Zealand First thinks it represents the rights of all New Zealanders. In my view this bill quite categorically does not do that. If members do refer to clause 6(4) they will see that access can be denied once any other interest for Maori has been established over special reserves made under new clause 115A. The Government needs to look very very closely at that.  
Even with regard to access the precedent given to Maori in legislation is chronically out of control in this country. That is an absolute disgrace to the representation that this Parliament is supposed to provide to the New Zealanders of this great nation. Certainly they are not getting that representation here today from either the Government or New Zealand First. That is a disgrace. I have had family who have been fishing off the beaches and who have been jostled by people who think that they have a greater claim to this country than my family has in spite of the many many generations of our presence here in this country.  
Once again I reiterate that this bill is an absolute disgrace. We are meant to be protecting New Zealanders’ rights in respect of the foreshore and seabed and this legislation in no way does that in spite of all the work and all the claims made by the Government supported by New Zealand First. Then on top of that to add insult to injury after reading the document we have a substantial Supplementary Order Paper tabled that no one had previously seen.