Harawira Hone: Airport Authorities (Sale to the Crown) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Harawira Hone: Airport Authorities (Sale to the Crown) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:635;Page:6765] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Kia ora Madam Assistant Speaker; kia ora tatou te Whare. I say “Kia ora” to Mr Copeland for improving the pronunciation of “Paraparaumu”. 
In preparing to speak on this bill I did a little bit of research and I came across a letter to the Queen of England. I will share parts of this letter with the House because they have a genuine relevance to the Airport Authorities (Sale to the Crown) Amendment Bill that we are considering today. The letter included the following statements: “I am declaring my Tribe’s Independent State in Whaingaroa Aotearoa … on the 12 February 1996. The signing will take place on the 63 acres of land which was confiscated for an aerodrome during World War 2. Our village was demolished and our people made homeless by our forced contribution to the war effort. The government gave the land to the local County Council after the War who leased it to a golf club. … over the years these lands have been taken by unjust laws passed by successive governments. We were arrested on the 12 February 1978”—I am proud to say that my mother was one of those people arrested—“during a sacred service on the burial grounds of our ancestors. Finally in 1984 some of the land our original village site was returned. … I can no longer sit and do nothing. … Like my ancestors I am willing to die for my people’s freedom. It is time that we determine our own future in our own land.” The letter was signed by Tuaiwa Hautai Kereopa who is known to this House as Eva Rickard. 
Whether it is Whaingaroa Kaitaia—our airport land was appropriated in 1941—or Paraparaumu we have been down this road before. The land taken under the Public Works Act for Paraparaumu Airport should have been offered back to the owners rather than on-sold to developers just as the land at Whaingaroa should have been offered back to Tainui Awhiro rather than given to the local council for the Raglan golf course. This bill is different though because it does at least acknowledge and involve te whanau o te ngarara representing the interests of the former Maori owners of Paraparaumu Airport land as well as other interested parties—both Maori and Pakeha—all of whom lost land taken under the Public Works Act for the airport. 
So we are pleased to support a bill that recognises the need to look to mana whenua when dealing with land that is surplus to airport needs. But it is also important to define exactly what an airport is so that everyone is clear about when land is no longer required for an airport because at this very moment it seems that Paraparaumu Airport Ltd is looking to develop land for purposes that are not airport-related which means that the rights of the local tangata whenua and other landowners both Maori and Pakeha are likely to be eroded even further. 
The issue is still outstanding—and we cannot ignore it—in regard to the lack of protection for Maori land interests under the Public Works Act of 1981 so it is good to see that this bill may allow for a review of the sale process back in 1995. Again the Maori Party congratulates te whanau o te ngarara for bringing attention to the need to review the airport’s ownership of the land in question. They lodged a claim with the tribunal in 1996 they occupied the airport in 1999 and they have consistently put this issue before the House. Indeed Cabinet papers show that the Government knew of the possibility of a Treaty claim on the Paraparaumu Airport land from at least 1991. 
Whether it is 16 years or 60 years tangata whenua should not have to wait for the Government to develop a clear policy on Treaty implications for the sale of Crown-owned land. A longstanding injustice created by the original sale into private ownership is at long last being aired in Parliament today but—and it is a big but—the Crown still needs to address the wrongs committed under the Public Works Act. We urge the select committee to properly review the shameful history of this case whereby the last National Government shifted the airport land into a limited liability company and then sold the company and its land to a private individual 
Finally the Maori Party acknowledges the support of the airport coalition for working with te whanau o te ngarara to oppose the Crown-sponsored confiscation of their lands. In moving forward together to address this injustice they have become beacons to us all and we will support their efforts to take this bill forward. Kia ora Madam Assistant Speaker.