Brownlee Gerry: General Debates 
Brownlee Gerry: General Debates 
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GERRY BROWNLEE (Deputy Leader—National) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. We can see the glum faces of the Labour back-benchers as they reflect on another day of very poor performance by their ministry team. Today perhaps more than ever before we witnessed the timid incompetence of the Labour ministry with the reciting of new answers to question time. For weeks months and even years this Government has evaded answering questions in this House. It has Ministers who have been timid about their Government’s policy and Ministers who have to say the least been economical with the truth. 
So they have had the media advisers in—a big cheque written for Brian Edwards and his mates—and have said: “Give us some new ways of not answering questions.” So we have the great phrases: “Generally yes.” and “Generally no.” Today I think Mr Benson-Pope had a new one: “I am not aware of it at this point.” Then there was the classic from Margaret Wilson who said: “Goodness me they are different figures.” 
Finally from Ruth Dyson we had perhaps the worst answer ever given by a Minister when confronted with her own incompetence. When asked to comment on the appalling treatment of two children in this country she simply said: “I did not know until now.” Well a couple of days ago that Minister was quite capable of answering categorically that those children had not been in any danger and that the mother had been perfectly competent. Then when we came here today and Tony Ryall was able to expose the truth of the sordid environment that those children were subjected to what did we get from the Minister? She said: “I did not know until now.” 
This is a Government that has its hand off the rudder. It is a Government that is going the wrong way. Just to emphasise how out of touch it is with New Zealanders members should look at what it is proposing over this new marine farming allocation to Maori. It is all about the enormous problem the Government has created with theForeshore and Seabed Bill. Under that bill the Government has allowed Maori to have absolute veto over coastal areas right out to the territorial limit where ancestral connection is established. The Prime Minister has told us that that will include most of this country’s coastline so if we want to get new areas of sea space for marine farming Maori have to approve it. The best way to ensure we have lots of space is to give Maori a chunk of it—in this case 20 percent. The more Maori approve the more they get. That is why we are seeing the unwinding of the 1992 fisheries settlement by this Government. 
Hon Pete Hodgson 
: No it pre-dates it. 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: Mr Hodgson can sit there and shake his head but if he would like to read section 5(1) of that settlement it reads that this settlement: “shall discharge and extinguish all commercial fishing rights and interests of Maori whether in respect of sea coastal or inland fisheries (including any commercial aspect of traditional fishing rights and interests) whether arising by statute common law (including customary law and aboriginal title) the Treaty of Waitangi or otherwise”. 
That is just set aside for the expedience of keeping a Labour Government sweet with the Maori electorate. It is that type of behaviour—that lack of leadership—that will see the worst fears of all those Labour back-benchers come true. My advice to them is to get up to their offices get out of Parliament and start flashing their CVs up because in their tens they will be looking for jobs very shortly. 
There is no problem with sorting out the issues of aquaculture once the moratorium is lifted. Maori are already very big players in this industry. The moratorium stopped Maori dead in their tracks. Forty percent of the applications held up belong to them. It is a nonsense and this Government will pay the price for it.