Donnelly Brian: Local Electoral (Repeal of Race-Based Representation) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Donnelly Brian: Local Electoral (Repeal of Race-Based Representation) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:639;Page:9882] 
Hon BRIAN DONNELLY (NZ First) 
: 
 I have to say that I endorse very much the comments made by John Carter the member for Northland in terms of the experience of Northland and Northland local government. I mention people like Kahu Sutherland who is on our local council who is not only steeped in Maoridom but he has made an enormous contribution to and is held in extremely high respect in Whangarei. He would be able to run against anybody and beat that person hands down in his own right because he has the essential strengths to be able to do the job and do it well. We had a mayor for example who was Maori—Stan Semenoff which sounds a bit Russian obviously. Our regional council chair for many years was Maori—a certain Jim Peters. Our mayor at the moment happens to be a Peters also. 
So New Zealand First has always believed from the time the Bay of Plenty bill came in—which we resisted quite strongly as members may remember—that creating this situation which is a quota system is patronising to Maori. Until the Maori Party came into this House New Zealand First had the highest proportion of caucus members who were Maori. They believed that Maori could achieve as well as anybody else as they have achieved on the sporting fields and in fields of endeavour such as the armed forces etc. and they can equally achieve in this particular area and Northland is one such area. We also had a guy by the name of Isopo Samu who was Tokelauan. He was voted in by the citizens of Whangarei because of the sterling work he had done within the community and the respect he was given. He gained the support of the people there. 
Therefore New Zealand First will be supporting this bill. We do not believe race-based representation is needed. In terms of the Maori seats at national level as members well know New Zealand First does not put up members to fight those seats. However we are not saying that we would abolish them; we actually believe there is a process that needs to be gone through that requires the consent of the Maori people in the first place before those seats are abolished. But in fairness to the position that we hold we do not put up candidates for those particular seats. Yet we still have managed to have very high levels of Maori representation within our party. Therefore we say that this bill is unnecessary. 
John Carter made an interesting point. Since this legislation was put in place which gave capacity to local governments to put in place seats based upon an ethnicity not one council has actually taken it up. They have not taken up the offer. The only situation that exists is the one in the Bay of Plenty after a special bill was put through by Mita Ririnui and the effect of that was to reduce the number of Maori members on that council from three to two. That was the actual effect of that legislation going through. 
I want to finish off because pretty obviously New Zealand First will be supporting this particular bill. We support the notions and the concepts behind it. We believe that Maori are capable of achieving in their own right without the necessity of having these sorts of protectionist mechanisms. A couple of years ago Mahara Okeroa and Dave Hereora came to Whangarei to open a Ko Tawa presentation at the Whangarei Museum. There was an absolutely fantastic presentation of stuff that had been collected by Colonel Mair. Mahara Okeroa as an Associate Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage made—I would have to say—a very impressive whaikorero and I thought “This guy’s really got it.” But when it came to doing the waiata he turned round and looked first at Dave. It ended up with the Pakeha boy from Northland having to do the waiata on behalf of Dave Hereora on that occasion. 
Hone Harawira 
: Shame shame shame! 
Hon BRIAN DONNELLY 
: Yes that is exactly right. So I make the point that not only can Maori do as well as Pakeha but in some cases Pakeha can do as well as Maori. New Zealand First will be supporting this legislation.