Heatley Phil: General Debates 
Heatley Phil: General Debates 
[Volume:618;Page:13864] 
PHIL HEATLEY (National—Whangarei) 
: 
 I would like to talk about the dirty dirty deal of the Labour Party. Shane Ardern might very well ask what dirty dirty deal of the Labour Party and the public might generally think there was only one lolly scramble in this quarter but we now know there were two. The deal I am talking about is throwing another patronising handout at Maori again in the form of aquaculture marine farms. The Labour Party as opposed to what it is doing for marine farmers in general is giving Maori four bites of the cherry. 
Here is the first bite. The deed of settlement for Ngati Awa which was signed in July 2002 includes a provision whereby the Minister of Conservation when offering by public tender any part of the marine area will give Ngati Awa a preferential right to purchase 5 percent of that space. Another deed of settlement signed in November 2001 with Ngati Tama states that should tendering of the coastal space for marine farming occur Ngati Tama will have preferential right to buy space at the tender price of up to 10 percent of marine farming authorisations. In other words through deeds of settlement Maori already get a preferential right to purchase space—5 percent 10 percent and an open-ended amount in some settlements. That is the first bite of the cherry. 
Last week we heard the Minister of Fisheries the Hon David Benson-Pope say that he would give Maori a second bite of the cherry—that is a blanket 20 percent of aquaculture space right across the country. On top of that we also found out today during question time in the House that the Minister the Hon David Benson-Pope will allow Maori to purchase marine space out of the general pool. So Maori will get one bite through their deeds of settlement they will have a second through the blanket 20 percent and they will be able to have another crack by getting marine space out of the general pool. 
In some areas of this country—for instance in the Marlborough Sounds—before this handout occurred Maori already owned 40 percent of marine farms. They are doing very well in marine farming by getting up out of bed every morning and going to work like everybody else. They do not need this welfare cheque. 
However three bites of the cherry are not enough for the Labour Party. It has also said that iwi will have to be consulted by regional councils and other marine farmers every time a competing marine farmer applies for a marine farm with a resource consent attached. In other words Maori are to be consulted when their competitors go marine farming. They will control this industry. Once again the patronising Labour Party treats Maori as if they cannot do it on their own. The Labour Party gives Maori these handouts through a lolly scramble and the rest of the country pays. The Government should be quite ashamed of that. 
I will table those deeds of settlement because I do not believe that members of the Labour Party’s general caucus even realised that those settlements were signed and if they did then they did not realise that those settlements already give Maori the right to space in their areas. We have here the figures of 10 percent in the case of Ngati Tama and 5 percent in the case of Ngati Awa and NgatiRuanui has an open-ended amount for the specified part of their coastline available for aquaculture space. 
The House will recall that in 1992 National signed a fisheries settlement that gave Maori 20 percent of the wild fishery stock. We did that because Maori were involved in the wild fishery. They had never traditionally been involved in aquaculture.