Henare Tau: Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill — In Committee 
Henare Tau: Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:670;Page:17431] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 I start off my brief stint by congratulating the Hon Parekura Horomia because that speech was one of the best I have heard him deliver in the Chamber. It might not have been factually correct but it was a hell of a speech. He was a pretty half-decent Minister of Maori Affairs as well. I cannot say that about his colleagues though. 
The title of this bill is the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill but maybe the title should be the “Apology for the Sort of Stuff that Labour Did in 2004 Bill”. Let us get something straight. I have been sitting in the Chamber for the last 2 or 3 days listening very intently— 
Hon David Parker 
: Ha ha! 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: —to the likes of David Parker. When I met him I thought: “This guy has a lot going for him.” I thought he would be the Labour leader after Helen Clark. But then we got to the Maori Affairs Committee and on a Friday night at about 5.50— 
Paul Quinn 
: 5.05. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: At about 5.05 we were delivered a 500-page document and told we should all read it. 
Hon David Parker 
: How was it delivered? 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Through the Internet. If anyone of these fellas has a BlackBerry they should have been able to read it. They should have been able to read the executive summary at least. I have been guilty of that before—I have read only the executive summary. I do not always read the whole thing because we have work to do. I concentrate just on the executive summary. But could Labour Party members do that? I would expect one member to have read the executive summary and David Parker is the one member I would expect to have read it. I did not think that Kelvin Davis would go home and read it I did not think that Mita Ririnui would read it and I did not think that Parekura Horomia would read it. I know these fellas; they will leave it to the Pakeha fella to read. 
Hon Members 
: Ha ha! 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: That is the truth. So that side was let down; it was let down by none other than David Parker. 
I have heard all sorts of stories in this debate but I say this to all those people across the Chamber who have been referring to waka jumping and this that and the other thing through this whole debate. I want remind members—in fact I want to school them up—of what was said by Te Kooti that great Rongowhakaata leader. He said: “It might be a different waka that we all travel in but the landing place is the same.” What we got from that was that the Labour members in their wisdom—in their mind’s eye that is—put through this House in 2004 a bill that was not particularly good. Fifty thousand people came knocking on the door to tell them it was not a good thing. Within 2 to 3 hours after the Court of Appeal decision had been made politicians jumped on it and created a mess that they really could not get out of. 
I was heartened to hear the Hon Maryan Street apologise not once but twice. That is all I wanted. As far as I am concerned all I ever wanted from the Labour Party was an apology. If that is the apology I thank the member. 
Paul Quinn 
: David was first. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: David Parker may have been first but I would rather give it to Maryan. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Are you going to rejoin the Labour Party? 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Rejoin? What does that mean? To rejoin one must have been a member. I have never been a member of a foolhardy group. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Did the member vote Labour? 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: No never. Let me tell members—and I digress Mr Chairperson because I have been challenged—that my first voting foray was in 1978 when I voted—[ 
Interruption 
] Mr Chair? 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Rick Barker) 
: I think I want to hear the answer. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: I voted for the Hon Matiu Rata who was standing as a member for Mana Motuhake not Labour in the 1978 or 1979 by-election. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: No there was no by-election in 1979. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: The 1978 by-election? 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: The 1978 general election. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: No he had resigned his seat. It was 1979. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: 1980. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: 1980. That was my first voting foray. So I voted not for Labour but for Mana Motuhake. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Why did he wait till he was 30 to cast his first vote? 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Ha ha! That was a good one; I will give the member that. But I go back to the bill. I have heard the discussion in the Chamber that this bill is about Maori this and Maori that. When we look at the bill we see that it is about New Zealand. It is about an opportunity for both Maori and others Europeans and others to get it right. This Government has attempted to get it right and only time will tell whether this bill is the right thing. I believe in my heart that it is. 
I will give some examples of people’s access to the beach prior to the 2004 legislation and after the 2004 legislation and what will most probably happen after this legislation. There will always be miscreants who will get on the beach and say to people: “You’re not coming onto my beach.” regardless of whatever law we have. I bet my bottom dollar that individuals will get up not representing any iwi or hapu other than their own self-interest and tell whoever is listening to get off their beach regardless of whether they have the right to do that. That will happen and it does happen. 
Hon Parekura Horomia 
: The rich people. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: It is not only the rich people; it is— 
Hon Parekura Horomia 
: Yes it is. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: You know Labour members have got to get it out of their heads that rich people are stopping us from doing anything. That fact of the matter is that it is most probably the rich people who are damn well looking after the beaches as we all should be—especially those people up on the East Coast and up in the north which is my own territory who continually say to tourists and to people from those areas: “Get off our beaches.” Well they ain’t their beaches; they are New Zealand’s beaches. 
This whole argument is not even about the beach. I tell John Boscawen briefly that the problem is not access to the beach. If people want to come to the beach—and I have a plot of land there—they can come and ask. Nine times out of 10 people will allow others to walk over their property to the beach. Access has never been an issue. It was always a red herring. What we are talking about is codifying and putting into legislation the bits and pieces that go with responsibility in terms of the cultural side of things—the tikanga. 
I tell members that like Jerry Mateparae I am with New Zealand. I back the majority of New Zealanders both Maori and Pakeha to get on well to have their barbecues on the beach to have access to the beach to protect wahi tapu and to protect those areas that mean a hell of a lot to us not as a people but as a nation. That is what I see in this bill. I am past the time when I could get stuck into those members for that horrible thing they did in 2004 and I accept the apology that they have given. It means a hell of a lot and I am not kidding. An apology for doing what they did in 2004 means a hell of a lot but we have to move on and this is the way that we move on. 
With this vehicle we can move on to a better place for New Zealand. Let us deal with the issues of unemployment and economic recovery instead of getting bogged down in what I term an unholy argument about race.