Delahunty Catherine: Waikato-Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Bill — In Committee 
Delahunty Catherine: Waikato-Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:662;Page:10482] 
CATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green) 
: 
 He mihi nui ki Tainui-Waikato tena koutou. I was not going to take a call on the Waikato-Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Bill but sometimes the rhetoric around one is overwhelming. I am very excited that we are moving into a more sophisticated era under Te Tiriti o Waitangi and we are moving beyond the limited concept of conservative Pakeha that one man one vote is the only manifestation of democracy possible in Aotearoa. I stand as a Pakeha proud to live with Te Tiriti o Waitangi as our founding document and absolutely committed to finding new ways through the colonisation effects of the past. Only people who do not understand what colonisation means would say that this is not a step forward and that the co-management that is being proposed is not an incredibly positive model for Pakeha for tangata Tiriti for tauiwi katoa as well as for Maori. It is said “He piko he taniwha” and the terrible terrible thing is through the governance of the Crown and Environment Waikato it has become “He piko nga paru”. Waikato-Tainui has every reason to seek redress. It has found with the Crown a positive way forward in the situation because this river like so many awa across the motu has been deeply abused. 
Maybe the ACT Party do not get it but for me as a Pakeha rivers are the veins of the land they are the sources of life and they are part of my spiritual identity not at all through whakapapa—my whakapapa goes back to Ireland—but through experience of living in this country. It is so important that we start growing up and stop relying on the failed policies of regional authorities to address the issues of tangata whenua and the constant tokenism the constant setting up of liaison people or advisory groups when what we need is co-governance. What we need is respect for the Tiriti and rangatiratanga to be upheld. 
So members should think about Waikato. I stood with Pakihana Hawke from Ngati Whatua o Orakei when they were talking about putting that pipeline from Waikato into Tamaki-makau-rau and Waikato’s river is so dirty but the Franklin District councillors were happy to license it to be pumped with all that pollution into Tamaki for the people to drink—that is what has been going on. It is not the fault of the tangata whenua; it is the fault of the people who are on those committees those wonderful democratic bodies that have allowed us to pump polluted water into Auckland to drink let alone the abuse of tangata whenua. 
I also think about what is really going on and what the big challenge is for co-management and for clean-up of Waikato because Waikato is like another awa the awa Tarawera. Both of them have pulp mills that have used and abused them. Waikato has been abused by the Kinleith pulp and paper mill for a very many years whereby the effluent from that pulp mill goes to Lake Maraetai through a tributary into Waikato and that effluent is full of organochlorine chemicals. That is just one major abuse that has been vested upon the people who might have liked to be able to exercise their customary rights over the Waikato River. 
So co-management and a facing up to the vision that this bill is helping to facilitate cannot come too soon for the Green Party in terms of the life force of that river. It is very important for us to acknowledge that the regional councils around this country particularly with reference to Waikato and places like Tarawera have continued to license and issue resource consents that have destroyed the mauri and the mana of the rivers. I remember when we were fighting the issue about the water going into Tamaki-makau-rau that there were more than 40 resource consents for tanneries dairy effluents the pulp mill and also the toxic dumps that are actually on the banks of the Waikato and all of that was being licensed. It was not some kind of accident it was something facilitated by district councils and by regional councils of elected members who said they were democrats but who were actually abusers. 
I cannot wait for the day when we have a proper dialogue at a regional level where tangata whenua can educate people who do not have a concept of what customary knowledge is what the life force of a river is all about and how we maintain and sustain it for the well-being of everyone in the community. I welcome this fund that will allow us to contest the best ways to clean up rivers because we are tired of having to listen in court hearings to tangata whenua asking for their rights; they should be granted. Kia ora.