Henare Tau: Waikato-Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Bill — Second Reading 
Henare Tau: Waikato-Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Bill — Second Reading 
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Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 I will not go into the platitudes of doing any mihis to anybody because they have been said by better people than me so far. 
Hon Shane Jones 
: That’s your political whanaunga. That’s your cuzzy politically speaking. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Mr Jones should do himself a favour and be quiet—in fact he should do the nation a favour and be quiet. 
On a day when New Zealand endorsed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples we are here at the second reading of something that is great something that should unify this nation and something that has never been tried before as Rodney Hide so aptly put it. It is something that has never been put to the nation before: co-governance. I ask why not. I could pick holes through everything that Rodney Hide said. He talked about hocus-pocus even though this Parliament at 2 o’clock every afternoon assembles in this House and does its prayer. We do not call that hocus-pocus. We stand in respect and we stand with a bit of reverence. But I know that it is different for Rodney because when Maori do it it is hocus-pocus. When Scottish people revere the loch and the Loch Ness monster that is called greatness. It is called tourism but when Maori do it it is called hocus-pocus. 
Well I have news for the magician Mr Rodney Hide. If he is so ashamed of this Government for doing something like this bill for being able to see the future of this nation then he knows what he can do and that is to give up some of his goodies if he does not like it. But I know that will not happen. We heard a speech from the pulpit about democracy about elected officials and non-elected officials but this was the Minister who got rid of Environment Canterbury. I am not saying we did not agree with that because it had to happen but for him to get up in this House and pontificate about democracy while being the Minister who sacked some democratically elected people is a bit over the top. 
While I have the time because my whips have told me I have only a short time I will talk about the restoration and protection of the river. At the end of the day that is what this bill is all about. If we do not protect and preserve the river then we are doing ourselves and Tainui an injustice which is to not look after them. We do not protect and preserve Tainui. I have heard it said on many occasions that to Tainui the river is more than just a waterway. I think it is time for this country to believe in such things as the intrinsic link between a people and its waterway. Like I said earlier we acknowledge it overseas; it is about time we acknowledged it here. 
This bill does four things: it sets out a vision and strategy it establishes the Waikato River Authority it instigates for the first time in this country a co-management regime and lastly it establishes a contestable clean-up fund which I am over the moon about. It does not give to one group the responsibility of doing all the cleaning up. If people out in the community put an application in or put a project forward they can do that and there is a contestable fund to help them do it. 
I would be remiss not to say to Rodney Hide that I stand and support this bill not because of my relationship with my brother-in-law but because it is actually a good thing to do. Regardless of whether my brother-in-law was one of the co-negotiators I would still be standing here supporting the legislation. I think it is a bit far from the mark for the Hon Rodney Hide to say that the only reason I am standing here is because my brother-in-law told me to do so. 
I think that what we are doing today is a watershed moment in New Zealand’s history just as I think it was when the House passed Te Aho Matua in I think 1998 or 1999. That was a watershed in terms of a people’s belief system being passed into law and I consider this bill to be on the same par. I do not see this as a Treaty settlement per se; I see it as a far-reaching look into what this country could mean if we only work at it. There are opponents to this bill—and they are entitled to be opposed to it for whatever reasons they have—but my message to everybody is that if we really truly want to be a united and unified nation then it is time we started taking bits and pieces of each other rather than doing what Mr Hide would want us to do. 
I look forward to the debate in the Committee stage and I certainly look forward to the brothers sisters aunties and uncles arriving here for the third reading. Without wanting to disrespect other Treaty settlements including the initial Treaty settlement in Tainui I actually think this is more of a watershed than most people think.