Flavell Te Ururoa: Biosecurity Law Reform Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Biosecurity Law Reform Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 18 July 2012. Volume:681;Page:3698. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
Tena koutou kia ora tatou katoa. Pulling myself away from very important business I thought I would come down and just add to the debate the colourful debate and talk in particular on this Part 1 of this particular bill the Biosecurity Law Reform Bill. If members were able to have a look at this fine Supplementary Order Paper 87 they would see that there is a particular sort of drive in my Supplementary Order Paper. The Supplementary Order Paper as you will see is “to provide improved levels of consultation with tangata whenua.” That is an important topic as we sit here tonight in Parliament. At the very core of that discussion is the whole notion about te Tiriti o Waitangi as being at the very principle of equal partnership. This means meaningful and effective involvement by tangata whenua at the decision-making table. Too often Maori are brought into the fray by Government departments too late in the process. More often than not the fundamentals of a decision have pretty much been made already. And so it is largely some might say a box-ticking exercise at that point which benefits no one especially iwi Maori. The Government can do better with this. Maori need to be involved when the decisions are being made not after the decision has been reached.  
Experience with the  
Rena 
 disaster as we well remember—I was up there and involved with that as were various Ministers—tells us that we must increase our capacity to both prevent and respond very quickly to incidents that have the potential to do really serious environmental and economic damage to this country. I know from personal experience of the tangata whenua of Motiti Matakana Tauranga Moana Papamoa all the way down to Opotiki Whakatohea Ngati Awa and Te Whanau-a-Apanui that they continue to be affected by the damage done in their tribal waters. They talk about it in trips as we go up and down the coast and particularly at tangi that I have attended recently. Te Moana-a-Toi Iwi Leaders Forum represents the interests of more than 16 iwi their tribal waters their fishery assets and the people who were affected by tonnes of oil the containers and the debris from the broken cargo ship. The impressive thing about that was that they were involved in every capacity. Whether it was the shoreline clean-up or the assessment teams working all up and down the east coast identifying priority sites for oil spill response activity the people were there.  
But there were many incidents unfortunately where mana whenua should have been involved much earlier. Even in terms of the  
Rena 
 response it took a bit of time but we got there. It took a bit of time but we did get iwi involvement in terms of the clean-up and so on. In January there was considerable anxiety over the issue of Corexit 9500 a serious toxic chemical to break down oil from the vessel. Of course several species of fish including the kokiri the puffer fish stingray and shark etc. were washing up on the islands’ beaches—those ones that I talked about Motiti Matakana and so on—and the people obviously had huge concerns. But it was up to the people of Motiti to ask the powers that be including Maritime New Zealand and the public health authorities to look more seriously into the concerns by getting independent experts to carry out more thorough and comprehensive tests. The jury is out on the short-term lethal effects versus the long-term effects of the chemical on the food chain and ecology.  
I give these examples—and of course while that was going on the iwi of those islands put a rahui in place to stop food gathering on Motiti. My point is—this is getting to the crunch Mr Chair—who better to ask about the impacts on land and people than the people of the land in the first place; those who take up the role and the responsibilities of tangata kaitiaki. I want to see the active involvement of tangata whenua in the protection of cultural values to protect the native plants animals and other resources that are what we talk about as taonga ki te iwi Maori. In order to achieve this very important goal Maori need to be involved in the decision making at all levels and Government needs to be bold. The Maori Party believes that the provisions that we have sought throughout this Supplementary Order Paper are sufficient to allow that to happen. Legislation should provide for the role of tangata whenua’s tangata kaitiaki when developing and implementing regional policy statements and district plans associated with biosecurity. Sustainable success in border risk management marine biology security readiness and response pest management compliance and enforcement all depend at the decision-making level on decision making. That is where we believe Maori tangata whenua should be.  
I will close with perhaps a lead in this. A blueprint of how this partnership could work is actually the Ngati Tuwharetoa Raukawa and Te Arawa River Iwi Waikato River Act of 2010 which says that iwi have equal representation at the decision-making and management bodies as well as allowing for manu whenua iwi to develop their own objective vision strategy for the river. This reflects a very strong and important Treaty relationship at the regional level. I say again that the blueprint is really the Ngati Tuwharetoa Raukawa and Te Arawa River Iwi Waikato River Act 2010. I know it is a long one but nevertheless the general intent of it is bringing together iwi being involved at the very high end of management and involvement in terms of developing plans and the management of that river. There is the starting point and we believe it actually acts out the Supplementary Order Paper that I have in place.  
I suppose just to wrap it up the general gist of this Supplementary Order Paper as I say is that we want to ensure there is regular and informed consultation with tangata whenua as it relates to protecting and enhancing areas and habitats that have a huge significance to Maori people. I hope that members of the Committee tonight will be able to give my Supplementary Order Paper on behalf of the Maori Party some serious consideration and I look forward to the vote on that particular aspect. Thank you very much. Kia ora tatou.