Harawira Hone: Law Reform (Epidemic Preparedness) Bill — Second Reading 
Harawira Hone: Law Reform (Epidemic Preparedness) Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:636;Page:6907] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Kia ora Mr Speaker kia ora tatou te Whare. Three weeks ago the warning bells rang when Professor Paul Zimmet said that left unchecked diabetes could make all Polynesian races extinct before the end of the century. In the uproar that followed I was reminded of the message from an early colonial administrator here in good old New Zealand who said that his role was to “smooth the pillow of a dying Maori race” because there can be no denying the fact that the ferocious epidemic of diabetes raging through our communities right now may indeed decimate our Pacific way of life. So in turning to this bill we raise the urgent need to ensure that in preparing for an epidemic Maori are targeted and included in the response and I turn here to the history and demographics of influenza in this land to give us a clear reason why this is so very important. 
About 100 citizens of Aotearoa have died every year of influenza—every year that is except 1918 the year that the so-called plague of the Spanish lady overran our country and killed more than 8000 people. Of those Maori died from flu at a rate more than seven times higher than that of non-Maori. Indeed Sir Peter Buck said that in 3 months influenza killed more Maori in Aotearoa than were killed in all of the military campaigns of Gallipoli France and Belgium in World War I. Every Maori community bears the scars of lives lost to the black plague. I refer to black not as in “black is beautiful” but as in the black colour of the skin of victims dying from a lack of oxygen. 
The stories are truly gruesome. People queued to be sprayed with zinc sulphate—they called it fumigation but it did not stop the flu. Cinemas churches halls schools whare hui whare kai and all the places where people gathered were closed. Families were left isolated for weeks and people stopped visiting for fear of catching the disease. The Ellerslie racecourse was turned into an emergency hospital Victoria Park was turned into a massive morgue and special trains were enlisted to haul bodies out to Waikumete Cemetery for burial. One of my tupuna in Whakapara was delegated to live alone in a cemetery to bury his relations. One of Rangitane’s main hapu lost 75 percent of its population to the epidemic. Otorohanga’s two hotels were turned into hospitals one for Europeans and one for Maori and Princess Te Puea herself was called in to carry coffins up the river for burial. 
I have taken the time to remind the House of the 1918 flu epidemic because in many respects it was Aotearoa’s forgotten disaster during the world’s worst-ever recorded pandemic of influenza. Such a pandemic could just as easily happen again in a world where low standards of health overcrowding poor diet and bad housing mean that a disproportionately high Maori death rate in any pandemic is guaranteed. 
So I acknowledge the enduring patience and commitment of people like Kathrine Clarke of Hapai Te Hauora Tapui NgaireWhata of Te Korowai Aroha and Dr Lorna Dyall from the division of Maori health at the University of Auckland for highlighting the desperate need for full and frank communication with Maori communities. Our people have many many questions and nobody is giving them any decent answers. Will our marae be closed? Who will care for our kaumatua and kuia? What will happen to our tangi which Te Arawa Maori Trust Board’s AnaruRangiheuea has described as being our most important cultural practice? Will we even get our loved ones back? Will coffins be sealed? Can we meet to grieve? Can we hongi? 
We cannot allow our future to be driven by fear ignorance and a lack of information. We will not allow our pillow to be smoothed out by this epidemic. There are steps that we can and must take and crucial to our survival must be Maori participation at all levels of emergency planning. A good place to start might be simply putting the word “Maori” into the bill. The bill talks about anxiety around parliamentary sitting days the question of whether to recall Parliament during an emergency and the need for flexibility in legal proceedings but for some strange reason it does not even mention the race of people that is most likely to be decimated by a flu pandemic. 
Maori have been calling for a body that can directly access Maori leadership make immediate use of Maori infrastructure and recruit Maori health workers to engage with iwi and with Maori communities. In fact developing a plan to respond to an epidemic with Maori interests at its very core is a matter of urgency that Maori must be actively involved in if we are even to have a future. We must use our history and our expertise to plan wisely and we must mobilise all of our resources and creative talents to protect Maori interests and Maori well-being. This is essential not just for the future of Maori but also for the proper development of our whole nation for if Maori are to commit to the growth of Aotearoa then Maori must also be an integral part of a strategy for its survival as well. 
A hundred years ago the Maori population was 40000 and thought to be close to extinction. One hundred years later we are more than half a million and in another 50 years fully 33 percent of all children in our great nation will be Maori. We have survived the threat of extinction in our past and we owe much to the vision and impact of leaders such as TahupotikiWiremuRatana Te PueaHerangi and Sir Peter Buck who responded to the savage impact of the Spanish flu tuberculosis malnutrition pneumonia goitre diseases leading to child mortality and a host of other infectious diseases by fighting for the right of our people not just to survive but to thrive. 
Parliament has a chance to demonstrate the kind of courage shown by Maori leaders of yesteryear by ensuring a proper education and information campaign to manage the possible effects of an outbreak of avian influenza or of any infectious disease capable of becoming an epidemic. The Maori Party will support this bill in the hope that the Minister will listen that Parliament will consider its solemn duty to care for all citizens and that we politicians will display the courage needed to ensure that those who will suffer most are not bypassed in this legislation or in the bureaucracy responsible for putting it into effect. Kia ora tatou. 
Bill read a second time.