Barry Maggie: Mount Maunganui Borough Reclamation and Empowering Act Repeal Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Barry Maggie: Mount Maunganui Borough Reclamation and Empowering Act Repeal Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 07 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6386. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MAGGIE BARRY (National—North Shore) 
: 
 I rise with pleasure to speak on the third reading of the Mount Maunganui Borough Reclamation and Empowering Act Repeal Bill. I would like to lead us away from that dark place where the member who has just resumed his seat the Hon Parekura Horomia has taken us. Thank you—you know a member and indeed a party well-qualified to speak at length about such matters—for that lesson in tiko. But let us move on from this movement and go instead to the substance of the issue. [ 
Interruption 
] Yes we will be passionate about it Maurice. 
I was on the Local Government and Environment Committee that heard the submission on this when Colin Reeder the chairperson came to us on behalf of Nga Potiki-a-Tamapahore Trust and Christine Jones as well the deputy chief executive on behalf of the Tauranga City Council. When they came to speak to us about it it became very apparent why the sponsoring member for this bill Te Ururoa Flavell is to be commended and I join the chorus of approval for the member of Parliament who brought this bill because this Government is certainly in the business of repealing legislation that has no use and this is a classic piece of that but it is also putting to right a very great wrong. 
As my colleague the Hon Dr Nick Smith said earlier in the days back in 1972 when this whole project was conceived those were different days when we had a different attitude towards the waterways and the estuaries. We did not acknowledge or understand in the way that the tangata whenua do that these are precious places that need to be protected. Instead we treated landfill sewage and so forth as something that we had a right to discharge and expel into our precious waterways. I feel that we have learnt as a nation a lot from what Nga Potiki have told us about this because when they talked about the kai moana and when they talked about the need to have these pristine waters preserved they were ahead of their time in terms of the Pakeha listening to them. 
In 1972 when the Mount Maunganui Borough Council proposed this wastewater scheme it did not really think too carefully about the ramifications of it—the construction of the oxidation ponds. They were the ponds of course from where the effluent was to be discharged and it was discharged directly into the Rangataua River. That was a very bad thing to do and the council continued to do that for a length of time. The ocean outfall was constructed at Papamoa. That is a wonderful pristine part of the world—or it used to be. This discharge was supposedly going to occur only until the ocean outfall was constructed but as it was always going to be a temporary measure it dragged on for rather a lot longer than that. 
The kaumatua are to be commended for their persistence and their integrity. Many of them who are not able to be here today are to be congratulated on and commended for their forward thinking and their tenacious move to continue to encourage people to see that the kai moana and the waters need to be preserved and protected. I think we have all learnt a lesson. I understand that they are here in the gallery somewhere. I think this is a commendable time for you to come. Please pass on our thanks for your contribution to New Zealand having a better attitude towards our environment and the way we need to treat it. We have learnt a lot from you and I know that it has come at a considerable cost. When I heard the submission from Colin Reeder on behalf of Nga Potiki I understood how difficult it would have been for that fight to continue. The council was not always so open to the things that you said to them but I think this bill is the embodiment of a better attitude and a higher tolerance that is now present between the tribe and the council and I hope that when the Act is repealed—as it will be today—that will go into a brighter future. 
I commend you on the stand you have taken because it took courage it took a lot of time and effort and I think that we as a nation have benefited from it. Certainly in your own area things will now be restored and returned. I hope that the repeal of this now useless piece of legislation will go some way to healing the hurt. I commend you for all the work you have done and the sponsoring Minister of this—or the sponsoring member I should say Te Ururoa Flavell— 
Hon Parekura Horomia 
: Make him a Minister. 
MAGGIE BARRY 
: —for bringing it here. Yes “Make the man a Minister.” said Parekura. It may happen one day. I commend this bill to the House. Thank you.