Brownlee Gerry: Treaty of Waitangi (Principles) Bill — First Reading 
Brownlee Gerry: Treaty of Waitangi (Principles) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:629;Page:1425] 
GERRY BROWNLEE (Deputy Leader—National) 
: 
 I have often asked myself how this country ever got into the state it has when it comes to consideration of matters around the Treaty of Waitangi. As Rodney Hide explained to the House earlier the Treaty itself is an extremely short and concise document. There are a few points where there are interpretive differences but it was obvious that we have got into this trouble because of stupid governance when the Hon Mark Burton stood up tonight and said that the best thing Rodney Hide could do was to start reading some of the many volumes that have been written on the Treaty. 
He then proceeded to give us a diatribe that could be described as being nothing more than utter rubbish. When he spoke this evening about the five principles of the Treaty of Waitangi he did not mention property rights he did not mention freedom he did not mention the right of people to be able to express themselves freely whenever they like; rather he talked about the right of the Government to tell people what to do and when to do it. Then he manufactured the idea that somehow a treaty written in 1840 with goodwill and looking forward had an implicit redress clause or principle embedded in it. What utter garbage! It is that sort of woolly thinking that will lead National to support this bill going to a select committee. 
We have our reservations about it and one reason is that if we consider the Treaty of Waitangi and even look at the way in which Mr Hide has laid out the three articles of the Treaty in his bill and made some explanation of them we see it is a crying shame that it ever had to be referred to in any legislation at all. I would have thought it obvious that all New Zealanders accept that we have one Government that we have freedoms and property rights and that we expect to be treated equally by the law. Because New Zealanders accept those things we have embarked on the Treaty grievance process. We have embarked on the Treaty grievance process because we believe that New Zealanders should be treated equally because we believe in property rights and because we believe that there is one Government that should undertake this so-called redress. 
The Treaty is a document that has relevance and meaning for all New Zealanders. I would not mind the Resource Management Act referring to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi if that meant that my rights as a property owner were upheld just as much as those of someone who is Maori. But no that phrase is there to convey some extra duty or to impose some extra duty on local authorities because a group happens to be Maori. One of the consequences of this sort of woolly thinking is that the Maori group in this country is now over-regulated overlegislated and over-controlled by Government. Anyone who wants to close his or her mind to the possibilities that a select committee may come up with in considering this bill is signing up to the idea that a Government should control people’s lives. It really is that simple. 
What is wrong with declaring that the principles and articles of the Treaty exist to deliver rights to all New Zealanders? What do Maori have to fear from that—Maori who are not even allowed by the current Government to control directly their own fishing assets who cannot have a Treaty settlement unless they convince this Government that their governance arrangements are appropriate and who cannot get their hands on a Treaty settlement unless the settlement is hog-tied by an Act of Parliament? That is no way for this country to progress. This bill allows the select committee to have a good look at those issues. We will participate in that process fully. We do not agree with every aspect of the bill but we do think it is time this country got past the sort of woolly woofter thinking expressed by Mark Burton on behalf of the Government tonight.