Mapp Wayne: Ngati Awa Claims Settlement Bill — In Committee Procedure 
Mapp Wayne: Ngati Awa Claims Settlement Bill — In Committee Procedure 
[Volume:623;Page:18824] 
Dr WAYNE MAPP (National—North Shore) 
: 
 I would like to make a brief response initially to the member who has just taken a call. We are legislators in this Parliament. We are not here to simply endorse matters that in essence private bodies put before us. That is exactly the point Mr Paraone was making and it seems that United Future has not understood the issue at hand as indeed it does not understand so many other issues. 
I have specifically taken a call to talk further on the issue of the principles of the treaty. Although I believe that this has led to serious problems in this country it is certainly true that the 1975 legislation that established the tribunal referred to the principles of the treaty. That of course is not a reason why we have to perpetuate the error some 30 years later particularly given the way the Court of Appeal dealt with it as a result of the State-Owned Enterprises Act and given the inclusion of that reference by means of a last-minute Supplementary Order Paper that was never debated in this Parliament properly. We have built a whole superstructure a constitutional edifice on that basis. That in itself should tell members that we are in error and that we need to take the opportunity as representatives of the people to correct that error. 
Some 18 months ago I wrote an article for the  
New Zealand Law Journal 
. The focus of that article was on why the reference to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi was wrong and why we should instead refer to the terms of the treaty. I referred in my previous speech to the core elements of the treaty: article 1 the transfer of sovereignty; article 2 the protection of property rights and taonga; and article 3 the establishment of the rights of British or New Zealand citizens. The treaty fits within the context of modern democratic values. It does not sit outside those principles and that is something that this Government fails to realise. In a democracy each citizen is treated as having equal rights. That is the foundation stone of all modern democratic States. We all have one vote. We all have the right to participate equally in our Government; no one has any more rights than anyone else to participate in our Government. We are treated equally before the courts. That is the modern democratic theory and all modern societies subscribe to it. We have seen in Iraq that irrespective of people’s views about the origins of their vote nevertheless when people had the opportunity to vote as citizens they took that opportunity. That is why when we look at the treaty we have to interpret it within the context of those democratic values. 
I believe that this Government has not understood those first principles because if it did understand them it would not be inserting throughout legislation and general legislation in particular—health legislation local government legislation and educational legislation—reference to the principles of the treaty and more particularly to the establishment of separate committees that give some citizens more rights in our Government than other citizens. That is the fundamental flaw in the Government’s approach. We are specifically talking about that situation in terms of general legislation and in general legislation we all have equal rights. The Government instead has actually divided New Zealanders against one another. I appreciate that that is not the Government’s intent but that is the outcome. Surely the Government should listen to the heartfelt concerns of New Zealanders of all races and reverse its course on that. In fact Mr Mallard has done nothing.