Harawira Hone: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Harawira Hone: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:660;Page:8884] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Hoi no me mihi atu ki a koe e Parekura mo ena korero rangatira hei manaaki i wa tatou nei iwi wa tatou whanau e noho mai na i te pohara i tenei wa. No reira tena koe. Hakoa rere ke ana taku korero i tenei wa hoi no he mihi tonu ra ki a koe. 
[ 
Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker but I must commend Parekura for those noble words about caring for our people and families who are living in poverty at this time. Well done. While my talk has changed somewhat at this point in time I really acknowledge you 
.] 
The Prime Minister did not talk too much about the foreshore and seabed in his speech last week so I am glad that my bro Te Ururoa raised that matter in his reply. Te Ururoa’s line was basically that the Maori Party is happy to allow this matter to be settled by the Iwi Leadership Group as the best group to represent Maori in negotiations given that every member is an elected member of his or her own iwi. There is undoubtedly considerable support for that point of view but if I can be so bold I suggest that that is not necessarily the view held by the tens of thousands of people who have voted for the Maori Party over the past 5 years. In fact going back to when the Maori Party was still just a twinkle in somebody’s eye I bet that if I had asked the 40000 people who marched on Parliament back in 2004 whether they thought the foreshore and seabed debate should be settled by the iwi leaders 39500 of them would have probably said no. 
You see the march on Parliament was not exactly loaded down with iwi leaders. In fact quite a few stayed away: some because they had plans to do their own deal regardless of what it might mean for other iwi some because they were offered a sweetheart deal by Labour to break ranks some because they were genuinely scared that being seen on the march might mean their iwi contracts got the chop and some because they were not sure whether their mana might be compromised by hanging out with the marchers. Certainly there were those who were not there but did their bit by helping out with the cost of transport for their people and organising trains buses etc. But given the fact that every man and his dog knew what day the hikoi was going to be marching on Parliament the absence of iwi leaders at Parliament was noticeable—and I know that because I know most of them personally and I saw very few of them there on the day. 
One who was there and prominently so was Sir Tipene O’Regan who told me that he had come up with his people from Te Wai Pounamu and that he was “bloody proud” to be there. Undoubtedly others were there as well. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: I want you to consider the sort of adjectives you are using because they are out of order. 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: That was a direct quote. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: I am on my feet. Please sit. It is not a matter of whether you are quoting something or any other situation. In this House those sorts of words are not acceptable. 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: Speaking to the point of order— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: I have ruled on it. 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: Hoi na no hakoa tau nei whakaturengia e tika ana kia korero ahau i nga korero o nga tangata i korero mai i wa ratou whakaaro ki a matou i aua wa. 
[ 
However regardless of what you have ruled it is right that I convey what the people said back then when they expressed their views to us. 
] 
Undoubtedly others were there as well but in fact the leaders of the march itself were not the iwi leaders at all; they were mainly the hardened activists of the past 20 years who understood immediately the racism inherent in the foreshore and seabed legislation and made a snap commitment to be part of a national team stitched together at the last minute to organise the march and to ensure that as many people as possible were aware of the potential threat to our status as tangata whenua and our rights to our takutai moana. 
Yet for all the commitment made by the activist brigade the march would still have been a total flop if the people themselves had not stepped forward and they did—in their hundreds in their thousands and indeed in their tens of thousands. They came from everywhere: from the backblocks from the small towns from the streets of our cities and from Maori homes throughout Aotearoa—men women teenagers kids mokopuna kaumatua and kuia. Everyone was there. Regardless of what iwi or hapu they came from thousands marched to Wellington who had not even read the legislation and did not understand all of its technicalities; they probably did not even know what iwi they were. But they knew that something was wrong they knew that they were getting shafted they knew that their tupuna’s rights to the foreshore and seabed were about to get torn up and they wanted to do something about it. They did not wait for the iwi leaders or the activists to give them the nod; they jumped in and marched for their rights to the foreshore and seabed because they knew it was the right thing to do. 
The Maori Party has a commitment to respect those people because they are the people who helped us ride a wave of freedom and independence all the way into Parliament on a promise to be true to our kaupapa by taking major decisions back to them. I have always tried to include them in the dream that they have asked us to realise. They are the people who pin their hopes on the Maori Party getting the Foreshore and Seabed Act repealed and they want us to do our best to get a good result for everyone. We know who they are: they are the kaumatua and kuia who have known decades of deceit and dishonesty and who voted for the Maori Party because they wanted something fresh something honest and something Maori. They are our generation—a generation made cynical by stories handed down of politicians who talk up a storm but never deliver. They are the kids who want anything but te ropu teka rawa atu [ 
the most untruthful party 
] 
of yesteryear. And they have chosen us to carry this kaupapa. It is we the Maori Party members of Parliament who have been asked to carry this battle. It is we who have the honour of speaking up for our people on this take and in my view we do our people a grave disservice by passing it on to someone else to handle. I have no intention of treating my people with such disrespect. 
So what exactly does the Maori Party want to see after the repeal? Well folks I am happy to say that the kaupapa that I have been touting all around the place over the past few months was approved by our caucus last week as the basis for a new deal on the foreshore and seabed. It is based on a paper written for us by Moana Jackson which proposes the notion of tupuna title. That paper basically says that if the whole world already knows that Maori people were here first then let us stop being ridiculous by making Maori go to court to prove it. Let us simply accept it is true and build on it. It is also based on discussions I have had with a number of other people both Maori and Pakeha who agree with the Maori Party that we need a solution that shows we are serious in our intention comfortable with justice and mature enough to act with hope and with optimism. 
So here it is: three simple steps. The first is Maori title. If the Government can assume ownership of the foreshore and seabed with one Act they just as easily give it back to Maori with another. That step will put an immediate end to all the anxiety angst and anguish from the past and the decades of discord that will surely await us in the future if we do not act honourably now. The second is inalienability. In the same legislation we should include a clause ensuring that Maori can never sell the foreshore and seabed. That step fits with the Maori world view that we do not own land as a commodity but rather we hold it as a taonga for future generations. It will also put an end to all the rubbish about Maori only wanting it so we can sell it. The third is full access. Again in the same legislation we should guarantee full access to all New Zealanders because in the same way that Maori do not want it to keep it for ourselves neither do we want it to keep Pakeha out. As kaitiaki we must be able to set limits on access in order to protect seafood stocks promote conservation and control behaviour but granting access to Kiwis is an easy deal. 
There you have it: it ain’t rocket science but it will work. The technocrats have already pointed out some problems but they are not insurmountable. The vision is the important thing and if we can buy into that the rest will be easy. We are planning to take it out on the road because with a kaupapa as big as this we need to know that our people understand it that they agree with it and that they believe in it. 
In closing I thank the Iwi Leadership Group for its efforts and for the really positive outcomes that it has been striving to achieve. It has played an important role in bringing a different perspective to the whole debate. Although I say this very rarely I also thank the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Mr Chris Finlayson for his sincerity and his commitment in trying to achieve a result that comes close to realising our people’s expectations. On Waitangi Day the Prime Minister asked the following question: why can this not be the generation of New Zealanders who open the next chapter in our history? Well I say to the Prime Minister that the Maori Party is ready to take up the challenge. All we ask is that he and his Government be bold enough to take it up as well. Kia ora tatou katoa.