Harawira Hone: Immigration Bill — Third Reading 
Harawira Hone: Immigration Bill — Third Reading 
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HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Tena koe. Ki ora tatou katoa e te Whare. 
Hon Paula Bennett 
: We haven’t heard from you for ages! 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: I say tena koe to Paula Bennett. Yesterday I got back home after being away for 3 weeks as part of a delegation to the assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Geneva. While we were there we visited the European Parliament in Brussels where we met with MPs and officials to see how they got 27 different countries to work together on issues as diverse as the global financial crisis trade immigration and multiculturalism. We also visited the World War I battlefields in Flanders laid wreaths to fallen New Zealand soldiers and took part in the last post ceremony at the Menin Gate on the outskirts of Ypres. Visiting memorials dedicated to hundreds of thousands of soldiers who gave their lives for a war that many of them did not understand brought home to me the importance of our own country’s commitment to human rights overseas. 
This brings me to the bill before us today the Immigration Bill and the importance of having a strong positive and fair immigration system in Aotearoa. Apirana Ngata said that Maori participation in the First World War was our price of citizenship. That was the price we paid to be part of shaping this nation. The price went through the roof with the commitment of the Maori Battalion in World War II. The Maori casualty rate was 50 percent higher than that of every other New Zealand infantry battalion. More Maori died per head of population than any other people in the Allied forces. 
I raise these matters because I want this House to be reminded of the price we have paid for our citizenship and the right we have as tangata whenua to sit at the decision-making table as Treaty partners and not as tenants nor as a minority. Our own Declaration of Independence which we celebrated yesterday and the Treaty of Waitangi serve as this nation’s very first immigration charters. Indeed Dr Ranginui Walker described the Treaty as the source of all migration to Aotearoa from Europe Australia and the United Kingdom. It was the guarantee of a developing social contract. It was a partnership of the two cultures with at its very core the expectation that Maori as a Treaty partner would be consulted on every aspect concerning people who want to come here. 
Yet this bill is more about managing immigration and balancing the rights of the individual than it is about serving the national interest by having all new citizens complete a course in the history of Aotearoa and the Pacific as part of their price of citizenship. That is exactly what Maori told the last Government it should do during a consultation hui in 2001 on immigration policy. The last Government ignored that call and it would seem the current Government is also ignoring it. But the Maori Party takes the view that contracts are to be honoured in the deed rather than in the breach and suggests that an understanding of the Treaty is a critical component of immigration policy. 
The Maori Party’s confidence and supply agreement with National states: “Both the National Party and the Maori Party will act in accordance with te Tiriti o Waitangi” yet the Government has decided unilaterally that the Treaty is not relevant to immigration policy. So I introduced Supplementary Order Paper 18 to give Maori a right to participate in immigration management consistent with the rights guaranteed to Maori under the Treaty of Waitangi. It is no big deal really. In fact it was very similar to other Supplementary Order Papers we have put up on other legislation. Unfortunately however it suffered a very similar fate to those other Supplementary Order Papers: it was voted down by every party in the Committee except us and the Greens. Again I thank the Greens for their continued support of Treaty issues. 
The Maori Party also has grave concerns about significant human rights issues in the bill such as the possible abuse of private information the prolonged detention of asylum seekers the lack of protection of the rights of children born in Aotearoa without citizenship and the refusal to allow the Human Rights Commission to have jurisdiction over immigration matters. For those reasons and for many others the Maori Party will be opposing this bill. Tena koe.