Davis Kelvin: Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill — Third Reading 
Davis Kelvin: Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:671;Page:17632] 
KELVIN DAVIS (Labour) 
: 
 I along with the rest of the Labour Party oppose the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill. If the fact that over 4000 submitters to the Maori Affairs Committee opposed this bill—albeit for reasons that were polar opposites—was not enough reason to oppose it the poor process followed by the select committee certainly was. That process firstly blocked any legal advice from being obtained by the committee on the effect of the changes to the threshold test for establishment of customary marine title; secondly forced through hasty consideration of the 500-page departmental report on submissions; thirdly did not include any revision-tracked view of the bill in respect of the many amendments recommended by officials which made proper consideration and deliberation impossible; fourthly saw Government members block a resolution that a revision-tracked version of the bill be prepared prior to the committee’s deliberation on the bill; fifthly ignored the submissions of hundreds of people whose submissions have had no substantive analysis by the select committee as evidenced by the fact that the committee reported the bill back to the House without comment on most of the issues and without a single amendment be it technical or substantive; and sixthly left many important technical issues unresolved. Those matters are all reason enough to oppose the bill. 
I was embarrassed by the process that this bill went through. When I explain to schools and other groups the process used to develop legislation I tell them that if people want to participate then they need to make submissions on issues ask to be heard at the select committee and put their case forward. I say the various points of view will be heard and deliberated on and decisions will be made. I tell them that although they may not get their way they will be given a fair hearing. That is obviously not true of the process on this bill. During the select committee process a range of opinions were heard. Some I agreed with; many I did not. But I respected those submitters’ right to be heard and to voice their opinion. I am embarrassed that I was part of a process that dismissed their points of view without due consideration and I apologise to those people who have been misled as to the integrity of the legislative process. Democracy has been the loser. 
This bill could have settled the issue of the foreshore and seabed once and for all. New Zealand has been persuaded that the foreshore and seabed is the most important issue to Maori—it is not. Attention has been diverted from the issues that really affect Maori. While the Maori Party has been focused on wet sand our people are suffering. What has the Maori Party done as part of this Government about easing the cost of living? Why did it vote for the rise in GST? What has it done as part of this Government to create jobs for Maori? What has it done as part of this Government to enable our children to succeed at school? What has it done as part of this Government to prevent our teenagers from having babies? What has it done as part of this Government to reduce Maori incarceration in prisons? What has it done as part of this Government to support and develop Maori business and enterprise? What has it done as part of this Government to reduce Maori dependency on drugs and alcohol? What has it done as part of this Government to reduce the number of our women and children who are beaten at the hands of our menfolk? 
If the answer to those questions is Whanau Ora then I ask which of the specific issues that I have just raised will Whanau Ora alleviate? To what extent by when and how will we recognise the success? And will the pending Budget cuts to Whanau Ora condemn it to failure? 
We can focus again on the wet sand or we can develop policy that will support schools to see that teachers use research-based best-practice strategies and that will support schools to establish relationships with Maori students and whanau and to develop Maori-relevant curriculum pedagogy. We can focus on the symbolic or we can develop policy that will prevent Maori from developing diabetes renal failure and obesity or from seeking solace in drugs and alcohol. We can focus on the symbolic or we can develop policy that will create jobs for Maori ease the cost of living for Maori and help Maori to be even more successful contributors to our society. We can focus on the symbolic or we can develop policy that will see our people living in warm comfortable and secure homes. 
When I travel around Tai Tokerau I hear about and see directly evidence of the sense of hopelessness amongst many of our people. Too many are simply struggling to survive and they see Parliament arguing about wet sand. I wonder why we cannot put the same amount of energy and passion into helping them—the people. 
We will now have the spectre of the Maori Party relitigating this issue every 3 years post-election. But to have that opportunity the Maori Party will be happy. Grievance is what gives it strength. The Maori Party is happy to entrench Maori with a sense of injustice because it is always easier to criticise and condemn than to search for opportunities for growth development and prosperity. While the Maori Party relitigates this issue our people still will be underachieving at school and getting locked up knocked up beaten up drunk stoned and killed. This is a missed opportunity and it is time to move on and focus on the real issues that affect Maori. 
Anyone who knows me knows that I believe the path to Maori success lies in education. I have said before that we will achieve more in one generation of fully educated Maori than we will in another 171 years of grievance. Education can and will address underachievement. Success at school will mean Maori are better equipped to seek higher-paid employment which will assist them to meet the cost of living. Success at school will reduce Maori teenage pregnancy rates. Success at school will reduce Maori incarceration rates. Success at school will enable Maori to succeed in business and enterprise. Success at school will reduce Maori drug and alcohol dependency. Success at school will help to reduce the rates of child and spousal abuse. Through increasing the number of highly educated Maori we will be able to achieve in the highest positions in the land. We will be able to achieve in the worlds of business finance and politics and in the arts sciences and humanities. Through increasing the number of highly educated Maori we will be able to gain the respect influence and credibility that sadly many of us lack now. Through increasing the number of highly educated Maori we will regain the self-respect and dignity that many have lost. 
Maori need to be brave enough to venture on a new path that leads us away from grievance and on to a proactive and progressive path that enables us to achieve our dreams goals and aspirations—both in the 21st century and into the future. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to leave them a better Maori world than the one that we inhabit now and if we do not we will fail our people and fail our future. A Maori world of grievance simply condemns our people to the same reality that we are living in now and they deserve more than that from us. I stand here as a Maori member of Parliament and implore all other Maori members of Parliament to focus on that which will move us forward and not on that which will trap our children in the same cycle of discontent. 
The Labour Party opposes this bill because it focuses on the wet sand. It focuses on the symbolic issue and it does not focus on the issues that mean the most to Maori. Those are the cost of living and the issues of education Maori incarceration teenage pregnancy rates and all the other issues that really matter to the people. We can focus all our energies for as long as we want to on the wet sand and all those other things but at the end of the day what matters is our people and this bill does not address the issues that are pushing and suppressing our people. That is one of the major reasons why the Labour Party does not support the bill. I look over to the other side of the House at people like Tau Henare who are playing up for the crowds. The only reason Tau Henare is sitting there and yelling his head off is that there is an audience and he is more interested in playing up for the crowd than he is in addressing the issues that really put our people down. So I say to Tau Henare shame on him for sitting there and just mouthing off and not actually coming up with any—any—issues that will make a difference for Maori. Not only is that the case but also he was the guy who led the select committee astray—a terrible process. He needs to be ashamed of his part in perpetuating this whole horrible bill that is before the House. Kia ora tatou.