Horomia Parekura: Local Electoral (Repeal of Race-Based Representation) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Horomia Parekura: Local Electoral (Repeal of Race-Based Representation) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:639;Page:9884] 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA (Minister of Maori Affairs) 
: 
 Mr Speaker— 
Bob Clarkson 
: Tell us about Hone Heke. 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: Hone Heke was a great warrior and he came from the north not from the Bay of Plenty. 
Bob Clarkson 
: And he’s pronounced Hone Heke! 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: He was a great warrior. He did not come from Mauao where people put up grand racetracks and ignore the rights as they still do of local Maori. 
It is imperative that at local government level there is representation that reflects our communities especially in the Bay of Plenty. If we recall Judge Peter Trapski conducted an inquiry into Maori representation on the Bay of Plenty Regional Council and also into the establishment of Maori wards. Mr Ryall has a very selective memory because over 9 years all the iwi all the hapu and all the straight-thinking Pakeha and councillors got together in the Bay of Plenty and agreed there should be specific representation in relation to the Maori seats. 
So it is a nonsense when we hear the platitudes in the House foisted on us by Mr Ryall and by Hone Carter that this is a distant damaging factor in the relationships of us forging together as a nation. Remember that the Treaty was signed by two people—those people who were visitors then who have etched their way into this ground going forward and the people who were already here us Maori. It is a known fact that Maori are under-represented on local bodies. They make up 5 percent of the participants. That is shocking. 
People are saying in this Chamber tonight: “Hear hear!”. Mr Ryall and co. would like us to go back to the old-fashioned days when councils and authorities of governance were just mirrorings of the counties of England and a person used to run around the town ringing the bell going “Hear hear!”—the town crier. That is exactly what Mr Ryall has done. 
Eric Roy 
: Hear ye hear ye! 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: Hear hear! That is exactly what Mr Ryall has done—hear hear no place for these Maori leave them out. It is disgraceful. Most Maori representation on councils over the last 20 years has been via secondments—you know put a bit of Maori on there get a Maori advisory group. It is shocking. 
Let us cut to the chase about the Bay of Plenty. Nearly 53 percent of the land is owned by Maori. The biggest owner of fish assets in that area is Maori so it would be common sense for those who want to imbue a good strong commercial base to enable Maori to participate. Certainly what is important in my mind is that dealing with that under-representation needs to be supported as my learned colleague Shane Jones said rather than foisting and placing toxic views on something that is a serious way forward for our people in this country. 
It is so exciting that at the moment we have a Chinese Mayor in Gisborne who has taken the time to learn a third language the language of the tangata whenua in this country. He is Chinese and is living on Maori whenua with a whole lot of Pakeha constituents. That is what I believe is great stuff in relation to local authorities. If they have that asset if they have the desire to be part of the councils then why at the end of the day do we have this bill in the House placing this nonsensical issue before us? 
We will be supporting the holding of those seats because it is more than a right; it is more than being fashionable; it is about Maori who have the assets in that place who have a major percentage of the population and who are not represented on those councils. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Why not? 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA 
: It is because some people calculate out how to block and make sure that Maori do not get on there. At the end of the day it takes a great effort and there are those issues that are relevant to making sure that Maori get a say—not people who are given tokenistic roles in parties and who foist platitudes on other people or culture as we say and do nothing for their people; nothing whatsoever. 
 We will be supporting the retention of those seats and it is a wise and wonderful thing to do. If we are serious about nationhood and about Maori having a standard then what is so wrong about this? Do not let that sneakiness come out in the sense of stiff kaki whero those people who preach and leech on about the place that Maori should not be. People preach and leech about how it is no good having Maori in there and say: “Let us just use their assets let us just get them to come and do the haka for us we will just let them be at our beck and call.” Well those seats need to be there. Kia ora.