Harawira Hone: Tariff (Malaysia Free Trade Agreement) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Harawira Hone: Tariff (Malaysia Free Trade Agreement) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:662;Page:10285] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Kia ora tatou katoa e te Whare. A few years ago a group of Malaysian organisations came here to Aotearoa to learn how the Maori people of New Zealand had brought their culture back from the brink of extinction. The delegation included tribal leaders from the Bajau people one of the more well-known indigenous populations in Malaysia who were keen to visit kohanga reo kura kaupapa wharekura and wananga to witness the resurgence and revitalisation of te reo Maori in everyday use in schools and the community and to learn how we have been able to defend and protect our customary heritage and culture including our language. 
I raise this experience here because I would have thought that positive exchanges like that might be what we want to foster in an international relationship with Malaysia. Yet in this deal there is nothing nada horekau. There is no mention whatsoever of first-nation peoples’ involvement in decision making on international trade agreements which is a bit of an irony considering that on this day Tuesday 20 April 2010 the Maori Party co-leader and Minister of Maori Affairs announced New Zealand’s support for the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples at the opening session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York where he acknowledged the special status held by Maori as tangata whenua with an interest in all policy and legislative matters and affirmed this country’s commitment to the common objectives of the declaration and the Treaty of Waitangi. In doing so he set right New Zealand’s grave injustice when in 2007 143 countries voted in favour of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples but the New Zealand Labour Government refused to support it sending a clear and unequivocal message to the rest of the world that as long as Labour was in power New Zealand would oppose the fundamental rights and aspirations of Maori people. 
Thankfully for the indigenous people of the world and for the Maori people of Aotearoa in particular Labour was not to have much more than another 12 months in office before it was booted to the Opposition benches clearing the way for the Maori Party to open negotiations with the National Government which has led to today’s historic announcement to support the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples a document that had the support of such luminaries within the Maori world as Sir James Henare Dame Whina Cooper Dame Mira Szaszy Te Atairangikaahu Sir Robert Mahuta Whakahuihui Vercoe Sir Paul Reeves Sir Hepi te Heuheu the Maori Women’s Welfare League and the New Zealand Maori Council but that has been opposed vociferously by the New Zealand Labour Party Parekura Horomia Nanaia Mahuta Mahara Okeroa Mita Ririnui Dover Samuels— 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I appreciate that there is a lot of theatre and words around today’s announcement by the Government and reaching for exactly what this declaration means is a difficult task. But I would have thought that it was a hard task even for Mr Harawira to draw a bow between a Malaysian free-trade deal and the kind of political theatre we have seen in respect of a declaration signed by 143 countries including Burma on the rights of indigenous people. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: Let me respond to that. Firstly I tell Mr Hughes that the standard for a broader debate might have been set by a member from the Opposition side of the House a little earlier which I did caution about. I suggested that first readings tend to be a bit broader but members if they are making speeches for comparative purposes should relate them to the bill. This is the first reading and I ask the member to continue with that in mind. 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: In respect of this bill we are discussing here tonight I note that today we right that wrong and announce proudly that Maori do hold a distinct and special status as the indigenous people of Aotearoa and that indigenous rights— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I know there has been an extension of indigenous rights today but I do not think that it goes quite to the point of defying you in the way that is occurring at the moment. The member was given an instruction by you Mr Assistant Speaker. He waved at it then went back to reading the speech you had just hauled him away from. 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: Speaking to the point of order I began my speech by speaking about the special relationship between the indigenous people of Malaysia and the indigenous people of this country and I wanted to continue along that vein before returning to the specific details of tonight’s bill. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: The point may be relatively obvious—listing indigenous members of the New Zealand Parliament is hardly a way of denoting a relationship with Malaysia. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Eric Roy) 
: Well the member did begin his presentation by talking about a relationship between Malaysia and Maoridom. In that context he was on firm ground. But he has shifted somewhat and he needs to make his points relevant to the bill. 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: The importance of that relationship between the indigenous peoples of Malaysia and the indigenous peoples of Aotearoa is critical to the Maori Party’s support for legislation of this nature. We see that there is a need for this country to ensure that the rights of its indigenous peoples now that it has adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples are respected in the same way that we respect the rights of other indigenous peoples under that declaration. Therefore we announce proudly that Maori do hold a distinct and special status as the indigenous people of Aotearoa just as the Bajau people of Malaysia hold the same status there and that indigenous rights and indigenous culture are of profound importance to both countries and fundamental to the identity of both nations. 
We therefore also express our respect for and our commitment to international documents as well as to local documents such as the Whakaputanga o Niu Tireni and Te Tiriti o Waitangi as the unique constitutional foundations of this country. On this day of the declaration we challenge this House once again to recognise the Treaty as the foundation of partnership respect cooperation and good faith between Maori and the Crown as we also renew our commitment as a party to continue to work across the international stage to promote the rights of all indigenous peoples. Today is a day that Maori people will remember forever so it is ironic that on such an important day we are presented with a free-trade agreement that ignores the importance of indigenous peoples and is silent on the importance of the declaration. The Maori Party holds to the view that the economic benefits of international trade agreements need to be balanced with consideration of the rights of indigenous participants that we should be supporting fair-trade agreements that recognise and implement international standards such as those outlined in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples ILO Convention 169 and the Mataatua declaration and that we should also be supporting trade relationships between first-nation peoples as part of any wider trade agreements. This bill fails to achieve any of these goals so the Maori Party will not be supporting it tonight. Kia ora.