English Bill: Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill — Third Reading 
English Bill: Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:671;Page:17630] 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Prime Minister) 
: 
 If Labour regards Hone Harawira as someone it cannot do business with why do Labour members sound exactly like him when speaking on the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill? What a disappointment the previous speech from Shane Jones was. He used to be regarded as a person with the capability and vision to help New Zealand deal with issues of Maori and Pakeha learning how to live together and work together in New Zealand. 
Labour’s cup is running over with resentment and regret about how it handled the issue. From well before the Foreshore and Seabed Act and certainly since 2004 Labour has shown that it does not know how to handle aspirational Maori. It can handle Maori who traditionally may have done what Labour told them to do who thought what Labour said they should think and who kept quiet about it. But in 2004 Labour panicked over this issue and brought in legislation that was clearly resented and opposed by thousands of Maori. Labour did not solve the problem which is what this Government set out to do. This Government set out to solve the problem—the problem of different world views about property rights different world views about our history and different views about how that history should be expressed in 2011. It is not an easy problem to solve. 
I congratulate the Maori Party but not on agreeing with what National wanted because it did not. The bill is not what National wanted in every respect. It is the result of a tedious testing and tense process that has gone on over the last couple of years not just within the Government—and I do not mean just the tedious chairperson of the Maori Affairs Committee—but with the thousands of New Zealanders who take an interest in this issue; with the MPs who have sat and listened to and wrestled with these issues; and with the Attorney-General who has performed in exactly the way Tariana Turia said: with deep respect total thoroughness and I must say an evenness of temperament that is not what we have always associated with him but on which he must be complimented. His temperament is in total contrast to that of the Labour member Shane Jones in his previous speech and to the way Labour members have conducted themselves throughout this discussion. 
Labour members’ conduct has shown their utter lack of suitability for any responsibility for these issues in modern New Zealand. They might feel comfortable going back to Ratana every year but the Ratana deal was done with Michael Joseph Savage. He was a man of vision but the deal was done 80 years ago. The new kind of deal is much more respectful much more robust and more difficult. I can say that as a member of the Cabinet who spends probably a quarter to a third of my time even as Minister of Finance on issues related to Maori. The new deal is more difficult but it is real progress. That progress is what the bill represents. Other issues in New Zealand will be wrestled with as intensively as this one and are as polarising as this one not because we choose it to be that way but because that is the way this nation is with the different peoples who live here. 
I am so proud of the bill because at least three-quarters of the Parliament have demonstrated that they are willing and able to wrestle successfully with these issues. The alternative is unresolved resentment and an ongoing sense of injustice that prevents progress and a positive view of New Zealand. Even if we do not think the bill is perfect—and I do not think anyone does—it is progress. It is a step forward from where we were. The bill is not a perfect answer but I suspect that it will be a lasting answer because despite the brave words of Mr Shane Jones a future Labour Government will not undo the legislation in his time. 
A sign of the pettiness and internal damage within Labour is that its members had an opportunity to demonstrate some vision for New Zealand and they just spouted resentment of the Maori Party. National certainly does not always agree with the Maori Party but the Maori Party deserves credit for taking a historic opportunity to use the democratic process to take responsibility for a solution. That approach is in marked contrast to the way a lot of these issues have been dealt with in the past. The Maori Party took responsibility for a solution. National has had to as well. 
My email has been overloaded with people who say they will never vote for me again. I actually think they will. When it comes to polling even if 89 percent of New Zealanders do not like the bill that number is only marginally higher than the percentage of voters who do not like Labour. If I were in Labour I would keep the polling numbers to myself. 
I acknowledge the work of the Maori Affairs Committee its chairman— 
Hon Tau Henare 
: What’s my name? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: —the Hon Tau Henare—and members who without much public recognition did a great job of persisting through weeks and weeks of very polarised discussion in order to come up with solutions that would work. In particular I congratulate the Attorney-General. Only someone of his intellectual breadth and determination would be able to see the bill through what would be about the most intensive process I have ever seen legislation go through in 20 years in Parliament. 
Finally I acknowledge my Government colleagues who consist of National members and of course the Maori Party and the ACT Party in its own unique way who have seen the process through to a result. The result is one we should be proud of not because the legislation is a fantastic piece of art and political creation but because the result comes from a proper realistic forward-looking process for dealing with very difficult issues. 
We could have collectively allowed this issue to become as polarised as some wanted it to be. We could have let that happen but we did not. In that respect I pay tribute to the leadership of the Prime Minister who cannot be here today. At all times he was able to bring to this discussion his own particular mix of equanimity decisiveness and generosity of spirit which set the tone for the relationship between the Maori Party and National. Quite frankly this country will need the same kind of process again. 
I support the third reading of the bill. I am disappointed that on this occasion Mr Jones missed his opportunity which was a big opportunity to lift himself above the level of the rest of Labour. Labour has gone so low that it has dragged him down as well. That is a disappointment but this bill is not a disappointment; it is a success.