Brash Don: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Brash Don: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:614;Page:10705] 
1. Dr DON BRASH (Leader of the Opposition) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Do the comments made by the Hon Tariana Turia in relation to management of the coast and sea that “… there is no way that tangata whenua will ever give up our rights voluntarily or allow them to be subject to anyone else’s authority. We will never agree that the Crown or anyone else should hold them on our behalf.” represent Government policy; if not why were such comments made by a Minister of the Crown? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK (Prime Minister) 
: 
 No because Government policy has not been finalised. 
Dr Don Brash 
: What is her understanding of the reason that Mrs Turia’s speech was not run past her office and which of the “multiplicity of meanings” did she take from Mrs Turia’s statement? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: The speech was finalised very late. I have not given any particular interpretation to the speech. I thought it left a great deal of room. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: What are her thoughts on these comments from her erstwhile Minister: “However we did not expect that we should have to abandon our tikanga just because they are not familiar to immigrant communities.”; is that a racist statement or does that have a multiplicity of reasonings and interpretations too? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I can rely on the member to take the worst inference from it. However the member has advised me that she was referring to those immigrant communities in Island Bay that she referred to earlier in the speech which were Shetland Islanders which is part of my heritage and Italians. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I just saw a pig fly past that window. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: A happy Christmas to the member too. 
Jeanette Fitzsimons 
: What opportunities does she see for the management of the coastal area to be exercised by a partnership between hapu with customary rights and elected local government? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: The concept of partnership and management is not novel. It is provided for already in customary fisheries regulations and in other areas and I am sure there is scope for some such arrangements. 
Hon Peter Dunne 
: Is it still her position that in resolving this issue and the interests of what she has previously described as the 15 percent the interests of what she has previously described as the 85 percent cannot be overridden or compromised? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: From the outset I have said that I am looking for people of goodwill from across the communities to work on something that will see all New Zealanders move on together on the issue. 
Dr Don Brash 
: In light of Mrs Turia’s statements will the Prime Minister explicitly undertake that the Crown in one form or another will hold ownership of the foreshore and seabed on behalf of all New Zealanders; if not why not? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: Over a number of months the Government has set out why it believed that a public domain approach was a more inclusive approach than the Crown approach favoured by New Zealand First National and ACT. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Can I ask the Prime Minister to give us those variations of interpretations that we out there in the community—not being privy to her information of course—should take from these words from Tariana Turia: “We will never agree that the Crown or anyone else should hold them on our behalf.”? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: No one is proposing that anybody hold anybody else’s customary rights. 
Dr Don Brash 
: Does she have confidence in Mrs Turia as a member of her executive; if so why? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: Yes because she is a hard-working and conscientious Minister. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Can the Prime Minister tell us whether it is true that on this issue Tariana Turia has told her that she is talking about the foreshore and seabed and its ownership—right or wrong? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: We are talking about the customary rights of Maori. That is what the Government is endeavouring to address in a way that takes the whole country forward together not divides it up like Opposition parties want. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I have asked the Prime Minister to tell the House whether the Minister Tariana Turia was talking about the question of the ownership of the foreshore and seabed—not some vague attack on Opposition members who are not responsible for that speech. Did Tariana Turia tell the Prime Minister that on this issue she was talking about the foreshore and seabed ownership—Maori ownership at that? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: No. 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: Why will the Prime Minister not admit to this House what the whole country knows that one of her Ministers has given a speech saying in effect she does not accept the sovereignty of this Parliament that she does not accept the laws of this Parliament should apply to all New Zealanders equally? Why will she not accept that and then explain to us why such a Minister is still a Minister? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I will not accept it because I do not believe it to be true. 
Dr Don Brash 
: Noting her press release saying she will be the sole judge of whether Tariana Turia has breached the  
Cabinet Manual 
 in respect of collective Cabinet responsibility is it that there are to be two standards of citizenship and two sets of rules depending on whether a Minister is Maori in the same way that she intends to create two standards of citizenship on the foreshore? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: There is one rule and that is that the Prime Minister makes a judgment. I am very happy to have my record as a party leader running a successful Government compared with theirs any time.