Coffey TāmatiTĀMATI COFFEY (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. Can I borrow a tissue? I noticed your box was closest.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Take the whole box. I live to serve!TĀMATI COFFEY: Thank you Madam Speaker. I can now start my contribution. I really appreciated that contribution from the previous speaker Stuart Smith because he helped to highlight that actually yes we are all New Zealanders but we come to this House acknowledging that we have a special relationship with iwi Māori and that actually as Crown we must respect that in everything that we do. So yes he was absolutely right—we are all New Zealanders—but Māori have a very special place in that relationship and for that reason have a special place in the reform of our environmental management system.David Seymour: Special people.TĀMATI COFFEY: What was that?David Seymour: Special people huh?TĀMATI COFFEY: Yes.Simon Court: What makes them special?TĀMATI COFFEY: I'm going to carry on; I'll let them keep talking to themselves. Maybe one day they can stand up and actually take a call on this but in the meantime I'll focus on my call which is that this here is about long-term thinking which is the thing that has to be encouraged here. For a very long time Māori have taken a long-term view of our environment but unfortunately our laws haven't really enabled that. Recently more and more iwi and hapū are coming up with their 100-year iwi plans. This is something that is new actually but we've taken a really long-term view. It's been really intentional. Back home in Rotorua we have our own Te Arawa 100-year plan and of course you can imagine what that consists of: the environment and the protection of the environment the looking after of our lakes the looking after of our rivers—all of those kinds of things that we deem to be important. We've got a saying in Te Ao Māori which is Toitū te whenua whatungarongaro he tangata"—as we the humans come and go the land remains. The land remains and that's what I want to talk about here. The Spatial Planning Bill is actually an attempt to insert some long-term thinking into the way that we develop our communities. I want to use an example. In Tauranga we have the Smart Growth plan and it's been incredibly successful in being able to develop the transport arterial routes the housing—how that's going to go the appreciation that it needs to be built back from the water's edge because climate change is a thing. So there's a big area of land that's been specially pegged out as being land that you shouldn't be building on especially as we're more and more aware of our climate change responsibilities. So that has been a real success.Just the other day I was driving along the Tauranga Northern Link and I saw that the next section of the motorway out at Te Tumu—they're starting to develop that into an access on to the whenua there which is going to be a big site for more housing more communities and more developments. What the Smart Growth plan has been able to do is coordinate all of that effort using the local council involving iwi into that conversation. It's the way that things should be but unfortunately they haven't been done that way and we need to do better. I want to talk about the spatial strategies so that as we develop these plans we're making sure that we are identifying those areas which are significant to Māori and I can point to an example back in Rotorua where a few years ago the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) had decided it was going to run a motorway through small Māori settlements on the eastern side of the lake. It was met with fierce opposition. It was eventually thrown out because there was such opposition to it. It ran through suburbs like Ngāpuna—translated it's about the springs the many springs that sit in that area. NZTA at the time were really keen to knock through there and build a four-lane motorway through a place which had been renowned to our local Māori community—my iwi my hapū—for being a place which was significant for the healing waters which sat underneath the surface. We need to do better. We need to do better when it comes to trying to coordinate what our communities look like into the future and the Spatial Planning Bill is a big key part of that. I look forward to traversing this through the Environment Committee as it tracks through. I look forward to the submissions that come before it and making sure that we're creating a system which is fit for 2022 and which absolutely has got Te Ao Māori and mātauranga Māori and whakaaro Māori sitting at the heart of it because Māori for a long time have been wanting this and I believe that it's going to be welcomed with open arms. I commend it to the House."