Mapp Wayne: Ngati Tuwharetoa (Bay of Plenty) Claims Settlement Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Mapp Wayne: Ngati Tuwharetoa (Bay of Plenty) Claims Settlement Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:625;Page:20192] 
Dr WAYNE MAPP (National—North Shore) 
: 
 I was going to speak on the preamble and perhaps the philosophy that underlies the preamble because it has now become pervasive. It really speaks about the attitudes that the Crown has towards Maori and that perhaps some Maori might have to themselves and their position in life. 
Recital (33) of the preamble refers to the loss of traditional lands through confiscation Crown purchases etc. and includes and I quote directly: “such as the coast and the swamp that traditionally provided food medicine and shelter.” Further on recital (40) refers to the fact that lands had been drained—the drainage of the Rangitaiki wetlands. That seems to imply that Maori are a Stone Age people—that they were at the time of confiscation and are now. We clearly know that that is truly absurd. Yet the preamble almost envisages that. Surely we would recognise—and given that we are lawmakers here legislation and preambles ought to be careful about this—that just as anyone who is a landowner in the modern world seeks to develop the land for economic advantage where it is appropriate and desirable we would reasonably expect Maori to have done the same themselves. 
For instance could it really be considered a loss today that people have lost the use of a swamp for food medicine and shelter? People do not live today in raupo huts made from raupo gathered from a swamp neither do they primarily use swamps for food. In fact what happened right throughout the Hauraki Plains the Eastern Bay of Plenty and many other parts of New Zealand is that those wetlands were reclaimed—admittedly not by the Maori owners from whom they were confiscated but by subsequent settlers—and turned into productive dairy farms which is arguably one of the world’s most profitable uses of such lands. Maori who own such lands do the same themselves; one has only to look at Northland around Ruawai to see the reality of that. We should not make references in these kinds of preambles as if Maori were still a Stone Age people and lamented the loss of resources that a Stone Age people would use. Let us recognise the benefits of developments. In fact the ILO conventions that I know the Green Party is very fond of talk about the right of development. Development does actually mean using new technology. Similarly with the Hui Taumata; it would have had exactly the same values. 
I say to the Government that when it is preparing its preambles let us not have a rose-tinted approach to a past when people lived in a state of nature—if one will—but let us talk about how people really live and how they want to live. Let us talk about aspiration; that would be a lot more relevant and dare I say it would have a lot more credibility amongst the wider community. When the public read about this kind of thing in our legislation—and they do; it gets out there generally—frankly it causes frustration. It causes people to wonder why we are so focused on the past as if it was frozen rather than looking forward to development.