Sio Su'a William: New Zealand Geographic Board (Nga Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa) Bill — Third Reading 
Sio Su'a William: New Zealand Geographic Board (Nga Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa) Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:647;Page:15901] 
SU’A WILLIAM SIO (Labour) 
: 
 I rise to take a short call on this bill. The ordinary citizens of this country who are listening to this debate on the radio and the TV could probably be forgiven if they were confused by the speech made by my learned colleague Chris Tremain who spoke just before because he spoke about everything under the sun except this bill. He criticised everything under the sun except this bill here—the New Zealand Geographic Board (Nga Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa) Bill. I just want to bring him back to the debate at hand. The first thing I say is that it is easy to criticise and very difficult to build look forward and capture a vision for this country. The other thing I say is that this bill here is part of Labour’s plan for the future. It will help to keep and preserve our unique national identity into the future. It is difficult to have a vision and easy to criticise if one does not know what a national identity is. That is what this bill is about. It is about building a strong national identity for Aotearoa New Zealand. 
The bill repeals and replaces the New Zealand Geographic Board Act 1946. It modernises the official naming process of New Zealand geographic features. Places like Manukau Otara Mangere Manurewa and Papatoetoe all have meaning to the people who have given those names from long ago. Knowing the correct names and locations for places such as those is also important for people in all manner of everyday communications. I have heard the National Party attack the bill at the Government Administration Committee. Its members have said that the requirement for official names to be used in official documents is too burdensome for some businesses. Obviously those members have not been to Australia where some of the names are so long that it takes a mouthful to be able to pronounce them. However it is important for legal practice consistency and our national identity that official names are used in all official documents. 
This bill recognises the Treaty of Waitangi responsibilities in the context of official geographic names and refines public consultation processes. People in Manukau City take Te Tiriti o Waitangi very very seriously. They take the pronunciation of names very very seriously. I believe that the people of Manukau listening to this debate will agree with Labour that this is an essential bill in ensuring that we move forward as a nation that we take everybody on board and that we begin to appreciate what makes this country very unique when one is dealing with international people. Nowhere else will one find Maori other than in New Zealand. Nowhere else will one find Maori words other than here in New Zealand. As I mentioned before this bill will encourage the appreciation of names such as Manukau Otara Papatoetoe Otahuhu— 
Hon Chris Carter 
: Mangere. 
SU’A WILLIAM SIO 
: —and Mangere. Those are the original names given by the people of Tainui of Ngai Tai and of Tamaki-makau-rau. Those are names that we have to be comfortable in the pronunciation of. 
I complete my speech by saying that Labour is happy to support the New Zealand Geographic Board (Nga Pou Taunaha o Aotearoa) Bill in its third reading.