Flavell Te Ururoa: Tariff (Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Tariff (Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:629;Page:1623] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 The Maori Party’s contribution to this debate tonight is based on a Maori history of negotiation and alliances in which our people have always looked at the potential for strategic and economic opportunities for Aotearoa. It is a history we know well and it guides our decision making in all international trade agreements. As this nation entered the second half of the 19th century the Maori partner to Te Tiriti o Waitangi was the dominant force in a vibrant growing and prosperous economy. For examples of that we need just to look up State Highway 1 to Ngati Toa and the rohe of Ngati Toa Rangatira. 
Two years ago in the closing submissions of counsel for Ngati Toa Rangatira to the Waitangi Tribunal Matiu Rei Te Waari Carkeek and Professor Richard Boast among others gave evidence of the trading empire developed by Ngati Toa with Pakeha/Europeans. They described the harvesting of flax the use of European vessels and technology and the full-scale involvement in the whale trade. Evidence was given by Professor Alan Ward and Dr Ann Parsonson of the reputation Ngati Toa had as a maritime trading empire controlling trade the use of the coast and access across both sides of Cook Strait. The significance of the coast and trade routes for Ngati Toa and its history of relation-building—of alliances marriages negotiations and resource sharing—provided a solid base for an agreement to develop trade and benefit from multilateral cooperation. The concept of nation-to-nation strategic economic partnership agreements is therefore very familiar to tangata whenua. 
Yet despite the glowing reputation of Ngati Toa as an aggressive and energetic entrepreneurial group its fortunes just as rapidly deteriorated. Submissions to the tribunal included the following: “… Ngati Toa one of the most powerful tribes in Te Tau Ihu as at 1840 ideally situated equipped with outstanding resources and exceptional leadership a signatory to the Treaty and keen to benefit from the ‘benefits’ of European settlement found itself by the turn of the century marginalized. Impoverished and reduced to virtually no land base with its leadership scattered and decimated its traditional tribal relationships and customary land tenure in a state of disarray …”. 
So something happened and I suppose that is where the Maori Party comes in. Our party is here to declare that we want to defend the rights and uphold the aspirations of the indigenous peoples of the world. In considering this legislation I must think about the indigenous communities in Brunei—communities like the Malay the Tutong people the Bisaya people the Dusun people and many others. What happens when local and regional sovereignty interacts with multinational and international identity? It usually involves the loss of local identity and local and ethnic practices which become subsumed under flows of global trade colonialism and assumptions of universalism. How will the indigenous communities of Brunei benefit from the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement? 
The bill proposes that Singapore will act as a hub in South-east Asia and that Chile will become a similar launch pad for South America. But still some questions concern us. How will the indigenous communities fare in this four-way trade agreement that opens the door to wider trade liberalisation within the APEC region? Have those communities experienced the same reversal of fortune that saw Ngati Toa—or for that matter any hapu or iwi—decline? Have similar steps been taken to destroy the mana and rangatiratanga—the power base—of indigenous communities implicated in this trans-Pacific agreement? Our knowledge of indigenous communities is that across the globe traditional ways of life and homelands are being destroyed by overpopulation growth and industrial development all in the name of progress—but to whose advantage? It is generally not to the advantage of tangata whenua. 
Since the Spanish conquest indigenous peoples have been used as labourers—poorly paid and lacking political representation. Although those conditions of semi-servitude are changing slowly just 4 months ago the indigenous people of Chile gathered in Santiago for the First Forum of Indigenous Peoples on Poverty Eradication. They gave some indication of their plight. Their letter to the Presidents of Latin America and the Caribbean makes for interesting reading as we consider the place of this bill today. It states: “In spite of the call by the international community with regards to decisively improving the human rights situation of Indigenous Peoples the State of Chile persistently refuses to acknowledge Indigenous Peoples and their rights in the constitution … This legal lack of protection in terms of collective rights places Indigenous Peoples at a disadvantage before the rest of the Chilean society … In Particular for Indigenous Peoples like the Aymara Quechuas and Likanantay a real commitment to overcome poverty implies the acknowledgment and enjoyment of our rights to superficial and subterranean water sources the acknowledgment of our rights over mining fields existing in our ancestral land and the right to have a share in profits resulting from their exploitation.” 
I ask this House to seriously consider this whole bill and how we can sign up to a four-way trade agreement linking Latin America the Pacific and Asia when we have such gaps at home with regard to indigenous people—Maori. One would hope that this nation understanding the strategic and constitutional significance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi would ensure that Treaty responsiveness in any international trade and tariff agreement is given considered thought by any Government entering into such an agreement. The Maori Party therefore looks for a guaranteed involvement of Maori as Treaty partners in the negotiation of or enforcement of process under such agreements. The national interest analysis however is guarded in its application of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It states that the trans-Pacific agreement contains: “safeguards which will ensure that there are no adverse effects on New Zealand cultural values including Maori interests” which earlier speakers talked about. It is hardly a full endorsement of pride in tangata whenua achievements is it? 
This could have been an excellent opportunity for the New Zealand Government to recognise the unique contribution that Maori offer to the domestic New Zealand economy. Instead the strongest position put forward is that there is nothing in the agreement that will prevent the Government from fulfilling any obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It is no wonder that there is general scepticism on the part of tangata whenua that those acknowledgments amount to any more than a paper promise. Commitments are avoided and any real benefits are geared to the Crown not to Maori or any other indigenous parties implicated in this relationship. 
The relationships envisaged for tangata whenua communities as Treaty signatories should entitle us to enjoy the rights as a Treaty partner that attach to these international agreements. The commitments articulated in Te Tiriti o Waitangi should translate into international trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement. Promises made should be promises upheld. There is certainly space for greater collaboration between Maori and other indigenous communities about how international agreements like the Treaty could work in practice at international and domestic levels in contemporary times but our treaties should be used as affirmations of or a source of political rights and status. They should be used to provide power as a vehicle for revitalisation. 
The Maori Party will not stand by and allow or turn a blind eye to the situation that tangata whenua in other places—our brothers and sisters overseas—find themselves facing and to the gross injustices and inequalities outlined by the indigenous communities implicated by this treaty. Our decision to oppose this bill is influenced finally by an ancient Incan prophecy from the Mapuche people of Chile and Argentina: “One day the great sacred birds of the North and the South will fly together. When the eagle of the North and the Condor of the South fly together the Earth will awaken. The eagles of the North cannot be free without the condors of the South. Now it is happening. Now is the time.” Indeed now is the time for the Maori Party to defend the rights and uphold the aspirations of indigenous communities across the globe. In doing so we honour the inherent entrepreneurial capacity of tangata whenua and will do our very best to protect it for future generations.