Franks Stephen: Treaty of Waitangi (Final Settlement of Claims) Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
Franks Stephen: Treaty of Waitangi (Final Settlement of Claims) Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
[Volume:618;Page:13906] 
STEPHEN FRANKS (ACT) 
: 
 I have listened with interest to the debate on this bill. One of the most interesting speeches of course was from the person who is almost my benchmate Nandor Tanczos from the Green Party. He said that this bill was prompted by a kind of psychological complex. He seemed to be saying that people who do not want to recite and relive trauma have something wrong with them. Mr Tanczos may have come from an era that believed fervently that if one let it all hang out somehow it all came together but in fact much more modern and very recent wisdom is that the net effect of wallowing in misery and of examining one’s navel whining and refusing to take things seriously is not cleansing and healing. It simply means what common sense would tell us: that we become more depressed. 
There are five good reasons why this bill is needed and there is also a good reason why part of it is not needed. I have authority from my leader to say that we do not need a council of race relations—and we certainly do not. I turn now to the first good reason that this bill is needed. The tribunal is discredited. It is not good for New Zealand to carry further on down a path whereby a semi-judicial body embarrasses our entire judiciary. The bill that was before the House late last year allowed the tribunal’s chairman essentially to take judges off a case when he did not like the conclusions they were coming to. Which tribunal of integrity allows that? Since the tribunal talked about the Holocaust there has been no serious public respect for it. Victoria University’s latest book on this topic  
The Waitangi Tribunal and New Zealand History 
 by Giselle Byrnes essentially states the tribunal is making up history to suit its agenda. It is a serious problem when one of our judicial bodies is accused of making up history to suit its politics. 
The second reason that this bill is needed is that the treaty claims process is corrupting Maori. Some of the best young brains in Maoridom are now very skilfully employed in working out how to take wealth from others instead of making wealth. The culture of making instead of taking is what really distinguishes the wealthy from the poor. Those people are not stupid; they are not unnaturally grasping. They are simply responding to the incentives that calculating politicians on the left have been giving them. In that I include former National Party members who got into that—the Doug Grahams of this world. If someone was sitting there as a young Maori or even as an elderly Maori and was offered money for nothing except making a complaint what else would that person do? 
The third good reason for this bill is that the process is deferring the date of Maori self-reliance. I remember a Westpac survey from a few years ago and there was one finding that was never published. When Westpac surveyed savings intentions it found that almost no Maori intended to save. One of the reasons was that Maori thought they did not need to save because somewhere down the line Father Christmas would turn up with a treaty settlement. That is not healthy for any people. 
The fourth good reason for the bill is that these claims cannot do justice. It is fatuous to say as the  
State of the Nation 
 television programme told us that the settlements are only 1 percent of the value of the claims. That is like saying that my dad who missed out on the family farm was ripped off by millions simply because he had to go and do something else. 
The fifth reason for the bill is that the settlement process is simply a reason for new grievances. Limitation periods appear in the law of every sensible culture. I think the longest period I have ever seen is in the Turkish situation which can go back 40 years. No one anywhere in the world can build a stable foundation on a pattern of exploring grievances that go back past living memory. 
The sixth reason why this bill should be grasped by both sides of the House and why Maori in particular should vote for it may be described as “grab it while you can”. The tide has turned. There will not be the stupid encouragements to further grievance. Maori should get settlements while they are still being offered because ultimately most New Zealanders Maori and Pakeha are sick of the process. They see no future in it; it is time for it to finish. Let us end it before it goes septic.