Davis Kelvin: Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Davis Kelvin: Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Volume:670;Page:17194] 
KELVIN DAVIS (Labour) 
: 
 The preamble of the Marine Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill sets out basically its whakapapa. It is important to remember that this all started when Ngati Apa sought some aquaculture areas way back in the time of the last National Government. The Marlborough Sounds council at the time would not guarantee Ngati Apa some aquaculture space. Ngati Apa said that was not fair and it would take the issue to court. It went to court and finally the Court of Appeal in 2003 said that yes Ngati Apa had a case and might go to court to test for customary title. 
Before I move on to other parts of the whakapapa I want to say that when Maori go to court to test that they have a case they have to be really really careful. If the court decision is that they do not have any interest in customary title in a particular area then they basically lose everything. That is a point we all need to realise when we say that Maori are chasing the right to go to court to test for customary title—which I agree with. The point of the matter is we may lose everything if the court says that no we do not have a right to customary title in a particular area. 
During the select committee process I asked submitters whether they were after the right to go to court. They said yes. I asked whether they would accept the court’s decision if it said they did not have a case for customary title. They said: “Heck no. We’ll fight that. We’ll never lie down. We’ll never give up another inch of seabed.” 
Paul Quinn 
: Rhetoric! 
KELVIN DAVIS 
: The member over there says “Rhetoric!”. That is fine but I know that the mentality amongst our whanau is that they will not accept the court’s decision if the court says they do not have a case. That is something we as Maori have to be very mindful of—that we may in fact lost everything. That is the risk we take by following this path. 
After the Court of Appeal decision the Foreshore and Seabed Bill was drafted. We know that it was controversial and recital (2) of the preamble to this bill talks about the criticism. The hikoi led by Hone Harawira was born. It started off up north and marched down to Parliament. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: We will permit interjections as long as they are rare and reasonable. We are not going to have yelling contests between other members that are dissociated from the member on his feet. One at a time. 
KELVIN DAVIS 
: It is interesting that the very issue that gave birth to the Maori Party could also well be its demise. We have seen what has happened to the Maori Party over the last few weeks. One of the key members in forming the Maori Party is now one of the key members in its falling apart. It is very interesting that the Maori Party is in dire straits over this bill. Its members are embarrassed by this whole bill—and I will get on to a few things Rahui Katene said earlier on. The Maori Party formed a coalition with National and the coalition agreement said that they would address the whole issue of the foreshore and seabed. They had a ministerial review which was fine and this new bill was produced. 
I and the other members of the Maori Affairs Committee traversed the length and breadth of the country. I think we had 14 hearings in various places around the country and we heard from over 200 submitters. In those submissions there were polar opposite views. Maori in particular said this issue was a property rights and justice issue. On the other hand a number of people mainly from the Coastal Coalition said it was a race issue. It was really unfortunate. The truth lies somewhere in between the two extremes the polar opposite views. 
I want to bring up the matter of the select committee process. It is unfair that on the Friday before Waitangi Day we received an email on our BlackBerries containing the 500-page departmental report. But those of us up north for Waitangi Day were meeting talking and listening to Maori and hearing what the issues were for Maori. We spent the whole weekend at Waitangi and on Monday we had meetings in our electorates. We then travelled down here to Wellington to find the 500-page review on our desks on Tuesday morning. There it is; the Hon Shane Jones is holding one up. We had a couple of hours to read it. It was impossible in that time to read it to compare it with the bill to make comparisons and to really get our heads round it. It was wrong of the Hon Tau Henare the chair of the select committee to rush the process through without due deliberation. 
It was also unfair and wrong for us to be denied access to legal advice. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: What a cry-baby! 
KELVIN DAVIS 
: We hear the Hon Tau Henare over there telling me not to be a cry-baby. He says that because he knows that he led—or misled—the process of the select committee. He is embarrassed about that. 
I want to go on to something that Rahui Katene brought up. She said this bill is a Maori Party bill. The reason that party was formed was to repeal the Foreshore and Seabed Act and she is very proud of what she has here. It is interesting that she says it is a Maori Party bill because I have in my hand a letter from a Maori Party member who attended one of Te Ururoa Flavell’s sideshows when he went around the country trying to convince Maori Party members that the bill was a good thing. He no doubt told them what he wanted them to hear. Te Ururoa was asked who was running the timetable and he said it was National. He was asked who wrote the bill and he said it was National. He was asked whose bill it was and he said it was National’s. The letter says: “It’s not the Maori Party’s bill at all so why the hell vote for it.” This is what— 
Hon Tau Henare 
: What’s his name? 
KELVIN DAVIS 
: I will scroll to the end. It is Tim Selwyn. He was I assume a Maori Party member. He is saying this bill is not a Maori Party bill; it is a National bill. Somewhere between Rahui Katene and Te Ururoa Flavell that party needs to sort out exactly whose bill it is. Rahui Katene says it is a Maori Party bill and its members are very proud of it. Te Ururoa Flavell turns up to a public meeting and washes his hands of the bill. He is doing a Pontius Pilate. He does not want any part of it. He is saying it is a National bill. I tell those members to sort it out between them because more confusion is arising from this whole episode. 
That is the bones of the whakapapa regarding this bill. It was well explained and well set out by John Boscawen from the ACT Party. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Oh you support the ACT Party now. 
KELVIN DAVIS 
: I agree that it is a bit hard when a Labour Party member and an ACT Party member end up agreeing with each other. I also agree that there were times when I thought the chairperson of the select committee was a bit rough with a number of submitters. I agree with the Hon John Boscawen that when members of the public come to a select committee to express their ideas they should not be put down harangued or harassed in any way. It was a shame that that happened even though I was blown away by some of the extreme views of a number of the people from the Coastal Coalition who say that this bill is about separatism and apartheid. 
Hon Shane Jones 
: They’re nuts forget them—National voters. 
KELVIN DAVIS 
: They are nuts and I think they need to pull their heads in. Basically they are so extreme that they are not helpful at all to any part of this debate. Kia ora.