Hide Rodney: Treaty of Waitangi (Final Settlement of Claims) Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
Hide Rodney: Treaty of Waitangi (Final Settlement of Claims) Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
[Volume:618;Page:13896] 
RODNEY HIDE (Leader—ACT) 
: 
 I move  
That the Treaty of Waitangi (Final Settlement of Claims) Bill (No 2) be now read a first time. 
 I do not think that anyone in this House can think we have race relations in this country right. I do not think that anyone in this House believes or can think we have the treaty settlement process right. I do not think that anyone in this House can believe we are getting better race relations under current policy. I think we have a problem. 
I think the bulk of New Zealanders are a fair people who believe that yes where there have been historical injustices we need a process to address them correct them fix them and put them right. I think that that is what New Zealanders believe. But I also think something else. I think that it is a fundamental tenet of New Zealanders that they have a belief in fairness and fair play. They believe that every New Zealander should be equal before the law and that policy should be the same irrespective of a person’s sexual orientation religious belief or ethnic origin. That is one area where in our Parliament and with our successive Governments I think we have got New Zealand out of whack with New Zealanders’ basic belief in fair play. 
I also think that we have a problem between two visions of the treaty settlement process. One vision is that we go through and look at historical injustices and with goodwill on both sides we attempt a reconciliation. We look at what has gone before we establish the history and we attempt as best we can to fix it. Having fixed it we put it behind us and move on as one people under one law. 
The alternative vision is that the Treaty of Waitangi process goes on forever and a day and that the process itself is important under a partnership model between the Maori people the indigenous people of New Zealand and everyone else—so that there can be no ultimate settlement and that the Waitangi Tribunal process itself is without end. 
If I were a Government MP speaking to this bill I would be very careful when I considered the gross injustice that has been done to Maori people by denying them the opportunity of their day in court on the foreshore and seabed issue. I never thought I would see a modern Government for short-term political advantage denying a race of people its day in court and so I would be very careful if I were a member of the Government in suggesting that the ACT party has got it wrong on this issue or is somehow trying to foster bad race relations. 
Let me now turn my attention to the bill. We believe that we do no one any favours by pretending we have a big bag of lollies by throwing all the lollies up in the air and by establishing a quasi-judicial process that suggests if people turn up they might be able to grab some sweets. I think Governments have fanned high expectations that somehow at the end of that process there are riches to be had. I do not believe whoever is in power that there are riches to be had at the end of the claims process. 
We do people a disservice when we do not hear claims quickly and fairly and do not deal to them with some briskness. If we do not do that we are not treating them seriously. When someone goes before a court tribunal or judicial authority and we are serious about listening to that person’s concerns and settling them we do not hear those concerns and then think about them for years and years because they are too hard. No instead we apply discipline to ourselves. We know when we do that particularly in areas like this that no party will go away fully satisfied but let us have the courtesy to put a briskness in the process in order to show we are serious. On this side of the House the ACT party rejects the model whereby the process goes on forever and a day. 
Apart from the Labour Government's denial of Maori’s right to be heard in court we think the breaches are historical and should be dealt with as historical. So what we say in this bill is that all claims should be in this year. We can put in what Jill Pettis supports which is property-taking from Maori people in the 21st century by a Labour Government that saw 15000 people unable to get justice in a New Zealand court walk on this Parliament. They could not get justice in a New Zealand court under a Labour Government. We say that all claims should be in this year. 
We then say that we should apply the discipline to ourselves that all claims should be heard in 5 years. Then we should apply the second discipline that all claims should be settled in 10 years. Surely to goodness with the goodwill of the Maori people and with the goodwill of the Government we could do that in 10 years. World wars have been fought and won in less. Or will we say that no we see that process going on forever and a day because we do not have the fortitude to settle? 
Let us have a look at the process. In 2003 under the Labour Government how many reports were delivered from the Waitangi Tribunal? Seven. How many claims as at June 2003 were registered? One thousand and forty-two. Here is a statistic: in the 12 years since 21 September 1992 how many claims have been settled? Seventeen. 
Do members know the thing that bothers me about that? There is not a lot of money at stake. In those 12 years the settlements total something like $700 million. That is not a lot in the context of what the Government spends in a week. Yet we are sitting on the process for years and years and years. And can we seriously say that it is bringing our people together? No it is not. It is dividing us. 
I make a plea here to send this bill to the Justice and Electoral Committee so that we as a Parliament can think about how we can provide justice with some briskness. Or are we saying that it is not all that important or serious so let us just keep kicking the claims to touch and leaving the claimants living in hope that one day their claim will be heard a report will be written and there will be a settlement? I think that as a Parliament and as a people we can do better than that.