Harawira Hone: Maori Trustee Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Harawira Hone: Maori Trustee Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:654;Page:3035] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 A tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker Barker huri rauna kia ora tatou katoa e te Whare. Hoi ano tautoko tuatahi au i te korero e pa ana ki to tatou kuia te whaea o Hekia. Me ki atu ki a ia kua ngaro atu ki tena tua o te arai. Me te mea ano me mihi au ki tetahi o wa tatou whanau e Parekura mohio ana koe ki te whanau Kingi. Kei roto i a matou i Ngati Kahu. I te mea kua mate tetahi o wa matou tamaiti tamariki o Te Wharekura o Rangi Aniwaniwa i nanahi ra. Takoto mai ana ki roto o Peria. Hoi ano ratou ki a ratou te hunga kua mate tatou ano ki a tatou e nohonoho nei hakoa ko tehea te taha o te Whare tena koutou kia ora tatou katoa. 
[ 
And greetings to you Mr Assistant Speaker Barker and to us all throughout the House. Firstly I also endorse the tributes to our kuia Hekia’s mother by saying that she is lost from view on that side of the divide. I also acknowledge the loss incurred by one of our families. Parekura you might recall the Kingi family who live with us of Ngati Kahu. One of our young children of Te Wharekura o Rangi Aniwaniwa passed away yesterday and lies in state at Peria. Nevertheless the dead remain there with the dead while we the living seated about remain here. Regardless of which side of the House we are located I acknowledge you and all of us. Greetings. 
] 
This week is a very significant week in the history of Aotearoa because it is the 5th birthday of the arrival on the steps of this very Parliament of te hikoi takutai moana—the foreshore and seabed march of 2004—when 40000 Maori gathered in Parliament grounds after marching from Te Rerenga Wairua crossing tribal boundaries gathering strength every day and uniting tribes in a way that had not been seen for decades. It was a week when Maoridom signalled its refusal to be cowed by the threat to steal its foreshore and seabed; when Maoridom finally realised the 70 years of loyalty that it had given blindly and willingly was being thrown back in its face; and when Maori chose to turn their backs on the Labour Party and turn instead to one another for support and to the newly formed Maori Party for the independence that they had craved for generations. The Maori Party now graces this House as the very first independent Maori political party to be seated in the New Zealand House of Representatives. The Maori Party is proud to stand alongside the Hon Dr Pita Sharples who is the first Maori member of Parliament in the history of this country to present a bill to the House as Minister of Maori Affairs representing the only independent Maori political force ever to make it into Parliament. 
This is a historic occasion. For all of these reasons and more I am proud to stand here today and to pledge the Maori Party’s support for the Maori Trustee Amendment Bill. To see how far we have come in such a short time I decided to look through  
Hansard 
 to see what the Maori Party’s other co-leader the Hon Tariana Turia was doing during those traumatic times surrounding the first reading of the Foreshore and Seabed Bill. The debate was led by Michael Cullen Don Brash and Winston Peters followed by Parekura Horomia Jeanette Fitzsimons Metiria Turei and Richard Prebble. I see that the Hon Tariana Turia then sought leave to speak but her request was denied by the ACT Party because she had recently been dumped by Labour for refusing to bow to the dictates of the party hierarchy. The debate continued with Peter Dunne after which Tariana Turia rose again and was denied leave again. So the debate continued with Nanaia Mahuta after which John Tamihere sought leave for Tariana Turia to speak—a call denied for a third time just like in the Bible. 
I tender the thanks of the Maori Party to Mita Ririnui for his gracious and unselfish action—he rose to speak and offered to stand aside so that Tariana Turia could be heard. Tariana’s words rang out with a truth that time itself cannot silence. She said: “What has been taken away is not just tupuna rights which Maori may have been able to establish. What is also under compromise is the right to justice in the hands of the court. We will not sit down and accept a compromise of basic rights a denial of our tikanga a belittling of our status as indigenous peoples … We will not be relegated to second-class citizens in our own land. We are tangata whenua and we are proud of it. It is that pride and determination that will drive us in the next hikoi to the ballot box. We can determine our own future and we will.” If I might add— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I hesitate to raise it because clearly this is a well-prepared speech that the member has worked on for some time. The problem I have is that it does not yet appear to address the third reading of this bill. I think we are getting a very interesting treatise on Maori representation in New Zealand— 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: And rights. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: —and rights—and the history of members in this Parliament on other issues and other bills. I think this phase of the bill is meant to bring together the debates on this legislation but it is meant to focus on the legislation before the House or at least give fairly regular passing reference to it. We have not had that yet. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Rick Barker) 
: Speaker’s rulings 116/7 and 117/3 advise that members should “confine themselves to the general principles of the bill as it emerged from the committee.” and I invite the member to address the bill in its general principles. The member may of course draw on other elements to expand on the points that he is making. 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: Tena koe. Tena tatou ano. In reference to the Maori Trustee Amendment Bill I say that I have gone back over this time to remind us all of the massive changes to this Parliament over those 5 short years and to remind us that today is indeed a day when Maori can all be proud of the standing of the independent Maori voice in Parliament that is the Maori Party. 
The Maori Trustee Amendment Bill affects Maori in many ways. It will have an immediate impact on those who have land administered by the Maori Trustee it delivers on a positive future for landowners while respecting the legacy of those who have gone before and it realises a deeply held desire by Maori people generally and by the Maori Party in particular to have the Maori Trustee become a stand-alone body. Throughout the debate on this bill many speakers have referred to the influence of paternalistic bureaucracy a concern raised time and time again by the beneficial owners about the independence of the Maori Trustee from the Crown. We congratulate the Minister on recognising the desire of those beneficial owners of Maori land to be consulted on how the Maori Trustee can best meet their needs and we recognise in this bill the foundation for ensuring that the Maori Trustee can meet its obligations to those beneficial owners. 
This bill will enable the transfer of staff from the existing structure to the new stand-alone entity so that no time is lost in retraining and it also puts a greater focus on transparency so that beneficial owners of Maori land can have a greater understanding of exactly how the Maori Trustee meets its responsibilities. The bill also puts to rest a rather clumsy and unseemly attempt by the previous Government to try to justify the taking of $35 million which should rightfully go back to the beneficial owners and giving it to another organisation whose trustees would have been chosen by the Minister of Maori Affairs himself. This bill provides for the appointment of a deputy Maori Trustee to ensure the new organisation keeps functioning effectively in the absence of the trustee and it provides sound principles on how the new stand-alone Maori Trustee organisation will be founded and run. 
The Maori Party supports the passing of the Maori Trustee Amendment Bill. We have every confidence that the Minister of Maori Affairs will ensure appropriate consultation in the appointment of the Maori Trustee and we extend our best wishes to the group for a successful future. In closing let me not let this moment pass without offering my congratulations to the Hon Dr Pita Sharples and the Hon Tariana Turia for the leadership they have provided to the Maori Party and indeed the Maori people as we again pay tribute to the Maori Trustee Amendment Bill—the very first bill introduced by a Minister of Maori Affairs from a party chosen by representative of and accountable to the Maori people themselves. This is a huge moment in our history as a nation. Five years ago this week the Hon Tariana Turia said: “We can determine our own future and we will.” Today we add the final words to that prophecy: “Indeed we are.” Kia ora tatou. 
Bill read a third time.