Harawira Hone: Offices of Parliament—Address to Governor-General 
Harawira Hone: Offices of Parliament—Address to Governor-General 
[Volume:638;Page:8773] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Thank you Madam Speaker. Thank you Mr Hughes. Kia ora tatou katoa. The Maori Party is very interested in the Officers of Parliament Committee. This is not just because it is a committee meeting that we have not been invited to attend. We have looked over the operations of the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General the Office of the Ombudsmen and the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment to see whether they can carry out their duties independently of political interests. Of course they have wide-ranging powers of investigation independent of the Government of the day and report to Parliament through the Speaker of the House rather than through a Minister of the Government.  
Indeed this is the model we have been looking at for the role of Treaty Commissioner—someone independent of Government charged with protecting and promoting the rights of the Treaty as the very foundation of our nation to honour the vision of those who signed the Treaty to promote the Treaty’s commitment to partnership to raise awareness and understanding of the Treaty to review any decision made in respect of the Treaty by the Government to consider new ideas and new responsibilities in the proper application of the Treaty in legislation and to give value to the Treaty as our nation’s most important constitutional manuscript independently of the meanderings of fickle Governments.  
It was with those thoughts uppermost in mind that we noted some interesting points in the Budget report before the House. In Vote Audit the biggie of course was a massive increase of $18 million for audit and assurance services—an increase that even the committee called a “significant variance”. Apparently the money is so that the Audit Office “can forecast audit fees more accurately”. Not being on the committee makes it a bit hard to understand what that means but if the Audit Office is planning on working with Treasury to “develop an appropriate level of disclosure” then might I suggest that some basic disclosure of what exactly it wants another $18 million for might be a pretty good place to start.  
The amount of $18 million is a heck of a lot of money particularly given that the Maori Party has just been told that $1.5 million is too much to spend on Treaty education and cultural competency lessons for immigration advisers. In terms of both Ombudsmen when the proposal to appoint an additional Ombudsman came before the House last year the Maori Party supported it because the Ombudsmen’s office gets up to 6000 complaints a year and Maori see the independence of this office as helpful in holding boards of trustees social service agencies prisons the Department of Child Youth and Family Services and heaps of other Government agencies to account as well.  
In fact Ngati Kahungunu academic Moana Jackson has even suggested that the Ombudsmen might also be a good start for Maori dealings with the police. I note that in the wake of the report of the Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct both Ron Mark and Nandor Tanczos also spoke in favour of an independent Police Complaints Authority—a position well overdue.  
In respect of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment the Maori Party is keen to see the office building on the development of educators of progress towards sustainable development factoring in the social and environmental costs and benefits of growth—an area we have long supported to help provide a measure of comprehensive sustainable and inclusive advancement.  
One recent example of course is the landfill at Hokio Beach. On the one hand the Horowhenua District Council says that it is happy to take waste from other regions as a means of generating revenue and on the other hand we have a long process of dissatisfaction about the landfill site from both Muaupoko and NgatiPareraukawa because of its proximity to the Ngatokowaru Marae and other wahi tapu in the area the impact caused by building a landfill on a highly porous base such as sand the refusal to recognise the iwi kaitiakitanga and the pollution already being caused by sewage discharge into local streams affecting the marine environment and killing off local tuna stocks. The Resource Management Act requirements were undermined consultation was flawed alternative sites were never investigated and there is major dissatisfaction from local iwi local residents environmentalists and conservationists.  
Another current example is in Cable Bay in the far north where a developer wants to build an overbridge down on to a public beach rather than use a footpath like everybody else. The developer already has a very poor public record in other areas in Tai Tokerau yet the council seems happy to continue to deal with him. As in Horowhenua major concerns have also been raised about the lack of consultation and non-notifiable consent procedures being used in the face of petitions from locals opposing the development. Opposition to the overbridge is huge from local residents conservationists and local hapu and iwi as well. In fact local support for the overbridge is almost zero yet still the council continues to support the proposal.  
These are exactly the kinds of issues we would want the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment to give priority to but given that the office received only a one-off payment of $50000 for sustainable development projects we doubt that it can do much to help. Because of that we wonder whether the Government is serious about supporting the concept of genuine progress and helping Parliament to understand how to achieve environmental sustainability if it will not back the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment to do her job effectively.  
Finally we support the independent roles of these three offices of Parliament to be guardians advocates auditors educators and advisers to Parliament and the people. In that light we support the motion. Kia ora. 
Motion agreed to and Address agreed to.