Harawira Hone: Walking Access Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Harawira Hone: Walking Access Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 23 September 2008. Volume:650;Page:19097. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Tena koe uncle. Kia ora tatou katoa e te Whare. In response to the comments made about cultural insensitivity I would just like to say that we consider those comments about the Maori Party possibly jumping into bed with the party that wants to get rid of the Maori seats to be highly culturally insensitive. In the same way we consider comments made on this side of the Chamber that we might want to jump into bed with the people who just stole our foreshore and seabed to be equally culturally insensitive. We are already there; it is just a case of who wants to jump in with us.  
In respect of this particular Walking Access Bill and the regular comments from the Government side of the House about how pro-Maori those members are and how supportive they are of Maori endeavour and given the number of Maori MPs in the Labour Party including Parekura Horomia Nanaia Mahuta Mita Ririnui Mahara Okeroa Dover Samuels Dave Hereora— 
Chris Tremain 
: Shane Jones. 
HONE HARAWIRA 
: —Shane Jones and others I wonder why in clause 8 “Board of Commission” instead of stating: “The Minister must after consultation with the Minister of Maori Affairs appoint at least 1 member who has a knowledge of tikanga Maori …” the Government did not just put “the Minister must appoint a Maori”. I wonder why the Maori members of the Government have not said boo about this at any time during these proceedings. I wonder why they do not say it and I wonder whether it is one of only two options—they have been told they cannot say it or they believe that it should not be there.  
As a member of the Maori Party I would have thought absolutely that the role of Maori MPs and particularly Maori MPs pretending to represent Maori seats and therefore Maori voters on something as important as the Walking Access Bill which will have a huge impact on Maori land right throughout Aotearoa would be to say that it would not hurt for the Maori members of the Government to call for one of the members of the board of commission to actually be Maori and to accept that this is simply not a position that any Maori member of Parliament should be agreeing to. The fact that the Government Maori members of Parliament can accept this suggests that this Government is not nearly as pro-Maori as it makes out.  
Furthermore given how pro-Treaty this Government has been claiming it is and will be over the next few weeks I wonder why it did not take up the submission from Te Runanga o Ngai Tahu and other Maori people to include a Treaty clause in this bill. I ask that because I understand that it is Labour policy not to include the Treaty clause in non - Treaty-related legislation. Well one could hardly assume that legislation referring to lands owned by Maori right throughout the country is not Treaty-related. Again I am wondering why given how many Maoris there are within the Labour Government including Parekura Horomia Nanaia Mahuta Mita Ririnui Dover Samuels Mahara Okeroa and others the Treaty clause has again been voted down. I ask that because I know that it was not just Ngai Tahu who recommended that that Treaty clause go into this bill; other Maoris recommended also that the Treaty be included in this bill and most of the Maori submitters were concerned that the Treaty was not in the bill.  
Here again was an opportunity for this Government to back up all of its talk about the Treaty by including the Treaty itself or a reference to the Treaty in this legislation. That it has chosen not to do so is in my view the clearest statement of its Treaty intentions. Kia ora.