Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) - New Zealand Parliament

16 May 2009 Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill 3743
requirements for local authorities … to facilitate participation by Maori in local
authority decision-making processes.”
But this Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill will throw out that promise.
This bill will close off for ever any possible avenue for Māori participation in local
government. It will slam the door on a rich resource of strategies and solutions to invest
in full participation of Māori in local government in Auckland, and will deny the
possibilities of partnership in favour of privatisation, user-pays, and the denial of
participation by the citizens of Auckland. This bill may be about the organisation of
cost-effective services and the restructuring of representation, but there can be no
argument whatsoever for the denial of basic democracy to a third of the population of
this country, and the refusal to honour the world’s greatest Polynesian city by giving
three seats to people who have been giving land to the settlement of Auckland for more
than 200 years.
Although I do not like having to stand alongside the Labour Party, which in
Government stole our foreshore and seabed, cancelled grants for Māori students, gave
money back to the Government every year as if we did not need it, and refused to sign
the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, I recognise an even older maxim,
which says that the enemy of my enemy is my friend—at least, for now. Just a few
hours ago, I was stinging in my attack on Labour, saying that if its proposal for Pacific
and Asian seats on the Auckland Council were genuinely about representation, then
where were the seats for the Somali, the Kenyan, the Dalmatian, the South African, or
the Scot. I said that although I respected much of what Labour had to say, I felt that its
Pacific-Asian representation proposal was nothing but a naked grab for the votes of the
large Pacific and Asian populations in Auckland. And I added that although I had the
greatest respect for my Pacific cousins, and although I respected the right of Asians to
be heard, I could never accept the betrayal by Labour’s Māori MPs of the primary right
of Māori to be on the Auckland Council as mana whenua, as tangata whenua, and as
Māori.
Hon Darren Hughes: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. The member is well
aware, because I briefed him on it, that the Labour Party put down amendments to do
exactly what he is now saying, and they were ruled out of order—
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: That is a debating point; that is not a point of order.
Hon Trevor Mallard: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. Can you tell me whether
a member is allowed to deliberately mislead the House, after being warned like that?
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: We have just had a number of hours of debate, and the
member should know what has actually been voted on and passed. I ask the member to
take consideration of the comments he is making.
Hon Rodney Hide: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. It is not for you to tell a
member what he may or may not say in a third reading speech. It is also not for
someone who is feeling sensitive to stand up and accuse a member of deliberating
misleading the House, and to have your support in that. You should be telling Mr
Mallard that he cannot make that accusation—
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: We are nearing the end of the debate. We cannot say that
a member is lying. Those are debating points. We know that very well.
Hon Clayton Cosgrove: We know it’s fact, though.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: I am on my feet. Members cannot say that someone is
lying. So let us continue, and I would ask Hone Harawira to complete his speech. The
member has 5 minutes.
HONE HARAWIRA: I said at that time that I was outraged by the position taken by
Labour’s Māori MPs in allowing the status of Māori to be downgraded to that of other
ethnic groups, for we are, and always will be, the first people of this great land of