Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) - New Zealand Parliament

3744 Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill 16 May 2009
Aotearoa. I called at that time on all those Labour Māori MPs to speak up for Māori, to
fight for Māori, and to be Māori—
Hon Parekura Horomia: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. This member knows
that is not true. He continues a litany of mistruths, and he knows exactly what he is
doing.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: I have already ruled on this, and I ask the member to
continue. These are debating points.
HONE HARAWIRA: I called on the Labour Māori MPs to fight for seats on the
Auckland Council for mana whenua first, for Māori second, and for anybody else after
that, or to admit their failings, to recognise their duplicity, to confess their complicity,
and to resign their seats forthwith. And I said that their mana, for what it was worth, the
mana of their people, and, indeed, the mana of their tupuna deserve nothing less.
But tonight, for all my criticism of the Labour Party for its watering down of the
stand on Māori representation, let me say that I am grateful for the sterling efforts of
those from the Labour Party and the Green Party in helping to highlight the naked and
rapacious grab for power by those who would seek to commercialise services that
people in places like South Auckland have taken for granted. Services such as free
libraries and free swimming pools will be turned into user-pays environments, which
will deny tens of thousands of Māori and Pacific people access to educational and
recreational services, and further consign them to an underclass that grows daily as we
speak, as we plunge deeper and deeper into the greatest recession any of us have ever
known.
And I am grateful to those in Labour and the Greens—
Hon David Cunliffe: In no way do I take offence at the member’s comments, even
though he is not, in fact, representing our position correctly, but I seek the leave of the
House to table a press statement by my colleague Parekura Horomia that clearly sets out
the fact that Labour’s policy is—
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: These are not points of order. They are debating points.
Hon David Cunliffe: I sought leave.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Leave is sought to table—what is it?
Hon David Cunliffe: I sought leave to table a press release by our Māori affairs
spokesperson.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Leave is sought to table a press release. Is there any
objection to that course of action? There is objection.
HONE HARAWIRA: And I am grateful to those in Labour and the Greens for
standing alongside the Māori Party in challenging the insidious proposal to deny every
Aucklander the right to equitably participate in the wider council elections by ensuring
that only those with the resources, the profile, the money, and the capacity to pay for a
million-dollar campaign need even contemplate applying, once again consigning the
powerless, the dispossessed, and the under-resourced to respond in the time-honoured
fashion of rejection of a leadership that bears no relationship whatsoever to their own
lives of struggle, and to react in ways that none of us really want to see.
I remind all those in National to beware of bills that will still be alive when the next
election comes around. Just like the Electoral Finance Act came back to haunt the
Labour Government right through the election campaign and eventually materialised to
bite Labour on the backside in the election of 2008, so too will the “Waterview
Criminal Bypass Bill” and this “Auckland Denial of Democracy Bill” still be open and
festering sores in the run-up to the election campaign of 2011, and National will be
rightfully blamed and held accountable for them.
In less than 10 days’ time, Māori people from all over Auckland will be marching for
the right of Māori representation—mana whenua and taura here. Māori from their many