Parliamentary Debates (Hansard) - New Zealand Parliament

16 May 2009 Local Government (Auckland Council) Bill 3745
tribal homelands outside of Tāmaki-makau-rau will also be on that march, and I have no
doubt that there will be people of many other races there—Asian, Somali, Dalmatian,
Kenyan, Scottish, and South African. I sincerely hope and pray that we will also be
joined by our cousins of the Pacific, the people whom I call the children of Maui,
because we are all related through a common history, a common heritage, and a
common love for the waters of the Pacific that are our backyard.
In the same way that I welcome those from the Labour Party who have been
speaking boldly and positively about a hīkoi that they have come to late in the day and
now speak of in passionate terms of ownership, let me remind them that it will not be a
march for the Labour Party, in the same way that it will not be a march for the Greens or
the Māori Party. Although it has been the Māori Party that has championed the kaupapa
of Māori seats at the table in the debates within this House, we have also acknowledged
from day one that our role is to support the efforts, the plans, the hopes, and the dreams
of the tangata whenua of Tāmaki-makau-rau for genuine recognition of all that they are,
all that they have given, and all that they desire for their children in the beautiful city of
Auckland.
We will march for the rights of those whose land we gave our freedom for, and we
will march on 25 May 2009 not for our political parties, not for union beliefs, and not
for our ethnic differences, but because we truly believe in the Treaty of Waitangi and
the principle of partnership, which challenges us all to accept that Māori are not just
another ethnic group, that Māori are not just another minority, that Māori are not simply
citizens of Aotearoa, but that, in fact, Māori are tangata whenua—people of the land—
that Māori are the first nation people of this land, and that the many hapū of Ngāti
Whātua and Tainui have given lands for the development of Auckand, often to the
detriment of their own future.
I politely remind the House that 31 years ago the State moved in and arrested the
children of Ngāti Whātua on the last remaining land that they could rightfully call their
own. Who on earth would have thought that, in the wash-up, Ngāti Whātua would
choose not recrimination, accusation, and blame, but would actually invite the Auckland
City Council itself to share in the management of Takaparawhau, which remains to this
day a jewel in the crown of the city of Auckland? Tēnā koutou. Kia ora tātou katoa. Yee
ha!
Hon RODNEY HIDE (Minister of Local Government): I raise a point of order,
Mr Speaker. The deputy leader of the Labour Party, the Hon David Cunliffe, indicated
earlier when seeking leave—[Interruption]
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: I will hear what the member—
Hon Trevor Mallard: No, you can’t let him do that!
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: I have not heard what he is going to say. [Interruption]
Sit down! I am standing—
Hon Trevor Mallard: He just stood before—
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: I am standing. The Hon Rodney Hide has a point of
order. What is the point of order?
Hon RODNEY HIDE: I am inviting the Hon David Cunliffe to seek leave again,
because if Parekura Horomia—
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: No, that is not a point of order. Sit down.
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South): I raise a point of order, Mr
Speaker. I now understand that you did not hear the first phrase of the leader of the
ACT Party. He did not describe a member accurately; he did it provocatively and
deliberately. He was in breach of the Standing Orders and the Speakers’ rulings of this
House, and I ask him to withdraw and apologise.