Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill
Rahui Katene, MP for Te Tai Tonga
Wednesday 2 June 2010

I stand to make a brief call to draw attention to the three supplementary order papers in my name to insert a new clause 4B; a new clause 27b; and a new clause 46AB.

At question-time today, my colleague, Te Ururoa Flavell, drew attention to research that Richard Manning carried out in exploring the status of Te Ātiawa and wider Māori history in 24 Port Nicholson Block secondary schools. That is 24 secondary schools in Wellington and the Hutt Valley. That is 24 secondary schools immediately surrounding this House.

These results were related to a survey conducted that same year by the New Zealand History Teachers’ Association.

Through both surveys it was found that Māori content was often side-stepped and this has major educational and political implications for Māori – and indeed for the nation as a whole.

In this Bill today, we have a chance to be part of a better future; a future where tangata whenua are recognised for their distinctive role as Treaty partners; as first nation New Zealanders.

We have a chance to exercise and to honour Treaty of Waitangi obligations to ‘protect’ local tribal knowledge and relationships with mana whenua.

This exercising of obligations would be entirely consistent with the principles of ‘partnership’ and ‘active protection’ (implicit within the Treaty, as accepted by the Crown since the 1989 Principles for Crown Action on the Treaty of Waitangi).

And so in all three amendments – numbers 133, 140 and 141 – we are giving clear instruction and consistent guidance to the Auckland Council, and indeed to this Parliament; that this Act must be interpreted and administered so as to give effect to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.

We must dare to try.

We must dare to explore and understand the Treaty obligations between Maori and the Crown. Doing so will help to provide a strong foundation from which to take this nation forward.

Treaty fear – the anxiety that some politicians confront when trying to understand the government’s capacity to observe its Treaty obligations – is not sufficient reason not to act.

The Treaty is the founding document of this nation and it is the basis for constitutional government. Despite advances in Court rulings, or Waitangi Tribunal findings, some of which I referred to in my korero yesterday; the unique status of Maori as both tangata whenua and Treaty partner remains highly contested; as indeed does the enactment of the Treaty.

In these three amendments, numbers 133, 140 and 141, we have an opportunity to put this right.

We have an opportunity to uphold the nation’s constitutional foundations, current law, and the wish of the people, particularly mana whenua for the benefit of Maori and the wider public.

A Treaty of Waitangi clause will provide a legitimate and substantive framework upon which decisions regarding Auckland will be considered.

It will give legal effect to the commitment to the principles of the Treaty, to maintain Maori confidence in the Auckland area.

And it will also demonstrate Government’s commitment to the partnership between Maori and the Crown.

Finally, Mr Speaker, I draw on the words of Sir Professor Mason Durie in his work, “Te Mana, Te Kawanatanga; the politics of Maori self-determination”. Durie said, and I quote:

“What is missing is a secure understanding, based on both Maori and Crown views, that commits the country to a position on the Treaty so that litigation, protest, alienation and dispossession fade into history”.

Over two decades since those words were written, and we are still waiting for that moment to commit the country to a position on the Treaty which places us in an optimistic frame for our future.

Today we have not one but three opportunities, through these SOPS, to amend the Local Government (Auckland Law Reform) Bill so as to give effect to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.

I hope the House can have the courage and the vision to make this moment happen.

ENDS

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