Speech: Calvert - The Taniwha In The Room
act-new-zealand
Sun Mar 13 2011 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)
Speech: Calvert - The Taniwha In The Room
Sunday, 13 March 2011, 12:22 pm
Speech: ACT New Zealand
The Taniwha In The Room
Hilary Calvert MP Speech to ACT Annual Conference; Barrycourt Accommodation and Event Centre, Parnell, Auckland, Sunday, March 13 2011.
One law for all.
When I talk of One Law for All I mean simply this: In a civil and democratic society, all are equal before the law.
We all grew up with this idea.
This concept is as old as democracy. Aristotle wrote extensively about it. The French and the Americans fought revolutions over it.
And our leader Rodney Hide has been fighting for it in Auckland.
The fact that he has needed to defend this principle is surprising and frankly disappointing, bearing in mind that we thought that equality before the law, regardless of ethnicity, was a core National Party principle.
After all the National Party campaigned against Maori seats in our Parliament.
However maybe we should not have been surprised. In the last two years National have embraced co-governance of the Waikato River, signed the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and gone silent on their plan to abolish the Maori seats. They have provided for Maori Authorities to pay 17.5% tax for the 2012 year, compared with the company tax for the rest of New Zealand of 28%.
Worst of all, they have introduced the Marine and Coastal Area Bill.
Sadly these sorts of laws are likely to continue. This is the price National has paid for signing a deal with a party based purely on race.
This price is not just a political one, and not a price only paid by the Government.
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The social cost of these separatist policies is being incurred in part by all of us today. And the cost will continue to be borne by future generations of New Zealanders.
So long as we continue to ignore the taniwha in the room, we will have more race based laws, and the chance of achieving the dream of one law for all will recede ever further. And New Zealanders who are not of Maori descent are seriously troubled by the idea that somehow they will never be as special as some of the earlier immigrants to our country.
When the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill passes – and National is determined it will – access and development rights along our coastline will be based on whether you’re a member of the right iwi. The Resource Management Act will not apply to all equally.
The Bill is fatally flawed and it must be scrapped.
The current legislation is also fatally flawed. The 2004 Foreshore and Seabed Act took the protection of the Courts away from Maori.
This is, to put it bluntly, racist.
If this was a nation where ‘One Law for All’ was practiced, then the Government would restore the right for Maori to have their claims heard by the High Court, based on centuries of common law, as we would do for any other such claims.
Not behind closed doors, as the current Bill threatens. And not by the Government of the day, possibly with a bare majority, ramming it through Parliament as they are doing with the current Bill to appease a Party unashamedly supporting race based legislation from a platform of race based seats.
ACT stands steadfastly against separatism in all its forms. We believe the term ‘positive discrimination’ is an oxymoron.
ACT has the beginnings of a solution to the increasing separatist rules and systems. Rodney Hide has before Parliament the Regulatory Standards Bill.
This will require future legislation to comply with a number of fundamental principles – and when they don’t, the Government must clearly explain why not. ‘Equality before the law’ is one such principle future Bills will be judged by.
Had the Regulatory Standards Bill been passed before the Marine and Coastal Area Bill, the Attorney General would have had to explain to the house why he was proposing a law which breaches this principle so clearly. And the people would have also been in a position to go to court for a declaration that the legislation breaches this principle.
In short if the Regulatory Standards Bill had already been law then, Chris Finlayson would have stood no chance of confusing and befuddling the public over the Marine and Coastal Area Bill.
And equality before the law would be addressed in all future legislation in New Zealand.
Of course, New Zealand already has a very important document that promises One Law for All regardless of ethnicity.
We have The Treaty of Waitangi.
The Treaty often gets maligned. In reality, it is a great foundation on which to build a nation based on strong property rights and equality before the law.
Article Three specifically gives Maori all the rights and privileges of British subjects. This includes the right to own property and the right to protection in the Courts.
There were many breaches of the Treaty by past Governments – and as a party that defends property rights ACT says these must be settled, and in a timely fashion.
We also say, however, that you do not resolve one breach by causing another. The Marine and Coastal Area Bill, co-governance, lower tax rates for Maori Authorities – all are examples of inexplicable special rights for a select few of Maori descent.
ACT is the only party serious about stopping our nation’s trek down the path to separatism.
If we are to succeed in this, we need to get out there this year and get some more MPs.
More MPs will ensure the Regulatory Standards Bill becomes law.
And more MPs will help stop the march toward co-governance of our resources.
Equality in opportunity Government is also an inherent part of equality before the law.
More ACT MPs will give parents the chance for greater choice and opportunity in education for their children.
More ACT MPs will give us a government that takes the axe to low quality spending.
And more ACT MPs will give us a government that sticks to the principle of One Law for All we are one people.
The taniwha must be acknowledged and dealt with if we are ever to respect the principle of one law for all.
He iwi tahi tatou.
We are one people.
Thank you.
ENDS
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