Rurawhe AdrianRt Hon ADRIAN RURAWHE (Labour): Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare. Otirā e tika ana kia tuku mihi atu ki ngā whānau me ngā hapū katoa o Te Whakatōhea. Ki a Ngāti Rua Ngāi Tamahaua Ngāti Patumoana Ngāti Ngāhere Ngāti Ira me Te Ūpokorehe. Ānei mātou o te roopu Reipa e tuku mihi atu nei ki a koutou tēnā koutou mō ō koutou kaha kia mahia ēnei mahi. Nōreira e tika ana kia tuku mihi atu ki a koutou. Kia whakapiri hoki āku mihi ki te mihi o te Minita ki a rātou mā kua hinga mai nā mai i te tīmatanga o tēnei kereme tae noa mai ki tēnei wā. Nōreira e ngā mate maha hoki wairua atu ki a rātou te tini me te mano kia rātou katoa; tēnei te mihi ake e moe. Ā kāti mō tēnā.[Thank you Madam Speaker. It is only right that I acknowledge the families and all the people of Whakatōhea. To Ngāti Rua to Ngāi Tamahaua Ngāti Patumoana Ngāti Ngāhere Ngāti Ira and Te Ūpokorehe this is us Labour Party acknowledging you all. Thank you for your strength to have endured this. And so it is correct to acknowledge you all and to also support the acknowledgements done by the Minister to our loved ones who passed during the inception of this claim right up to present time. And so all our loved ones farewell to the multitudes there waiting for you; this is my acknowledgement rest well. And so furthermore.]I had the honour and privilege of being on the Māori Affairs Committee that considered this bill. We were fortunate enough to travel to Ōpōtiki and to be hosted by Te Whakatōhea and to hear the submissions on this bill. I want to acknowledge all 40 that made submissions orally and to everyone that did put in submissions. I think it'd be fair to say that the committee spent a lot of time considering what we heard and we heard the Minister outline some of that.Can I reflect for a moment on our visit to Ōpōtiki. I had the honour and privilege of responding to the mihi and in my response I made it very clear about what the role of the Māori Affairs Committee was in considering this legislation. We were as a committee very clear about what our role was and also very clear about what it wasn't. And I raise that issue because it would seem to me that some of the submitters—I'll be kind and say may have been misled" as to what the role of the committee was. That was very clear in the submissions.I say to those people who wrongly believe that the Māori Affairs Committee had far more power and authority than we actually do to make changes to a deed of settlement which is a legally binding document between the Crown and Whakatōheaut what we did do was listen very carefully to what they had to say. s the Minister stated on balance we made the decision that it was in the best interest of all of Whakatōhea not to make any changes. I want to acknowledge the negotiators the pre-settlement team but in particular I actually want to acknowledge Whakatōhea Māori Trust Board because over the last 70 80 years maybe they've had the responsibility of growing the iwi asset and I have to say I believe they've done an incredibly good job.That I think is borne out by—because of something that happened at my home wasn't able to stay for the committee's tour of the rohe. But I've heard from colleagues who were very impressed—I've read for myself I can see that. I also attended the Ahuwhenua awards last Friday and I could see that demonstrated as well that the Whakatōhea Māori Trust Board has done an amazing job.This piece of legislation will disestablish the Whakatōhea Māori Trust and Te Tāwharau o Te Whakatōhea will take over that role. They've got huge shoes to fill and I think it's important that this House recognises the importance of the work that the Māori Trust Board has done and I certainly do that now.I'm not going to go too much into the settlement detail as outlined by the Minister. I do just want to touch on some of the cultural redress. I think from my reading of it—and I've read many many deeds of settlement—this one has a particularly strong cultural redress throughout the document with the transfer of sites the statutory acknowledgments deeds of recognition and protocols and other mechanisms which I believe will give Whakatōhea the opportunity to really express its mana over its whenua.o I congratulate Jason and Maui and the whole team that had the tenacity to get to this day where we have its second reading in this House. I look forward to the third reading. I'm not going to say any more except I'm going to mihi to colleagues on the Māori Affairs Committee and once again to ngā whānau me ngā hapū o Te Whakatōhea. Nōreira huri rauna tēnā rā tātou katoa. [the families and the people of Te Whakatōhea. And so everyone present today thank you all.]"