Little AndrewHERETAUNGA TAMATEA CLAIMS SETTLEMENT BILLThird ReadingHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations): I move That the Heretaunga Tamatea Claims Settlement Bill be now read a third time.E Te Kaiwhakarite o Te Whare tēnā koe e ngā hoa mema tēnā koutou tēnā koutou Tākitimu waka e ngā uri o Heretaunga Tamatea rau rangatira mā. Tēnei taku mihi atu ki a koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa. [Thank you Mr Speaker greetings to my parliamentary colleagues greetings to Tākitimu waka descendants of Heretaunga Tamatea and distinguished guests. I bid you a warm welcome tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.]I turn first to express my warm greetings to the people of Heretaunga Tamatea. Thank you to those of you who have travelled from your rohe and from other parts of the motu to be here today to support the third reading. I welcome you. This is a very significant day for Heretaunga Tamatea and the Crown and I am pleased that so many people are here to witness it. It is a privilege for me to stand in this House today in the final stages of our settlement process and to commend this bill to my colleagues.This reading marks the final moments in the long journey towards settlement for Heretaunga Tamatea. I'd like to pay special respect to the Heretaunga Tamatea negotiators especially Liz Munroe David Tīpene Leach Peter Paku and Brian Morris. There can be few heavier responsibilities than negotiating a settlement that seeks to address historical grievances that your people have borne for generations yet you have met that responsibility with integrity determination and considerable grace. At all times you have been guided not only by the wishes and aspirations of your people but by the principles of cooperation good faith and trust that the Treaty of Waitangi embodies.I also recognise that your hard work is but a continuation of the efforts of your ancestors who have since at least the 1850s pursued justice for Crown failings that have unfortunately characterised our relationship almost from the beginning. While the Crown deeply regrets that it has taken so long to address your historical grievances in an appropriate way we join with you today in remembering and honouring the many Heretaunga Tamatea people who have struggled for justice. Today is the culmination of those efforts.I also acknowledge the Crown officials who have also worked very hard to achieve this settlement and of course naturally I acknowledge the mahi and the stewardship of my predecessor Chris Finlayson who did so much to bring so many Treaty settlements to a just conclusion including this one.It's important that we acknowledge the troubled history that makes this settlement necessary. From the time of their first interactions with European settlers in the early 1840s the people of Heretaunga Tamatea were keen to embrace the opportunities that the new arrivals brought. By the end of the decade the people of Heretaunga Tamatea were growing and trading pork flax maize and other agricultural produce with Europeans and were taking advantage of new employment opportunities particularly in the whaling industry. Initially Māori in the area chose to lease land to settlers so they could encourage economic development without losing ownership of the land but in the late 1840s some expressed a willingness to sell some land to the Crown to further encourage settlement.Initially the first Crown purchase was a model for how the Crown should have conducted its land purchases. For almost a year Crown officials met with local chiefs discussed boundaries and negotiated prices. A broad consensus was reached. However the night before the Waipukurau deed was signed things began to go wrong. In a private meeting the chief Crown purchase agent told a prominent local chief that he would only pay the agreed price if more than 20000 more acres were added to the purchase. The owners of that land were not consulted and six weeks later the deed map was redrawn permanently depriving the owners of the land they had occupied for centuries.Unfortunately this established a pattern that characterised Crown purchasing for the next 10 years. Crown agents bought land without consulting all the owners and signed deeds for huge areas of Hawke's Bay and Wellington sometimes with just a single Māori signatory. Rangatira in Heretaunga Tamatea increasingly opposed further sales only for Crown agents to note that the growing tensions between chiefs were leading to further sales. By 1857 just six years after the first Crown purchase in Heretaunga Tamatea about half of all the land in the rohe was gone. At the end of that year tensions over Crown sales erupted into armed conflict between hapū resulting in seven deaths and a number of injuries. In the wake of this conflict the people of Heretaunga Tamatea made a commitment to political rather than armed opposition. From that time Heretaunga Tamatea leaders were prominent in a number of local and nationwide movements that sought to halt further land loss and retain a measure of political autonomy including Te Whata a Te Herunga the Rūnanga the Komiti or Repudiation movement and Kotahitanga which led to the first Pāremata or Māori Parliament sitting at Waipatu near modern Hastings in 1892.These movements illustrate Heretaunga Tamatea's longstanding commitment as Treaty partners and their dedication to peaceful political organisation. However these efforts were undercut by the Crown's introduction of native land laws which individualised landownership and led to further sales. By 1930 the people of Heretaunga Tamatea were a tangata without a w'enua. In the span of a single lifetime your people had become landless marginalised and impoverished. Between 1851 and 1854 the Crown purchased 7200 acres of Aorangi lands; an unreasonably small amount of compensation was provided for this in 1950 almost a century later. This has since been addressed but has caused continuous distress for Aorangi. I acknowledge the Aorangi Māori Trust Board for agreeing to have their claims settled as part of Heretaunga Tamatea.It's impossible to overstate the devastating impact Crown purchasing practice had on the economic social cultural and spiritual condition of the hapū of Heretaunga Tamatea. However it is possible to begin to understand how it happened and I encourage every New Zealander to read the historical account that is included in the Heretaunga Tamatea deed of settlement which sets out this history in more detail. It is a sobering document but like all other historical accounts it has an important role to play in helping us all to better understand this country's past and to understand its present. The bill we are voting on today also includes the Crown's formal acknowledgements of its historical Treaty breaches and its apology to the people of Heretaunga Tamatea past and present.The path to this settlement has been over eight years. In 2011 He Toa Takitini gained the mandate to represent Heretaunga Tamatea in the settlement process and the terms of negotiation were signed. The agreement in principle was signed in 2014 and the deed of settlement was signed in September 2015 at Te Aute College. To date this settlement is the fifth-largest in New Zealand's history. While the settlement is substantial I acknowledge that no redress can ever fully compensate the people of Heretaunga Tamatea for what has been lost and for what they have suffered. However the settlement given effect to by this bill will provide Heretaunga Tamatea with a powerful platform for future growth: $100 million in financial and commercial redress will help Heretaunga Tamatea to again become key participants in the Hawke's Bay region's economy and a further $5 million will support the long-term sustainability of Te Aute College.The Heretaunga Tamatea Settlement Trust has proposed that $1.1 million be distributed to each of the 23 marae in the Heretaunga Tamatea rohe which will provide immediate benefit to marae and hapū around the region. This illustrates the dedication of Heretaunga Tamatea to sustainable development and collaborative decision-making across their whole community. The settlement package includes five significant site vestings to reconnect Heretaunga Tamatea with lands of cultural significance. Additionally there was the gift and then the gift-back to the people of New Zealand of Cape Kidnappers Gannet Reserve and Cape Kidnappers nature reserve. These gift-backs at Cape Kidnappers provide an insight to the mana of Heretaunga Tamatea and the spirit of the negotiations throughout their settlement process.Today is a day of new beginnings in many respects and today signifies an important moment—an historic moment—for Heretaunga Tamatea and the Crown. We draw on our history; we reconcile ourselves to it. Through this we make peace and we gain strength. Today we take the final step toward a new beginning a new relationship built on mutual respect trust cooperation and partnership. I wish Heretaunga Tamatea and the Heretaunga Tamatea Settlement Trust all the best as you succeed in continuing this process. I commend this bill to the House.