Turia Tariana: Rongowhakaata Claims Settlement Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Turia Tariana: Rongowhakaata Claims Settlement Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 18 July 2012. Volume:681;Page:3723. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon TARIANA TURIA (Minister for Whanau Ora)  
on behalf of the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations 
: 
 Tena tatou. I move  
That the Rongowhakaata Claims Settlement Bill be now read a second time 
. We acknowledge today the maunga of Puketapu me Manawaru the awa of Te Arai te Uru me Waipoua the waka of  
Horouta 
 me  
Takitimu 
. From Te Kowhai the southern side of Turanga-nui-a-Kiwa across to its most western point at Ruakituri then northwards to Maungapere and Wharekopae in the east to Kaiti block near Wainui. This is the rohe of Rongowhakaata the w’enua and the home of descendants of Turahiri Moetai Uetupupuke me Rongawhakaata raua ko Ruapani. Their iwi—there is an iwi of over 4700 people who are based in the Turanga/Gisborne region. Rongowhakaata people their history their story is woven into the fabric of the land of Turanga but also the land that we call Aotearoa. At our national museum Te Papa Tongarewa the Rongowhakaata tupuna w’are Te Hau ki Turanga is currently housed—a majestic awe-inspiring meeting house that many thousands of New Zealanders and thousands more of international manuhiri have had the privilege of walking through. 
What is the history to this w’are being so far from home? The story is told in the petition of Rahuruhi Rukopo on 8 July 1867: 
Ko to matou taonga nui ko to matou w’are w’akairo 
Kia maurai huhua koretia e te Kawanatanga 
Kihae matou i w’akaae 
[ 
Our prized possession our valuable carved house 
Has been taken from us by the Government without just cause  
We did not consent to its removal 
]  
This is the symbolic context for which we consider the enormity of the losses that were felt by Rongowhakaata. Their settlement claims bill relates specifically to the Crown’s role in the war in Turanga in the 1860s and the subsequent imprisonment of a number of Rongowhakaata to the Chatham Islands the effective confiscation of their land the operation of the Poverty Bay Commission and the operation and the impact of the Native Land Court. 
 These Crown policies and laws resulted in the economic social and cultural deprivation of the Rongowhakaata people. Seventy-one of the occupants of the Pukeamionga marae were killed by the Crown during this period. There were 71 lives lost in the supposed name of building a nation. It is indeed a wretched history. The Waitangi Tribunal described the Crown’s Treaty breaches in the Turanga region as amongst the worst anywhere in New Zealand. This settlement bill is a time for remorse for regret and for grieving. 
We must not underscore the profound losses engraved through our colonial past as we look to negotiate our new beginnings. Historian Dr Claudia Orange notes that the explanations given at the Treaty signing support the conclusion that though Maori expected the Treaty to initiate a new relationship it would be one in which Maori and Pakeha would share authority. Maori were encouraged to believe that their rangatiratanga would be enhanced and that Maori control over tribal matters would remain. 
As this settlement and the ones after and no doubt after that will remind us the Rongowhakaata settlement acknowledges Crown actions arising from interaction with this iwi whereby the Crown breached the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles. The settlement contains the apology for those occasions when it did through deed or omission breach its duty to Rongowhakaata under the Treaty of Waitangi. These breaches include the unnecessary use of force at Waerenga a Hika and summary executions at Ngatapa the Crown’s detaining of some Rongowhakaata without trial on the Chatham Islands and the failure to protect Rongowhakaata from landlessness. This Treaty settlement provides redress to this iwi for the historical wounds that have been inflicted by the Crown. 
The Crown recognises the traditional historical and spiritual connection of Rongowhakaata with specific places owned by the Crown within Rongowhakaata’s area of interest. This settlement will provide for cultural redress commercial and financial redress and Crown acknowledgments which form the basis of a Crown apology to this iwi. 
Finally I want to end in noting that of particular significance is the vesting of Te Hau ki Turanga in Rongowhakaata. This beautiful w’are Te Hau is one of the oldest surviving meeting houses in Aotearoa and I am glad that this very special taonga will be vested in Rongowhakaata. The nation has a debt of gratitude to this iwi for the use that we have had so freely of your tribal w’are. I look forward to its return to Turanga if that is what the iwi finally decide. 
The Rongowhakaata Claims Settlement Bill was referred to the Maori Affairs Committee on 8 March 2012. The committee reported back to the House on 6 June 2012. The committee recommended that that bill be passed with only minor technical amendments and I wish to acknowledge here the work of my parliamentary colleagues on the Maori Affairs Committee particularly the chair the Hon Tau Henare and to pay my enduring tributes to the Minister the Hon Chris Finlayson and to the House for the expeditious passage of this bill. I hope that the resolution of these historical Treaty claims will help to foster a better future for Rongowhakaata and a more constructive relationship between the Crown and iwi. Na reira tena koutou katoa.