Mahuta Nanaia: Ngaa Rauru Kiitahi Claims Settlement Bill — Second Reading 
Mahuta Nanaia: Ngaa Rauru Kiitahi Claims Settlement Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:627;Page:21792] 
NANAIA MAHUTA (Labour—Tainui) 
: 
 I rise to make a small contribution to the second reading of the Ngaa Rauru Kiitahi Claims Settlement Bill in respect of the work of the Maori Affairs Committee on it. I want to thank officials and also the clerks of the committee who helped to pull together much of the consideration of the committee on this bill. I want to pick up on some of the points that have been raised earlier in the House—firstly with regard to the issue of schedule 12; secondly with regard to translations of settlement bills that come before the select committee; and thirdly in relation to adoption issues. 
To address the last issue first in my time on the Maori Affairs Committee which has not been very long we have dealt with the Ngati Awa Claims Settlement Bill the Ngati Tuwharetoa (Bay of Plenty) Claims Settlement Bill and the Ngaa Rauru Kiitahi Claims Settlement Bill. Each of those times the committee raised concerns around the way in which iwi members who benefit from the treaty settlement are expressed within the context of their treaty settlement. Each time we have heard concerns from various claimant groups that they are not happy with the way in which they have to extend out the net as it creates some confusion and internal issues around the relationship of adoptees and also of whangai. 
In saying that the committee to some extent agrees that that is a matter that should be considered within the wider context of the review of the Adoption Act. However I certainly want to express in this second reading tonight that it is of considerable concern if Office of Treaty Settlements officials are guiding claimant groups along a particular path and are not outlining the range of options they have to be able to express how the Adoption Act applies in legislation. That is the one point I would make in terms of achieving better progress on this particular matter. It is right that claimant groups should have the full array of information in deciding how to express weighting in terms of who benefits from a treaty settlement. So it should be. 
The second issue was in regard to translations within a settlement bill. This is particularly within the context of the role that Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Maori plays. When a bill arrives on the committee table the committee should not have to go through it to check macrons grammatical issues and things like that. However the difficulty we have is that that is the standard process for settlement bills and there needs to be further consideration I believe within the Office of Treaty Settlements and Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Maori as to how they work out that relationship so as to better present claims settlement bills before this House. It is simply not good enough that the select committee has to conduct the mundane task of checking particular grammatical nuances of te reo Maori within the written form. I raise this for the attention of the House because if we want to ensure that we uphold the status of te reo Maori—and it is an official language of this country—we need to pay better attention to the way in which we present bills to the House and to the select committee for consideration and report back so that the integrity of te reo Maori is upheld in its true intent. 
I support comments made prior to me that it is good to be able to express te reo in the dialect of the claimant groups. I think that is important and serves only to show that our language is fully flourishing out there amongst iwi amongst our communities. 
The third and last issue is in relation to schedule 12 and issues brought to the House around statutory acknowledgments. We had this particular concern on another settlement—the Ngati Tuwharetoa (Bay of Plenty) Claims Settlement Bill—and the particular concern is when belief systems lack a connection to a current-day context and I will give some examples. The first lot of statutory acknowledgments was in the Ngai Tahu settlement and then as other claims went through claimants started to look at their own statutory acknowledgments. Where the House could consider models I guess of statutory acknowledgment is where there is a clear relationship between the epistemology of Maori and belief systems and our traditions and histories—where there is a clear pattern to follow as to how the belief systems relate to actual history on the land. That is something that exists amongst all our communities and that is why we have the stories that we do on the land. That is why we have names for areas and things like that. 
I would not presume however to tell any iwi going through this process to have or not to have a statutory acknowledgment. I think it is a very valid way to look at having a redress mechanism of sorts and also to express some cultural redress as a result of the statutory acknowledgment. But I do want to say that again in all the settlements that have preceded this particular one there have been better ways in which to work it through. I would have some concern if we were seeking the agreement of the House to blanket reference to mythological stories without the context clearly relating them to the histories of the people they belong to. Again that was the concern we raised in relation to Ngati Tuwharetoa Bay of Plenty. 
To some extent the legislation upholds the deed so claimants could have the compromise that was recognised in a previous settlement and that is to have the detail of the statutory acknowledgment in the deed with the legislation providing a reference to the deed. That is a way but again I would not presume to impose it on a claimant group if those people believe that they want it expressed in legislation. I just acknowledge that that is a mechanism. 
That is about all I want to say on the bill in making this brief contribution. I look forward to the third reading and I certainly support the report on the bill that has come back from the Maori Affairs Committee to this House. No reira tena koutou katoa.