SpeechHARETE HIPANGO (National): Taranaki maunga Taranaki whenua Taranaki tangata. Ngāti Maru i roto i tēnei Whare tēnā koutou.[Taranaki mountain Taranaki land Taranaki people. Ngāti Maru inside this House greetings to you all.]It is indeed a privilege to stand to take a call at the third reading of this the Ngāti Maru (Taranaki) Claims Settlement Bill about to pass into law as uri of Whanganui but uri of Whanganui connected also through whakawhanaungatanga and whenua to Ngāti Maru. Tēnā tātou katoa. I share with the House and also New Zealanders I hope who have tuned in to listen to the kōrero today in this House because this is a significant piece of New Zealand history of Māori history of Taranaki Ngāti Maru history. Maru Hāhā. Hāhā te whenua. Hāhā te tangata. Maru of extreme loss and breathlessness. The land is deserted. The people are gone and gasping." I reference that as a lament that had been expressed at the signing of the deed of settlement at Tarata Marae on 27 February 2021. A brief chronology for the benefit of New Zealanders who I hope learn from the mamae from the grievances from the hurt in moving forward to shape and make better our nation of Aotearoa New Zealand. But this bill is specific to shaping and making better moving from the past into the future the uri of Ngāti Maru. The agreement in principle was signed on 20 December 2017; the deed of settlement as I've said at Tarata Marae on 27 February 2021. The first reading of this bill before the House was on 6 January 2021; the second reading 1 March 2022. Here I stand alongside my colleagues in this House alongside in support of Ngāti Maru on 29 March 2022 for the third reading and the passage of this bill into law. As a member of the Māori Affairs Committee sitting alongside members of all political parties in this House we prefer to put politics aside and to make right and to address to redress the grievances of the past to make things right and just. As members of the Māori Affairs Committee we hear and we feel the mamae of those who represent their people—your people Ngāti Maru—who have gone before in speaking to this bill and making submissions to the Māori Affairs Committee for us to turn our minds and for us to turn also our hearts and our heads and our hands to making sure that the shaping of this legislation is correct and is just. The select committee prepared a report for the benefit of Parliament and in that report after listening to the submissions from people of Ngāti Maru shaped in efforts to make better this bill. The proposed amendments are outlined in the report which is made available. One of the amendments that I do particularly recollect is in terms of the relationships that we of Whanganui through Te Awa Tupua the Whanganui River have with Ngāti Maru—the life source and force that blends us together not just our waters not just our whenua but our whakawhanaungatanga our relationships that transcend through generations from the past into the future. I recollect the importance of ensuring that the relationship we have in Whanganui with Ngāti Maru blends in harmony flows in unison. In Whanganui when the Te Awa Tupua bill was before this House we had the human face and factor the representation of the awa our Te Pou Tupua [those that act and speak on behalf of the Whanganui River]. It was important that members of the select committee but also members of Parliament appreciate the importance that this legislation is an embodiment of life forces of our whenua of our wai of our awa and of our people. So that's encapsulated now by amending the relevant part within the bill. I look and time in the House is flowing very quickly but I'm mindful also that the time for our tūpuna—this transcends this transpires over generations over lifetimes. It's taken lifetimes and generations for this bill to come before the House. What's generated from this is to look forward with hope and positivity because there is so much that has transpired with the mamae and today is a time to move forward looking with hope looking with possibilities with probabilities to make a better future. I also recollect before the Māori Affairs Committee the kōrero about the Minister tendering an apology on behalf of the Crown. Aroha mai—my apology for not being able to be present at the mihi whakatau. My colleague Joseph Mooney who is spokesperson for Treaty settlements was able to be there. The apology is so important and the usual procedure is that the apology to the aggrieved the afflicted people of Ngāti Maru ought to have occurred before the passage of this bill into law. We've not been living in usual times with the disruption of COVID and the impact of that in our lives. What I am aware is that Minister Little conveyed to Ngāti Maru that he will tender that apology in person appropriately back at the whenua possibly—I'm not sure—where the deed of settlement was signed at Tarata Marae. I would hope that the invitation would be extended also to other members of the Crown. I'm in that rather privileged but dubious position as being uri of our people with relationships to those of our people who have been aggrieved and afflicted and being now representative of the Crown. The apology: clause 10 is a significant part of this bill that is about to be inscribed and enshrined into law. That apology appropriately is to be tended in person by Minister Little on behalf of the Crown to Ngāti Maru. There are three key parts to this bill as is well known by Ngāti Maru: Maru Mua the historical account the acknowledgment—some 16 of them—and importantly the apology; Maru Pae the redress. The commercial redress of $30 million—a minuscule amount when one reflects on the passage of time and the losses that have occurred. The redress—Maru Pae. The third part is Maru Muri the commercial and financial redress—looking forward to being able to utilise and to make the best out of what has been tendered by way of an apology to realise and to potentialise opportunities possibilities for prosperity moving forward into the future. In closing I share these words these words that were my first words spoken at the first reading these words that were again part of the deed of settlement signing at Tarata Marae: He ata ki runga he ata ki raro he ata ki te whakatūtū he ata ki te whakaritorito he ata whiwhia he ata rāwea he ata tānga—the dawn light appears above and below the dawn light is happening and the dawn sprouts morning is here the morning wraps around the morning has struck. It is a privilege to commend this bill to the House. Tēnā tātou katoa."