Whaitiri MekaMEKA WHAITIRI (Labour—Ikaroa-Rāwhiti): Ā e Te Māngai o Te Whare tēnā koe e ngā mema o Te Whare nei tēnā tātou katoa. Ōku rau rangatira mā e kui mā e koro mā e te iwi kua tae mai tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa. Tēnā koutou i runga i te kaupapa whakahirahira he pānui tuarua o tō koutou pire te pire whakataunga i ngā kerēme o Rangitāne o Manawatū nō reira tēnā koutou nau mai hoki mai.[Greetings to you Mr Deputy Speaker and to members of this House so acknowledgments to us all. To my esteemed ones of a hundredfold elderly women and menfolk to the people who have arrived accolades compliments and acknowledgments to all of us. I congratulate you collectively on the matter of significance it is a second reading of your bill the settlement bill for the claims of Rangitāne of Manawatū and so congratulations to you collectively come hither welcome back.]It is indeed my privilege to take a call on the second reading of the Rangitāne o Manawatu Claims Settlement Bill. Before I kick off and talk about the bill can I stand here in all humility on behalf of the people I represent in this House—the iwi I represent in this House; from Te Tai Rāwhiti from Kahungunu from Rangitāne to Te Atiawa ki Awanuiārangi a Te Awakairangi—to offer my disappointment that the people of Rangitāne o Manawatu have to wait to see their bill read a third time. Through no doing of yourselves you have found yourselves subject to yet another delay. So I just want to go on record on behalf of the people I represent of Ikaroa-Rāwhiti and acknowledge your tolerance as this is of no doing of your own. So ngā mihi ki a koutou. In the process of checking and researching this bill—I just want to note that the terms of reference were signed way back on 27 July 1998 with Sir Douglas Graham. The heads of agreement which was a precursor to the agreement in principle was signed on 25 November 1999. Then this claim went into a 10-year hiatus and the deed of settlement was initialled in this Whare in the Matangireia room on 1 May 2015. With our colleague Adrian Rurawhe the member for Te Tai Hauāuru we joined with the whānau to celebrate that initial signing in the Matangireia room. Then the deed of settlement was finally signed on 14 November 2015 and of course we had the first reading on 15 March 2016.At the second reading it is important that we reflect back to the House what transpired through the select committee process and there are two particular comments I want to make in that regard. I am not a member of the Māori Affairs Committee but I do have a passion for Treaty settlements and land retention in terms of staying in the hands of Māori. I do want to acknowledge the work of the very hard-working Māori Affairs Committee ably chaired by the honourable member Nuk Korako and of course all the members in the House who have participated in dealing with this claim. Like all claims each and every one is unique. After reading this claim particularly the historical account I want to just take the opportunity to reflect a couple of passages because they for me summarised just some of the hurt and humiliation that the Rangitāne o Manawatu people suffered. Part 1 clause 8(3) states: In 1864 the Crown purchased approximately 250 000 acres in the Te Ahuaturanga block from Rangitāne o Manawatu for £12000. The Crown urged Rangitāne o Manawatu to sell as much land as possible and succeeded in reducing the size of the reserves to be made from the sale for Rangitāne o Manawatu from 5 000 acres to 2 570 acres. The reserves that were made did not include several areas of great cultural significance. After the Crown declined requests from Rangitāne o Manawatu to change the reserves the iwi repurchased several of their kainga in the block. In 1867 the Crown gave 71 acres of the block to another iwi without consulting Rangitāne o Manawatu. The land is now central Palmerston North and valuable commercial and residential real estate." Here we have yet again a dispossession of more land of the hau kāinga and gifted to another iwi. In all Treaty settlements there are pockets where this has occurred and I just reference that because this is taking land that definitely belonged to Rangitāne o Manawatu and giving it to another iwi. All I can say is that the iwi who has got this land has probably had an injustice done to them. So we have two wrongs that do not equal a right. But I wanted to raise that because it is in the historical account of this bill. So I just wanted to mention that.Then I turn to the apology in the bill. This is again Part 1 clause 10(e) which states: "The Crown deeply regrets its failure to appropriately acknowledge the mana and rangatiratanga of Rangitāne o Manawatu. Through this apology and by this settlement the Crown seeks to atone for its wrongs and begin the process of healing. The Crown looks forward to re-establishing its relationship with Rangitāne o Manawatu based on mutual trust co-operation and respect for the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles." You might ask why I am making reference to that particular clause in the bill. It is because over recent times in this House I have seen legislation passed under urgency by a majority that actually goes completely against that statement—completely against that statement. The Public Works Act is an example. We are currently trying to deal with the Kermadecs which is a Treaty settlement. So when I read statements like this it is incumbent on the Crown to uphold this when it is dealing with other pieces of legislation otherwise it makes clauses like this untrue. If we are going to re-establish "mutual trust co-operation and respect for the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles." then that covers everything we do in this House not just for this particular iwi's Treaty settlement but for all New Zealanders and I think you get my point on that. So like I said earlier I want to turn to the contributions and the work of the hard-working Māori Affairs Committee. There are two submissions—I notice there were nine made but I just want to reference two particularly. One was submitted by Ngāti Apa and the reason why I want to raise this is that many of our people do not see any value in the select committee process. I wanted to reference these two particular submissions because of the way they were received but also the way in which the committee considered them and has in a considered way reported back to the House. So if we as Māori are going to have an impact or influence on how legislation is made then the select committee process—I cannot speak highly enough of it. So the two that I want to highlight are the Ngāti Apa submission—and of course this is about the Ngāti Apa hapū of Ngāti Tauira. The issue here was that the hapū of Ngāti Tauira is currently in the Ngāti Apa settlement and essentially their submission was that Ngāti Tauira was in Ngāti Apa but they are also reflected in this bill here which we are talking about today. What I do notice and when I read the Māori Affairs Committee response to that—and I think it was a very valid response—is that it was around saying that there are no exclusive rights to a hapū. So although it appears in this bill it does not mean that everyone has to come under Rangitāne o Manawatu; likewise with Ngāti Apa. I thought that that was a well-considered response to obviously Ngāti Apa's concerns. The other one was the one put in by the Rangitāne Settlement Negotiations Trust. In its submission it talked about the kind of shared area of interests with Rangitāne o Manawatu and—oh my time is up. Oh my gosh that has been wonderful. I commend this bill to the House. Thank you very much. Aroha mai kia ora tātau e te whānau.[Apologies and my appreciation to us the family.]"