Tirikatene RinoRINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): Kororia hareruia ki a Ihowa o ngā mano matua tama wairua tapu me ngā anahera pono me te māngai anō hei tautoko mai āia nei ake nei āe. Te maunga Tongariro ka tārehu e mihi ana ki te rangi e mihi ana ki te whenua e mihi ana ki ngā tāngata. Tū winiwini tū wanawana kia puta ki te whai ao ki te ao mārama. Whakataka te hau ki te uru whakataka te hau ki te tonga. Kia mākinakina ki uta kia mātaratara ki tai. Kia hī ake ana te atākura he tio he huka he hauhu. A tihewa mauri ora!Ngāti Tūwharetoa tēnā koutou. Nau mai whakatau mai ki Te Whare Pāremata e takatū nei. Te whare o Te Heuheu te ariki e Tumu tēnā koe. Ngā hapū maha tēnā koutou. Nō koutou tēnei rā he rā nui he rā whakahirahira. Kei te tū ahau ki te tū tautoko ki te rīti o tēnei pire. Āe he rā nui he rā whakahirahira. He mihi atu ki a rātau kua whetūrangitia nā rātau i hāpai nei ngā mahi i tēnei rā te whakatutuki i a rātau ngā wawata i a rātau. Āpiti hono tātai hono rātau te hunga mate ki a rātou. Āpiti hono tātai hono tātau te hunga ora ki a tātau tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātau katoa. [Glory honour and hallelujah to Jehovah lord of the many hosts the father the son sacred spirit the devout angels and the mouthpiece as my support now and forever yes indeed. Tongariro mountain is covered by cloud; greetings to the sky greetings to the land and greetings to the people. Stand in awe and fear and move from the world of darkness into the world of light. Cease the winds from the west cease the winds from the south. It will be icy cold inland and icy cold on the shore. Let the red-tipped dawn come with a sharpened air. A touch of frost a promise of a glorious day. Alas it is life!Greetings Tūwharetoa. Welcome to Parliament and those assembled here. To the house of Te Heuheu the paramount chief Tumu I greet you. And the many hapū I greet you all. This is your day a significant day. I stand here in support of the reading of this bill. Yes it is a great day a significant day. I acknowledge those that have departed those who carried the mantle and that is why we are here today to achieve their aspirations. The lines are joined the dead have been connected. The lines are joined we the living have been connected greetings greetings greetings to you all.]I am very proud and humbled to be able to speak at the first reading of the Ngāti Tūwharetoa Claims Settlement Bill. I too would like to add my warm welcome to all of Ngāti Tūwharetoa and in particular Te Ariki Tumu who have travelled all this way for this historic occasion. All first readings of claims settlement bills are very historic occasions and it certainly is a great honour to be able to speak and pay acknowledgment to you—to our manuhiri tūārangi—and also to address the details that are embodied in this bill which so much work has gone into. I would like to acknowledge the hapū forum for all of the work that they've done that has led up to this point. We are just one step in the process but this is a very important step that we are doing today.I'd like to acknowledge the Hon Christopher Finlayson who I know was intimately involved in this settlement and all the work that he achieved under the 51st Parliament and prior with Ngāti Tūwharetoa. Likewise I'd like to acknowledge the Hon Andrew Little who has now taken over the baton and is leading the work in this very area of completing these Treaty settlements but also moving forward all of the Crown - iwi Māori relationships that we have across Aotearoa.This is a very significant bill. As has been mentioned Ngāti Tūwharetoa is a large iwi the fifth-largest iwi in Aotearoa. As I like to mention in my contributions on these historic occasions to understand Māori history is to understand whakapapa. All of those histories are intertwined and embodied in these settlements. In particular I always like to reflect on the historical account and the acknowledgments and the apology that the Crown has set out in this piece of legislation. The same is true—we are canvassing a lot of history a lot of mamae that has been inflicted upon generations of the hapū the iwi of Ngāti Tūwharetoa. It goes right back to pre-1860 days and the desire by the new settler Governments back in those days to devour lands and resources in Aotearoa and the conflicts that broke out and the hard decisions that had to be made by hapū and iwi and chiefs who were in many cases drawn into conflicts and had to make hard decisions for their people. Those decisions were no doubt fallen foul on the chiefs of Ngāti Tūwharetoa. So many of the names that come up in these settlements we have heard in many other settlements. The battles that take place and the loss of the chiefs in particular at Ōrākau at Ōmarunui at Te Pōrere chiefs like Te Rangi Tāhau and Maniapoto and the loss that has been inflicted upon the hapū and the descendants of those great chiefs—it cannot be overstated how deep that runs. So I am pleased that we are able to acknowledge in these bills the historical account of the loss. And it didn't stop in the 1860s. It went on and on. The skulduggery that the Crown got up to in its acquisition of land and resources—the decisions that were made to the detriment of Ngāti Tūwharetoa—are all spelt out in the bill. I too would like to acknowledge—as I've said to understand our history is to understand Māori whakapapa. To have Te Ariki Tumu te Heuheu here embodies all what Ngāti Tūwharetoa is—the descent from their ariki—and to have him here to grace this occasion is truly overwhelming because I know how significant this occasion is to Ngāti Tūwharetoa. So Ngāti Tūwharetoa has been through a lot. I've only just gone through the 1860s. I didn't even get to their great tūpuna that were swept aside and cast over to the Chatham Islands that joined many others. There were no Māori rebels in those days; they were Māori patriots and there are many great stories that will be told about those great patriots that ended up in places like the Chatham Islands.But to return to this bill I think what sums this bill up best for me is the spirit of gratitude that we must have for Ngāti Tūwharetoa in their generosity—the generosity that they have bestowed on Aotearoa our nation through the development of resources: hydroelectric schemes geothermal forestry national parks. So much has been undertaken in their tribal ancestral lands to the benefit of our country but alas to the detriment of Ngāti Tūwharetoa. This bill and this settlement are a means by which we can acknowledge that offer some means of consideration for that but it goes nowhere to even recovering one little splinter of the loss that has been inflicted on this great iwi. But alas we are here and this is a great achievement for Ngāti Tūwharetoa. So just in concluding I am looking forward to working as chair of the Māori Affairs Committee to examine closely this bill to work closely with my colleagues and to hear submitters on this very important bill. I commend this bill to the House. Kia ora tātou.