Kuriger BarbaraBARBARA KURIGER (National—Taranaki - King Country): Thank you Mr Speaker. It is a pleasure to stand here and it is a shame that COVID restrictions have limited Ngāti Maru from travelling to Wellington because one of the special things I always find when we do Treaty settlement bills is often we would have members of Ngāti Maru or whoever we're speaking to up in the gallery so that we can actually have them being much more part of what we're doing than they currently are. I too want to reiterate as others have said that I hope that by the time we get to the third reading we can be in the state around the COVID regulations that we can have a room full of people because it's never as good otherwise and it's been a struggle for Ngāti Maru all the way through. In terms of the deed of settlement as Minister Little mentioned before it was a beautiful sunny day and we were all out in a little place called Tarata which is in inland Taranaki where the deed of settlement was due to be signed. There had been over 650 people who had been invited to that event and because of the COVID situation at that time which was nearly a year ago now it was attended by probably only about 30 or 40 people I'd say. It was really only the people who had been doing the negotiation the Minister and a few of us from Parliament and I did feel for Ngāti Maru at that time because they'd been in the process of putting up a new marae and we couldn't use it to its full extent. It was almost finished and I look forward to the day as Minister Little said when he can go back there and give the full apology which wasn't able to be given on that day. So it has been a hard row to hoe but it's a pleasure standing here and speaking on the second reading and we're looking forward to progressing this in the hope that we can all be together when we get to that final stretch and have the third reading and have a celebration together. Because of the inland location of Ngāti Maru they had limited contact with Europeans during the 1840s and the 1850s. They were not involved in the land dealings which led to the war in Taranaki in 1860 and were not directly involved in the subsequent fighting. Their involvement was limited to providing refuge to Wiremu Kingi Te Rangitāke in accordance with the requirements of whanaungatanga and then it all changed. When the Crown confiscated huge tracts of Taranaki to punish so-called rebels in 1865 approximately half of the traditional lands of Ngāti Maru were included. Many of their main kāinga urupā and wāhi tapu were taken and some have never been returned. In the early 1870s the Crown attempted to promote European settlement on confiscated land by paying some Ngāti Maru compensation for the rights that the confiscation had extinguished. These deeds of cession covered about 60000 acres and created significant divisions within the iwi and it compounded the damage that had already been caused by the loss of land. So now we're talking many many years—150 years—later actually standing in the House of Parliament in New Zealand and feeling very very appreciative that Ngāti Maru have been gracious enough to accept a settlement that's been offered because—I think it's been said earlier today in an earlier Treaty settlement bill—there's lots of give and take through these things and it's never enough to undo everything that was done at the time that these awful events happened. In the early 1890s some Ngāti Maru were virtually landless and appealed to the Crown for help. The Crown's response was slow and ineffective and legislation was not enacted until 1907. The land ultimately provided to Ngāti Maru was poor and it was of limited size. So the extensive loss of the land and the assets has eroded tribal structures. It's bad enough what actually happened in terms of the assets being taken but it actually eroded the culture and the tribal structures and it caused severe poverty and that damaged the whole physical cultural and spiritual health of generations of Ngāti Maru people. The intense sense of loss and disconnection is expressed in the following Ngāti Maru lament: Maru HāhāHāhā te whenuaHāhā te tangata.Maru of extreme loss and breathlessnessThe land is desertedThe people are gone and gasping for breath.I wasn't part of the Māori Affairs Committee but it's good to see that the committee has taken care of some necessary changes particularly in relation to the riverbed and the Whanganui settlement with Ngā Tāngata Tiake o Whanganui because each boundary isn't exactly—particularly when it comes to rivers—distinct and separate. So it's been really good that this has been made to work in a way that it can work for Ngāti Maru as well as for the people of Whanganui. Then of course it was very important to get that clear distinction when there is a relationship here with the Taranaki Regional Council but it didn't extend down into the same relationship with the Taranaki district councils of which there are three. So it was really important to make sure that the right terminology is in the bill and everything had been done right so that it didn't cause any problems later. So I just do want to make note that if we look at the schedules which sit in the back of this piece of legislation there are some beautiful conservation areas and some beautiful scenic reserves. There are some great marginal strips beautiful land along the Waitara River Okau Scenic Reserve—there's quite a range of beautiful New Zealand conservation and historic land here that I think Ngāti Maru can be very proud of in terms of the settlement they've made. But I also look forward to working with Ngāti Maru and all of the iwi of Taranaki in terms of making these conservation areas and these scenic reserves even more beautiful than they are now as we work together in agribusiness and in Māori agribusiness which we do have a lot of in Taranaki. It'll be just great to work together on some of those projects and get the biodiversity and everything of these lovely places up and running again in joint projects. So with that I'd like to commend this bill to the House. Thank you.