Cunliffe David: Te Kawerau ā Maki Claims Settlement Bill — In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCunliffe David: Te Kawerau ā Maki Claims Settlement Bill — In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 08 September 2015. Volume:708;Page:6399. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn): Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa. Ko Waitakere te maunga ko Kaipara ko Waitematā ko Manukau ngā moana ko Te Kawerau ā Maki te iwi o ngā mana whenua ko One Kiritia te marae. Kia ora.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. Greetings acknowledgments and congratulations to you all. Waitakere is the mountain Kaipara Waitematā and Manukau are the seas Te Kawerau ā Maki are the mandated locals and One Kiriata is the marae.]It has been said that Te Kawerau ā Maki’s settlement is significant because it is a lesson for all of us in what the Crown should not have done and yet it is an opportunity for us to now face forward and say as a reunited community what we can do. I wish to begin by acknowledging some of the rangatira who have brought us to this point. I will then briefly recount although others have done so in more detail some of the historical factors that have brought us to this point and acknowledge the terms of cultural and material redress that bring us to this day where mana whenua is restored and where a new mana-based relationship can carry us into the future.In doing so I wish to firstly acknowledge ngā mate rātou ki a rātou tātou ki a tātou [the dead—they to themselves and we to ourselves] and in particular Eru Thompson who as much as anyone worked to bring this day to fruition. It is a sadness that he is not here with us physically on this day but I am sure we can all feel his spirit and that of other tipuna fluttering around taking more than a little quiet satisfaction.Can I acknowledge also Te Wārena Taua who has worked tirelessly with others to bring this to fruition and also Rewi Spraggon my old friend and the broader team from Te Kawerau ā Maki who grace the Chamber today. Thank you for coming. It is a delight to acknowledge my old friend Sir Robert Harvey and with him former mayor Penny Webster and councillor Alf Filipaina. In respect of Sir Bob as a new west Auckland MP I speak today on behalf of my westie colleagues Phil Twyford and Carmel Sepuloni. We wish to acknowledge the proactive work that the former Waitakere City Council did across multiple fronts not only on the eco-city and not only on the revival of the arts community. Central to its mission was the acknowledgment and restoration of a mana-based relationship with iwi.The city that Sir Bob led was in my view not just another local body. It has been my deep privilege as an MP for the area to see and to be part of a living breathing process of restoration of mana to the tangata whenua and to the whenua itself and for me it remains and always will remain an example of what good visionary and progressive governance at local level can be. I wish to pay my respects on this occasion to Sir Robert for his personal commitment to that over many years. I would go so far as to say that I am not sure we would be here today without his efforts alongside those of the various kaumātua kuia and rangatira who grace the Chamber.The history does not read well. I wish to acknowledge the Attorney-General for his very I think honest recounting of that history in his various speeches on this subject and the work with the officials that he has led. There is no politics in this between the sides of the House. We are joined together as New Zealanders to wish Te Kawerau well.The Crown negotiated with Ngāti Whātua in ignorance of the claims and the history of Te Kawerau ā Maki. They were a small iwi. To say they were overlooked is to put it generously. Run over might be a more accurate piece of common parlance. Their land was sold out from under them. To mention but one area as Kelvin Davis my colleague did in an earlier speech they lost 100000 acres in central Waitakere—100000 acres. Today we mark a partial redress in the return of several dozen acres. And yet Te Kawerau has not asked for the return of that land nor rent nor back rent nor any other form of redress that in the strict letter of Pākehā law if the claim was validated they may have had a case for. So on behalf of the west Auckland group of MPs and acknowledging Peeni Henare and Kelvin Davis whose rohe also as our tangata whenua MPs covers that rohe I wish to acknowledge the generosity of Te Kawerau ā Maki in the spirit of this settlement liberating us all to move forward as colleagues as Kiwis in a mana-based relationship.We would not be here today if it had not been for the work of successive Governments of local government and critically the generosity of spirit of this iwi who are prepared to forgive what are the most grievous and ignorant of practices by the Crown in days gone by. Those of us gathered in this Chamber today as members of Parliament carry the mantle of the Crown. Even though we were not there then we on both sides of this House are part of this process to acknowledge the return of mana to you and to say that the Crown did wrong—multiple times wilfully sometimes ignorantly—and the effects on your forebears were devastating.The Crown and we are sorry and that is such an inadequate pathetic word in the light of that history. None the less it is true. Out of that sorrow out of that acknowledgment out of the restoration of that mana comes a token settlement that can never adequately redress the loss or the wrong that has been sustained. Others have mentioned it in more detail and I will not repeat all of the detail. I will acknowledge that the $6.5 million that represents 85 percent of the Woodhill Forest does provide the opportunity for a sustainable economic base for the iwi and I think that is a very important part of the package. The iwi must have pūtea in order to provide for future generations.The settlement provides cultural redress in title to a range of sites of historical significance and first right of refusal on a number of others which are important. I well know the hope and the passion that has lain behind the aspiration of Te Kawerau to once again have its own home marae. I think the settlement of $300000 towards that I say to the Attorney-General is probably not the greatest amount that I could have imagined and I hope that the Crown will continue in this spirit of partnership alongside Auckland Council to regard itself as being on a journey with the iwi to make sure that that dream is realised. But I look forward to seeing a working marae for Te Kawerau ā Maki at Te Onekiritea Point or exactly wherever they choose to erect it.It has been an absolute privilege on behalf of my west Auckland colleagues to take this call. I can only hope that my ill-formed words can in some small way convey the depth of affection of respect of hope and of gratitude to all of us who wear the cloak of the Crown and the representation of the people of the rohe. To all of you who have worked dreamt hoped and aspired to the fact that today would come can I acknowledge that you are both Māori and Pākehā that you are of the past. We are here today and together we face the future with renewed hope. Thank you.