Henare Tau: Whakarewarewa and Roto-a-Tamaheke Vesting Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
Henare Tau: Whakarewarewa and Roto-a-Tamaheke Vesting Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:658;Page:7571] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 A kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker Barker. Te Arawa waka tena koutou. A tena koutou me o koutou whawhai mo o koutou whenua i roto i te rohe potae o Te Arawa. No reira tena koutou katoa. 
[ 
Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker Barker and greetings to you the canoe of Te Arawa. I acknowledge your battles over your lands in the region of Te Arawa. So greetings to you all. 
] 
I will not take too long. The Minister Pita Sharples and the speaker before me Mita Ririnui have outlined what is not very complex: they have got their land back. But I want to concentrate on an issue that needs some thought put into it. Although the Minister of Maori Affairs is right in saying that we should not intervene in what is to put it in my South Auckland words a whanau scrap it is sort of the easy way out. We were elected here to make some of the hard decisions to see whether we could find a way through. 
On one hand I am very happy that a wrong has been righted that whenua has been returned but on the other hand I am disappointed that there is a group of people who are and should be part of the bill and who are and should be part of the celebration of the return of whenua but have somehow found themselves to be outside. We can argue until the cows come home as to who is right; the sad thing is that there is a group of people outside of this who feel aggrieved. Letters have been flying back and forth as the case is these days. One of those letters to the Minister of Maori Affairs assures the other side that some way down the track there will definitely be a coming together. All I can say is that I am hopeful that that will take place. 
I cannot bring myself to say Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao but I can bring myself to say Tuhourangi and Ngati Wahiao and this is no disrespect to Te Arawa waka in general. It is because I am one of those who believes in this vision of development. We are not in a time warp. We are not based in 1840. Something and some things may have developed since then if given the opportunity to develop. I know that in my own homeland there was some feeling on those tracks. 
I want to read some paragraphs from the report of the Maori Affairs Committee to the House which I think are very very important: “Some submitters requested that Tuhourangi and Ngati Wahiao not be coupled together and be represented separately. They felt that their mana whenua and rangatiratanga status over the Whakarewarewa Valley land were quite separate. The reference to the Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao affiliate of Te Pumautanga is well established and has been accepted by the Crown throughout the various mandating processes managed by the Kaihautu Executive Council and Te Pumautanga since 2003. 
In addition the bill provides for an on-vesting of the Whakarewarewa Thermal Springs Reserve and Roto-a-Tamaheke Reserve from Te Pumautanga o Te Arawa Trust established under the Affiliate Te Arawa Iwi and Hapu Claims Settlement Act 2008 to the joint trust. The trust deed establishing the joint trust sets out the Beneficial Entitlement Determination Procedure and provides for the possible transfer of some or all of those lands following the determination. This mana whenua determination procedure allows the reserve land to be vested separately in the three hapu of Ngati Wahiao and the iwi of Tuhourangi in the future. 
While the bill could be amended to reflect a decoupling of Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao this would properly address the concerns of submitters and would affect the underlying relationships between the Crown and Te Pumautanga and between Te Pumautanga and its affiliates. 
An amendment to the trust deed to allow decoupling would require a unanimous resolution of the trustees a general meeting of the beneficiaries to approve the trustees’ resolution and an approval resolution passed by a majority of each of Ngati Whakaue and Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao present at that meeting. We do not consider it appropriate to use legislation to provide for separate representation in relation to the bill because the decision of Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao to form a single affiliate of the joint trust Te Pumautanga was made by iwi members through a mandating process.” 
In conclusion I can say only that at the meeting on the weekend there is a golden opportunity for people to stand and deliver to deliver to everybody including those who find themselves on the outside. That opportunity must be taken on the weekend; if not I am fearful that the opportunity will be lost for a while. We have done all that we can and I think the House has done a pretty good job— 
Hon Mita Ririnui 
: A very good job. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: —a very good job given the tools that we had— 
Paul Quinn 
: The cards we were dealt. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: —and given the cards we were dealt. But there is the ace in the hole and the ace in the hole is the meeting on the weekend. I am not trying to say how to run that meeting or even the decision— 
Hon Mita Ririnui 
: But you’re going to anyway. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
:—but as my colleague said I will anyway. The decision on the weekend must include a Ngati Wahiao representative. I am sure a lot of people have come to that determination as well. I can see some people rustling around thinking “How dare you.” I have been there before and I will be there again. I am not trying to make controversy out of this but it is a fact that when we are faced with these issues there will always be people on the outside who for whatever reason find themselves on the outside. We should be big enough and bold enough to include them as part of the whole instead of seeing them as some sort of group knocking on the door from the outside. At the end of the day they are all Te Arawa people and they are all after the same thing. It is about a bit of representation and it is about mana and it is about ensuring that the return of land is done expeditiously and without too much of a problem. 
Again I congratulate the Minister of Maori Affairs Dr Pita Sharples the previous Minister of Maori Affairs Parekura Horomia the last Government this Government and also those at home in Te Arawa as well. I think it is important to recognise that what we do although it may not affect us personally does affect the people at home. No reira Te Arawa tena koutou. Tena ano koutou i roto i nga whawhaitanga mo o koutou whenua. Kia ora. 
[ 
So congratulations Te Arawa. You were wonderful as well in the battle for your lands. Well done. 
]