SpeechHon MEKA WHAITIRI (Minister of Customs): Tuku whakarererere Ngā roimata i aku kamo Rite tonu ki te rere O te awa o Ngaruroro Kore rawa e mutu Te āroharoha i a au Haere rā ai e ngā mate Āroharoha nuiAnei rā te whānau A Hineahuone E mihi tangi atu neiKi a koutou e te iwi. Tānenuiārangi Te Whare Tūpuna Anei rā ngā mokopuna Āroharoha nuiE ngā mana ōku rau rangatira mā e kui mā e koro mā tēnā koutou. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou i runga i te kaupapa whakahirahira i te ahiahi nei. Anei ngā aroha ki a koutou katoa tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa.[Just like the flow Of the Ngaruroro RiverSo flow the tearsFrom my eyes.My sadnessIs never endingAs I farewell my deadWith deep sadness.Here stand the familyOf HineahuoneGrieving and weepingFor your tribe.TānenuiārangiIs the meeting houseHere stand his descendantsWith deep sadness. To all authorities to all chiefly peoples to the elders I acknowledge you. Greetings greetings and welcome to these important discussions this afternoon. I greet you all with compassion and love.]The significance of that waiata was that it was penned by my great-grandfather Ihakara Rapana—or to the Pākehā—Ike Robin. He wrote that lament because he lost his younger son my grandfather at the age of 42 and it talks about losing his son. He was proudly Kahungunu from Wairoa but raised on the banks of the Ngaruroro River at Kohupātiki marae. I share that because my cousin his mokopuna Hayden Hape is one of the negotiators who has been acknowledged in this. So I mihi to my cousin and to my Hape whānau of Tāmaki nui-a-Rua. The second part of that song was penned by my grandmother Ruruhira Robin who was the daughter-in-law of Ihakara Robin and I frame that because she is also one of many large shareholders in Wairarapa Moana.So I stand here proudly in acknowledging this significant day. It has been a hard road it has been a complex road but we are here today and I want to honour all those who have come to pay witness to this third and final reading; to all those who are no longer here with us who know that we are doing the right thing. So I want to acknowledge not only my cousin Hayden but also Ron Mark. I want to acknowledge Uncle Haami Te Whaiti Robin Potangaroa Marama Tuuta Ra Smith and of course Ian Perry and all those who have guided our people over these trying years of final settlement. It is not an easy road. As a former negotiator you get knives in the front of you you get knives in the back of you you get knives on all sorts but you've got to trust that at some point we as a people have to move and in celebrating and acknowledging the third and final reading I am being quite honest that it is not a fair deal—it is not; it is fraught with a whole lot of challenges—but it is something the iwi themselves want to proceed with. And who are we in this House to stand in opposition to that desire knowing that we have our own whanaunga taking claims to prevent this progression. I want to acknowledge that and I said that because my grandmother is a shareholder and I have been asked to help and try and stop the claim and I did actually say to this one person who asked me to stop the claim It's a brave person that tries to get in the middle of a Treaty settlement."So I want to make sure that those here in the House acknowledging this third reading know it wasn't an easy undertaking and I want to acknowledge my colleague the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations the Hon Andrew Little. He has been steadfast in supporting the process of this Treaty settlement bill despite like we all getting letters from—I'm being very careful in choosing my language. You have major players and then you have side players and it's amazing how in Treaty settlements all the side players all determine that they need to be major players when really when you strip it back in Treaty settlements there are major players—they are the affected iwi and the Crown. Those are the major players and in this settlement it was very clear that the iwi was represented by Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua. That was the iwi and they were mandated to go to negotiate with the Crown. And of course you get others and of course it wasn't their doing that the Crown gave them whenua in Pouākani. It wasn't their fault; it was the Crown's. And so it was the Crown's obligation to rectify it. So with the blessing of the iwi who wanted to proceed with this third and final reading despite all the challenges despite all the hiccoughs I actually think it's the right thing to do.So to all the parties in this House who have unanimously stood up in support of the third and final reading of the Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua Claims Settlement Bill it gives me great honour as the local MP for this electorate for the final Kahungunu settlement bill—because we've got six; we've got six proudly six—that this is the last of a suite of the Kahungunu large natural groupings that cover the Wairarapa into Tāmaki nui-a-Rua. And it gives me real pleasure to stand and say a few words in support of the people in the public gallery those watching at home those who are no longer here with us on the significance of this final chapter and the exciting journey that I know they're already embarking on. This legitimises who they are—who they are in Wairarapa and who they are in Tāmaki nui-a-Rua—to continue the good work that I know those negotiators have laid the platform and the leaderships that are yet to come through to ensure that the settlement today is not only for the living now but for our future yet to come and it is an exciting time to stand in support 100 percent with this settlement.So Madam Speaker with those few words can I say thank you to all those that have been involved thank you for the perseverance thank you for the sacrifice because it isn't everything that got taken from us. I want to pay tribute to our whānau in Pouākani. I want to pay particular acknowledgment to our whānau in Pouākani that we have not forgotten them and we will continue to embrace them as we go forward because they are us and we are them. And despite us being apart many many kilometres away through no fault of our own it is incumbent on us as we pass this final bill that we extend that arm of aroha to the many Kahungunu whānau that still live in Pouākani. They are Kahungunu and we are Kahungunu and with this passing of the bill I commend it to the House.Motion agreed to.Bill read a third time.Waiata"