Okeroa Mahara: Treaty of Waitangi (Final Settlement of Claims) Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
Okeroa Mahara: Treaty of Waitangi (Final Settlement of Claims) Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
[Volume:618;Page:13904] 
MAHARA OKEROA (Labour—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 The sponsor of this bill wants to transform himself from a perk-buster into a statesman. That is as difficult in my view as a caterpillar metamorphosing itself into a beautiful butterfly. 
Hon Dover Samuels 
: Crayfish. 
MAHARA OKEROA 
: Whatever. It is totally unobtainable. The sponsor of the bill is trying to get a conveyor belt conception of Maori claims. We line up the tins of spaghetti brand them put a label on them—and the conveyor belt keeps going. That aspiring statesman absolutely refuses to acknowledge that there are two partners to any treaty settlement. One is the Crown and one is the claimant. One of the key issues is durability. Durability means that there must be a relationship between the Crown and the claimants. The claimants come from a context of absolute mistrust with regard to the Crown’s actions. Anyone who wants to support this bill along with the shadow Minister of Maori Affairs for the National Party—a big shadow—fails to realise that other very important factors contribute to a treaty claim. If claims are to be durable and if they are to be accepted not only by the Crown but also by the claimants then there is a process. The process is built on a tradition of mutual trust. 
The claimants already have to accept that their claim is about 0.5 percent of the original value of the claim yet the claimants who are Maori are prepared to go through that process. They are prepared to lay aside a whole range of betrayal historically to reach an end point. The end point is that they too want to get on with the business. They too want to participate as equal citizens in New Zealand society. They too want to realise their own potential. If we are to accept the bill as sponsored then may I add that the whole issue will be breached on the essential principles of being able to trust each other. Under this Government treaty claims are geared towards not only having that trust but also an outcome that is based on collective agreement and negotiation. 
The member opposite is prepared to sponsor a bill that takes no credence of the claimants’ role in the whole negotiation process. I know that the sponsor of the bill claims NgaiTahu ancestry. I do not know whether NgaiTahu will be overjoyed about that. In fact I doubt it very much. Anyone can claim an ancestry but tikanga Maori says that if people are prepared to claim an ancestry then they are prepared to commit to the best process—the best process with regard to what this Labour coalition Government is prepared to do. 
On that basis there is no time line with regard to settling the settlements with expediency. It is about the outcome being the best relationship between tangata whenua and the Crown. If we are to achieve that then there is absolutely no way that this side of the House will support a hastily scripted poorly drafted bill as sponsored by that member who wants to transfer himself from being a perk-buster to a statesman. Sometimes the gap is too large.