Williams ArenaARENA WILLIAMS (Labour—Manurewa) (remote): Tēnā koe e te Pīka ki ngā uri o Ngāti Maru tēnā koutou. Ki a Maru Wharanui te tupuna matua iwi o Ngāti Maru Wharanui tēnā koe.[Greetings Mr Speaker to the descendants of Ngāti Maru greetings to you all. To Maru Wharanui the eponymous ancestor of Ngāti Maru Wharanui greetings.]It's a privilege to speak tonight as part of the first sitting of the virtual Parliament. This is a Parliament that acknowledges the importance of the Treaty settlement process and I'm proud to be a part of the cross-partisan approach to acknowledging the breaches of the Crown's duty to act in good faith to its Treaty partner. Though we may not all have the same reasons for acknowledging the injustices committed by the Crown—and I disagree with the ACT member's contribution almost in its entirety—we have the same over-arching goal. In my short introduction I acknowledged the people of Ngāti Maru and their eponymous ancestor Maruwharanui. He's the eldest child of Pito Haranui and Manauea and brother to Marukōpiri Mihi-Rawhiti and Hinepango. It is right to acknowledge this tupuna and all of the tūpuna of Ngāti Maru whose hopes for their descendants we are supporting tonight. This settlement legislation brings us to giving effect to the deed of settlement between the Crown and Ngāti Maru which acknowledges those instances where the Crown hasn't lived up to those hopes of the tūpuna of Ngāti Maru and brings Ngāti Maru closer to taking on a complete kaitiaki role over its own natural environment. I agree with the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations that this bill is also about bringing the people of the Ngāti Maru iwi and its rohe closer to enjoying the economic benefits of settlement and I want to thank everyone who submitted on this bill as well as those who advised on it and facilitated the Māori Affairs Committee's discussions. Only minor amendments were suggested which reflects the confidence all members have in the process and I want to echo the comments of the member for Southland National Party MP Joseph Mooney when he said to the uri of Ngāti Maru that we feel you here in spirit tonight.Now if I may I wish to give the House some context for the settlement that we are discussing and why Parliament unanimously agrees that these injustices should be acknowledged and given redress. The Crown apology begins with the dispossession displacement and dislocation suffered by Ngāti Maru that began with the Crown's unjustified confiscation of almost half their traditional rohe. The damage caused by the loss of Ngāti Maru lands was compounded by the divisions created within the iwi when the Crown negotiated deeds of cession as a means of securing possession of the confiscated lands to make way for European settlement. The subsequent passage of the last remaining Ngāti Maru land through the Native Land Court individualised their customary land title making the land more susceptible to alienation and further damaging tribal cohesion. Measures taken to ameliorate growing Ngāti Maru landlessness were ineffective and much of the tribe's remaining land later came under Public Trustee administration and was subject to perpetual leases.These are serious breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi that we are acknowledging tonight. That is why the saying of the iwi is appropriate and a number of members have used it but I wish to repeat it: Maru HāhāHāhā te whenuaHāhā te tangata. That means:Maru of extreme loss and breathlessnessThe land is desertedThe people are gone and gasping for breath.I hope that this next chapter in the history of Ngāti Maru offers a breather a time to recuperate to gather together and then move forward once recovered. That's why I think the cultural redress portion of this bill is in my eyes the most important because it is a moment that we can gather together all that has happened and look forward to something new coming. There's one particular part of the cultural redress which I think is very important and I want to highlight given the contribution of the previous member Simon Court about property rights and the rights of other property owners in the rohe of Ngāti Maru. This deed will provide for a natural resources plan Maru Taiao which outlines the values and principles of Ngāti Maru and the resource management issues of significance to Ngāti Maru in relation to the Maru Taiao area. Local authorities must take the Maru Taiao plan into account when they are preparing a review and policy statements and planning under the Resource Management Act. That's significant because this restores not only the kaitiaki role of Ngāti Maru which they have always had and do not need the Crown to acknowledge because they have always been kaitiaki of the area but it fulfils that hope of having the governance responsibility of having the decision-making power that iwi are so well placed to exercise for the benefit of everyone in their community and I am pleased this Government has made that move. That's why I look forward to considering this legislation further again in the next reading but I commend this bill to the House now.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ian McKelvie): The next call is a split call—five minutes each.