Finlayson Christopher: Maungaharuru-Tangitū Hapū Claims Settlement Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFinlayson Christopher: Maungaharuru-Tangitū Hapū Claims Settlement Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 19 February 2014. Volume:696;Page:16167. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations): I moveThat the Maungaharuru-Tangitū Hapū Claims Settlement Bill be now read a second time. As with other bills this is very much the culmination of a tremendous amount of work over many years. I particularly want to recognise Bevan Taylor and Tānia Hopmans two people for whom I have enormous personal and professional regard for the way they have worked on this matter for many many years.The bill has had a very rapid passage. I signed the deed on behalf of the Crown on Saturday 25 May 2013. I was really pleased that my colleagues Craig Foss and Chris Tremain were also there representing the Crown and Parliament. The bill was thenintroduced and referred to the Māori Affairs Committee after its first reading on 31 July 2013. Notwithstanding the extraordinarily huge amount of work that the committee had during last year it reported back to the House on 18 December 2013. So when viewers are watching and they may think that we say all these nice things about Mr Henare and the Māori Affairs Committee let us bear in mind that last year this committee not only dealt with this legislation but also dealt with the huge Te Tau Ihu Claims Settlement Bill which we have just read a second time today and the Raukawa Claims Settlement Bill which we have just dealt with. It has been working on the Tāmaki Collective bill the Tūhoe bill the Ngāti Korokī Kahukura bill and many others. As people say these bills give rise to a number of submissions and they have to be dealt with very carefully indeed. So I do really just say on behalf of all of us that when we thank the Māori Affairs Committee we mean it. It has done a very very good job.As it turns out there were a number of submissions on this bill but at the end of the day there are very minor changes indeed. They are of a technical nature and they are referred to in the committee’s report. I am very pleased that that is the case.I heard someone say something about the importance of Crown acknowledgments in the Raukawa bill. Actually it was a very good point and I just thought I would spend a little bit of time on it because the acknowledgments that are contained in clause 8 of the Maungaharuru bill are actually very important indeed. They are certainly not pro forma acknowledgments that are sort of drafted in a few minutes. They are the result of very careful discussion with iwi over an extended period. I can say about one bill—which I will not obviously refer to by name—that there has been lengthy and sometimes very heated discussion about what is and what is not appropriate to include in an acknowledgment. So I just want to assure the House that such acknowledgments are very carefully thought out. They are the result as I say of a lot of discussion and a lot of careful analysis particularly by historians on behalf of the Crown. The decisions are not made lightly and they are a very important part of the legislation. Getting the history right setting out the acknowledgments of what went wrong and then the apology are in fact very important parts of a bill which I think are often overlooked.Several people from Raukawa texted me this morning to say that they were sorry they could not get to town because of the fog but they were glued to their television sets. I went back to them—you are allowed to text in the House are you not—and said that it was fine and that it is the third reading where all the really lengthy speeches are given so they were not to trouble themselves. I acknowledge Vanessa Eparaima who is probably still beaming in even though we are no longer dealing with her bill. I do thank Maungaharuru-Tangitū for all the tremendous work they have done. I very much look forward to welcoming them to the House for the third reading and for a function afterwards because they have certainly done an enormous amount of work to reach this stage and I have so enjoyed working with them. I commend the bill to the House.