SpeechHon NICKY WAGNER (National): Tēnā koe e Te Mana Whakawā. E ngā reo e ngā mana tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa.[Greetings Madam Speaker. To the spokespeople to the leaders greetings one and all.]It's with great pleasure that I stand here to take a call on the second reading of the Ngāti Hinerangi Claims Settlement Bill. It's been a very long journey for the iwi to get here. If we look back although rangatira affiliated to Ngāti Hinerangi signed the Treaty of Waitangi in Tauranga in 1840 it wasn't long before the iwi was at odds with the Crown. From the 1860s onwards Ngāti Hinerangi was constantly in battle to retain their whenua. It was in protest against the colonists' insatiable demand for land that Ngāti Hinerangi joined the Kīngitanga movement in an attempt to slow land sales and was also involved with them in battle alongside Kīngitanga forces in both Taranaki and in the Waikato. Then their warriors returned to support Tauranga Māori and participated in both the crushing defeat of the British military at the battle of Pukehinahina at Gate Pā and also their own defeat at the battle of Te Ranga.During the multiple land confiscations that followed Ngāti Hinerangi protested the surveying of their land and were victims of a scorched earth campaign. The battle continued on through the Native Land Court but eventually Ngāti Hinerangi was alienated from their land and became virtually landless. As the submission of Dianna Vaimoso and Hinerangi Lilo explains landlessness had a huge negative effect on Ngāti Hinerangi and I quote from their submission: No land meant no kai no income no kāinga … So many of our whānau were forced to leave the only place we'd known as home in search of employment. With our people went our sense of identity our sense of belonging our community our fellowship our connection to each other and our turangawaewae. While we have a strong group of whānau based in our local community in the present day we have hundreds of whānau living in other parts of the country in Australia and further afield. Our hope is that this bill will help us lure them home for good or just more often so we can rekindle that connection to our whenua and each other."Certainly the 20th century was a very tough time for Ngāti Hinerangi and in fact if it wasn't for kaumātua Rawiri Thompson who knew his history and knew that Ngāti Hinerangi wasn't merely a hapū of Ngāti Raukawa but an iwi in its own right we wouldn't be in this House today. Another generation down the line and the opportunity to bring the iwi together again to "rekindle their connection with the whenua and each other" may have been lost for ever.So today we celebrate and we celebrate the next step in this Treaty settlement process. The identity and whakapapa of Ngāti Hinerangi was established in 2004 through research in the Māori Land Court and the negotiations towards this Treaty settlement began in 2014 on the watch of the Hon Christopher Finlayson. I was part of the Māori Affairs Committee which met submitters in Matamata late last year. There were 47 written submissions in total and we heard from nine submitters on that day. It was a very interesting and useful time. We heard from the trustees that even these Treaty negotiations have been a battle. So it is absolutely appropriate that the Crown unreservedly apologises to Ngāti Hinerangi for failing to uphold its obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi and the resulting damage that was done to the iwi.Of course not everyone in the iwi is completely happy with the settlement and I want to acknowledge those who spoke to the committee about their concerns and I recognise how difficult it is to get a unanimous agreement in any settlement. However this settlement has a very respectable participation rate at 58 percent of eligible registered beneficiaries voting and a very high percentage of votes in favour: 96 percent. This shows strong support for the settlement and is significantly higher than most settlements in both participation and especially approval rate.Although we heard a variety of opinions from submitters which we considered fully in the end we only made a very few mainly minor changes to the bill. However I'd like to reflect on two important issues. The first is to congratulate Ngāti Hinerangi for the creative way that they have dealt with overlapping interests. We heard that the Ngāti Hinerangi area is overlapped by 11 other groups and that a tikanga-led process was undertaken between Ngāti Hinerangi and Tauranga Moana iwi to address those overlapping interests. Following settlement Ngāti Hinerangi have agreed to gift ownership of three cultural redress properties to Tauranga Moana iwi. I think this is a unique and innovative solution and it has the potential to set the relationship between Ngāti Hinerangi and Tauranga Moana iwi on a new very positive course post settlement.Again I quote our submitters: "After meeting with Tauranga Moana iwi our trustees and negotiation team made the decision to gift this piece of land to our Tauranga whanaunga when we receive it back. Yes getting it back meant a lot to us but it meant so much to them too and it will forever symbolise a bond between our iwi. … we believe this outcome strengthened us an iwi and enhanced our mana." The committee thought so too and see it as an enlightened and elegant solution. The second point I want to talk about is the ownership of Matamata College land. Many of the iwi were keen that the land under Matamata College was part of the settlement. Many Ngāti Hinerangi children attend the school and the iwi want to encourage educational success for Māori and as mana whenua to be seen as the rightful people of Matamata township. They feel that once again obtaining ownership of the land that the college stands on would reinvigorate a sense of pride and belonging for attending whānau now and for generations to come. Unfortunately as we've heard Matamata College was deemed unavailable for this settlement but to recognise the importance of the school to the iwi the Ngāti Hinerangi settlement does include a right of first refusal over the land which will be in place for the next 178 years and who knows what could happen in that time.So in conclusion Ngāti Hinerangi has battled to get this settlement with the Crown over many many years and there has been plenty of debate within the iwi as well. It is not a perfect settlement and not every person supports every part of it but it opens up a whole new era for the iwi a 21st century blossoming and an exciting future for Te Puāwaitanga o Ngāti Hinerangi. Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa."