te Heuheu Georgina: Te Roroa Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading 
te Heuheu Georgina: Te Roroa Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:637;Page:7840] 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (National) 
: 
 Nga mihi ki a koutou e nga iwi e nga whanau o Te Roroa. I am pleased to stand on behalf of National to support the introduction of the Te Roroa Claims Settlement Bill to this House and I am pleased to make a contribution to the debate. I too want to join the Minister Mark Burton in congratulating Te Roroa. I salute them very sincerely because they were already in negotiations when National was in Government in the 1990s. As an Associate Minister to Sir Douglas Graham I had the pleasure of meeting with them along with my colleague the Hon Tau Henare on some of the matters that now comprise this settlement legislation. I also pay tribute to the late Ned Nathan whom I had the privilege of sitting with on the Waitangi Tribunal when I was first appointed to that body in 1986. 
The fact that this settlement bill is before Parliament today is a tribute in my view to the fortitude of Te Roroa and to their willingness to focus on the long term and to stay with the plan—particularly when dealing with the current Labour administration. Labour has been in Government for 7½ years and despite its regular boasts of progress in concluding Treaty settlements it is now finding that the wheels are starting to fall off its management of the process. Te Roroa would have required not only the wisdom of Solomon but also the patience of Job. When one reads their history as set out in the settlement bill one can only conclude that they have had both in heaps over many generations and particularly so in the last 5 to 10 years. 
Te Roroa hail from ancient beginnings and the events that gave rise to the Te Roroa claims began surfacing just 2 years after five of their rangatira signed the Treaty of Waitangi. I mention this in order to give a flavour of how soon it was after the signing of the Treaty that breaches by the Crown began to occur. As I say this is well set out in the bill. Of course it is also all backed up by a comprehensive Waitangi Tribunal report that came out many many years ago. This is a sad part of our history but it is not a part of our history that we of the current generation need to feel ashamed of. Indeed what we should feel pleased about is that we in the 21st century and in this Parliament have the chance to make reparation for the injustices that have occurred both in the case of Te Roroa and in the case of other tribes as well—some of whom are yet to settle. 
I will comment briefly on the boasts particularly of the last 10 days made by the Minister in charge of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Mark Burton and the boasts made by the Government in general of the wonderful progress that they believe they have made in the settlement of Treaty claims. I could be wrong—and perhaps the Minister would like to correct me at some time—but out of all the settlement bills that have come to this House in the last 7 years I do not think that this Government started negotiating one of them from scratch. As far as I can tell the settlements that have been concluded under the Labour administration were all under negotiation when Sir Douglas Graham was in this post. So I think that the current Minister and Government should think twice about boasting. 
The reality is that the National Government in the 1990s set the format and developed the policy—none of that has changed. One would have thought that with this Government’s having inherited a strong settlement base it might have been able to bring better momentum to this process. The Government has had the advantage of all of the really hard work that had gone on before it came to power but it has not really taken advantage of it. 
This is symptomatic of what the Government is facing right now what with land occupations court action by Maori on the forestry settlement and the potential for court action on the fisheries settlement. If I were the Minister in charge of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations I certainly would not be standing in this House and pretending that great progress has been made. Indeed Maori claimants are talking to National now because they see that we are likely to become the Government next year. In fact some of them are saying that there is at last some hope with the likelihood of National getting into power that this process might gather up some real speed. 
So without detracting from the efforts of Te Roroa those comments have to be made because this is just the first reading. The Opposition will be doing its part to make sure that the process through the select committee goes well and smoothly. All I can say is that hopefully sooner rather than later the fortitude courage and strong leadership that has been shown by this group of people from the far north will be rewarded. 
I am very pleased to contribute to this debate. However I think that this Minister and this Government need to take stock. Although they have very little time left in Government they should move to see whether they can put before this House a settlement that they have actually started from scratch. To Te Roroa nga mihi ki a koutou. Tena koutou tena koutou tena tatou katoa.