SpeechHon MEKA WHAITIRI (Minister of Customs): E te Māngai tēnā koe e ngā Mema katoa tēnā tātou katoa. E ngā iwi Ngāti Kahungunu Wairarapa Tāmaki-nui-a-Rua Rangitāne ki Tāmaki-nui-a-Rua Rangitāne ki Wairarapa nau mai nau mai haramai. Nau mai haramai ki tō whare te Whare Mīere o Aotearoa. Nau mai haramai ki te kaupapa whakahirahira. Nau mai haramai i runga i te wairua o te rangi. Tū tonu tū tonu tū tonu. Nō reira ōku rau rangatira mā e kui mā e koro mā tēnei koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.[To the tribes Ngāti Kahungunu Wairarapa Tāmaki-nui-a-Rua Rangitāne ki Tāmaki-nui-a-Rua Rangitāne ki Wairarapa welcome welcome welcome. Welcome to your house New Zealand's Beehive. Welcome to this important issue. Welcome in the spirit of the heavens. Stand firm stand firm stand firm. Therefore to my many chiefs and female and male elders greetings greetings greetings one and all.]I'm pleased to take a call on this significant day the significant day where we receive the first reading of this bill Te Rohe o Rongokako Joint Redress Bill. I did want to acknowledge the whānau our iwi who have arrived here in the gallery and can I say it is so nice in these recent times to have people in our public gallery. Due to COVID it has been quite a pōuri undertaking in this House doing first second third Treaty readings with no whānau in the public gallery. So it is a special day in acknowledging your presence here today and for those that can't be here.This is a shared cultural redress bill that the Minister has outlined between two very formidable iwi that are based in the Tāmaki nui-ā-Rua region and the Wairarapa region and I mihi to you all here today. I don't plan to go in detail but I do understand in reading the bill that there are four cultural redress instruments that I just want to highlight before I respond to some of the kōrero that was received at the pōhiri.I want to acknowledge one of the instruments being the overlaid classification over Castlepoint Scenic Reserve. I want to acknowledge the customary fishing regulations of the management over Wairarapa Moana and the Ruamāhanga River catchment. I want to acknowledge the vesting of cultural redress properties: Mataikona property Wairarapa moana property and of course Mākirikiri property to the tipuna Te Rangiwhakaewa. I want to also acknowledge the Wairarapa Moana framework which establishes a board and enables the development and the setting of the vision and desired outcome statements for that board.It's important to acknowledge rangatira on both sides to those that are no longer here with us to the Minister of Treaty settlements but also to the negotiating team. I want to acknowledge you all. As a former Treaty negotiator I know it's never ever easy—never ever easy. It's often a thankless task and you're always told you never quite got it right. But I want to say to you the negotiators that have joined us here thank you for your leadership; thank you for your preservation in staying at the kaupapa. But more importantly thank you for coming together as two iwi. I had a big smile on my face when I knew that this bill was coming to this Whare for us to debate and to passage through as the completion of what we're setting out here to do.I want to acknowledge our officials Te Arawhiti for the work that they've been doing. But it was really the coming together of two peoples two iwi who share common interests in Tāmaki nui-ā-Rua and Wairarapa. We all know the stories. We've always experienced them no matter which side we sit on. But it lifts my heart to know that we are all here together as one seeing the passage of this bill. And like I said at the beginning may that continue—the working together acknowledging our uniqueness our mana motuhake our tino rangatiratanga but in an area of interest that we all passionately love—our awa our maunga our moana our puke. It's important that occasions like this continue because only when we work together can we achieve great gains.At the pōhiri it was talked about the importance of shared whakapapa. And interestingly before we started this bill we had another kōrero in this House which is the general debate where we generally have a bit of a crack at each other across the House on what's been achieved and the Opposition saying what we haven't achieved. And the issue of whakapapa and identity as a Māori was discussed in this House prior to this bill. So I wanted to draw that out because it came in the pōhiri and the strength of shared whakapapa as opposed to a hindrance or a prohibitive—shared whakapapa collective responsibility working together for all. I want to acknowledge our speakers Paora and Mike—Paora Ammunson and Mike Kawana—who spoke on the paepae today. Of course Uncle Haami Te Whaiti and of course Tipene Chrisp who shared their perspective as negotiators.But that point around shared whakapapa it's not lost on me in terms of what was shared at the pōhiri—but also a message to us in this House to remind ourselves about our collective responsibility for the nation and to not go down rabbit holes that divide and rule us but actually enhance us as a people. The other point that I want to just address briefly—and look four minutes isn't going to do it. But the kōrero around seamless negotiations or trying to aim for seamless negotiations when it comes to grievances and working with the Crown—so that was also raised at the pōhiri around how we look for systems improvement and I'm pleased that the new head of Te Arawhiti was there to hear that kōrero too. As Rongowhakaata negotiated the Government of the day introduced the large natural groupings which was to do exactly that. It was the fast-track Treaty settlements. Eleven years later—nowhere near as long as 32 years—we finally settled. So there is a point to always remind the Crown around how we can improve it. And one idea—and it's appeared to me because I've had many settlements across the rohe—is the front loading of us just talking as Māori as hapū as marae and as iwi before we enter the formal process of negotiations. Because once you enter the formal process of negotiations it is no longer your process. And what comes undone—and I've seen it many many many times with counterclaims and going back to the tribunal—is that we've jumped into that process in my view sometimes too soon and not spent time at the front end to getting an understanding of what is critically important including cross-claims including interest from other iwi in our rohe and all those critical issues and trying to head them off before we start negotiating with the Crown. I think the Crown has a responsibility. I'm not the Minister of Treaty settlements but the Crown simply has a responsibility to enable that part of the process before we start the process proper. And those are my thoughts. Those are my thoughts personally around how we can streamline settlements. But today is a great day for the people of Rangitāne o Tāmaki nui-ā-Rua Rangitāne Wairarapa Ngāti Kahungunu Wairarapa o Tāmaki nui-ā-Rua to celebrate the coming together in the passing and this consideration of Te Rohe o Rongokako Joint Redress Bill. It is a way forward that I'm proud of; that I hope those in our gallery are proud of and all the people that you represent back on the homelands. This is far-fetching work. It will bring huge benefits to our respective region and to our respective iwi. It will create the opportunities around those properties but it also enables us to tell our story as we see fit. And it's always about the future generation with our rangatahi that we always think of at times like this. So without further delay it has been my absolute honour to have a small kōrero around this particular bill at its first reading. It will go through its process and I look forward to it coming back to the House so we can consider what the public has viewed on it but more importantly to end this part of the process for the people of Rangitāne and for the people of Ngāti Kahungunu Tāmaki nui-ā-Rua and Wairarapa. For those few words I commend this bill to the House.