Hayes John: Whanganui Iwi (Wanganui (Kaitoke) Prison and Northern Part of Wanganui Forest) On-account Settlement Bill — Second Reading 
Hayes John: Whanganui Iwi (Wanganui (Kaitoke) Prison and Northern Part of Wanganui Forest) On-account Settlement Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:666;Page:13747] 
JOHN HAYES (National—Wairarapa) 
: 
 Thank you for the opportunity to speak on the Whanganui Iwi (Wanganui (Kaitoke) Prison and Northern Part of Wanganui Forest) On-account Settlement Bill. Clearly I am not a member of the Maori Affairs Committee which considered this document but I support very much the pragmatic leadership of the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations and of Tau Henare in guiding this bill through the select committee process. 
Looking at this bill from the point of view of someone from across the ranges from Whanganui over in the Wairarapa I am delighted to see that in this situation overlapping claims are being protected through this bill. But I am also saddened because on my side of the hill in the territory stretching from Ngawi up through to Hawke’s Bay we have two iwi Ngati Kahungunu and Rangitane o Wairarapa who face an identical situation to the one that we have in Whanganui. The difference is that in the Wairarapa the leadership of Ngati Kahungunu cannot pull together so that the Treaty negotiation process can begin. That saddens me greatly because we have the better part of $80 million plus or minus—this being the claim that can be settled—being held up by squabbling dysfunctional leadership. I think that is really unfortunate. One of our iwi Rangitane o Wairarapa is ready to go and it is being held up by this very unsatisfactory situation. 
The second general point that I would make from the point of view of looking at the sweep of history in this country and our relationship with Pacific people is that if we had asked Pacific people 30 years ago how they felt about the relationship between New Zealand Pakeha and Maori I think people in the Pacific would have looked at us sideways. I have always felt that Pacific people judge how things are going in New Zealand by looking at the relationship between Maori and Pakeha. I would particularly urge Pacific people who are listening to this debate tonight to think about how the relationship between Pakeha and Maori has changed and improved with significantly better outcomes for both Maori and Pakeha as we move forward in this country. I hope it will be possible one day to transpose the model that we have developed for the relationship between Maori and Pakeha so that it also applies for example to Pakeha people and Niuean people or to Pakeha New Zealanders and Tokelauans or even to people of Cook Islands extraction and the New Zealand community. This is fundamentally important because we all carry the same passport and the same nationality. 
I think this is very pragmatic legislation. Protecting the interests of people from Whanganui is really important and it also means that Pacific people can judge their relationship with the Crown in New Zealand and in particular the honourable behaviour of the Crown. With those words I say I am really supportive of this bill. I think the agreement by the Crown to enter into this very pragmatic relationship can only take us forward in leaps and bounds. With those words I would like to commend entirely this bill to the House. Thank you.