Finlayson ChristopherNGATIKAHU KI WHANGAROA CLAIMS SETTLEMENT BILLThird ReadingHon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations): I move That the Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa Claims Settlement Bill be now read a third time. In doing so I express my warm greetings to the people of the North who have travelled here today. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa. A very special welcome to Pita Pangari who bears witness to the culmination of his hard work and to David Manuel the chair of the Kahukuraariki Trust.The people who are in the gallery today have travelled almost 20 hours from buses in the North and there are those who have come from elsewhere to witness and support the third reading and I say welcome to all. I hope you enjoyed the new roads that have been built over the last few years—the Kapiti Expressway and all the other ones that Simon Bridges has been so busy with. They would have made the travel slightly more enjoyable.It is an honour to welcome so many kuia and kaumātua here and I want to acknowledge the patience and fortitude that has been shown over the many years that you have waited for redress for Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa. It really is a privilege to stand here before you today in what we call in the House extended hours. That is why the House is not full of members: because everyone is doing lots of things in the last few days of this parliamentary session. But I can assure you that the House of Representatives to a person sends you all its very best wishes.You cannot see him because he is down the very back of the Chamber but on this the last Treaty day before the House rises I want to acknowledge a very fine member of Parliament from the North David Clendon who leaves us at the end of this session. He has always paid a lot of attention to Treaty bills and has been a source of wise counsel. He is a very fine man of principle. Although we have different political colours I want to acknowledge you Mr Clendon and thank you for your wonderful contribution to Treaty work in the time that you have been in Parliament.I cannot think of a better reason for extended hours than to ensure that within a few months this wonderful iwi will have achieved what many generations of tūpuna have sought and that is the return of Crown land from the Whakapaku Taemaro Waimahana Taupō and other blocks—the return of lands the Crown wrongly acquired and has held for far too long.Just over 24 years ago in May 1993 and in the presence of Matiu Rata several of you stood united before the Waitangi Tribunal and presented the historical grievances and claims of the people of Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa the descendants of Kahukuraariki. They told of how the people had protested from the moment they knew the Government claimed their land. From 1876 there were at least 19 petitions to Parliament or the Crown protesting those claims asking for an investigation into the loss of land and asking to be granted land because they were landless. Hēmi Paiara who had a particular grievance because he had been left off the grant for the little land the Crown reserved for Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa led many of those petitions but as you know he did not act alone. The numerous whānau of Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa were persistent in calling on the Crown to investigate and to uphold their claims. There were a number of inquiries into those petitions over the years and as we know without a positive outcome for the people.I want to acknowledge that the case for Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa was informed by oral evidence gathered from some of the elders some of whom were among those who signed petitions presented to Parliament or the Crown earlier in the century. They hunted down and deciphered what remained of patchy and incomplete Crown records. Their evidence was painstakingly compiled on what was probably less than a smell of an oily rag and supported by their kuia and kaumātua.The Muriwhenua Tribunal noted the Crown generally left no stone unturned in testing the claimants' case but it found the evidence compelling. The tribunal found numerous Crown actions had breached the Treaty causing significant prejudice including land loss tribal dispersal the attendant social collapse and the burden of grievances borne down through the years. To redress that the tribunal recommended the Crown should return Stony Creek Station and other lands to Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa and that is what this settlement does after all these years.It is more than a generation since those tribunal hearings and as time passes it would be very easy to forget that when the opportunity came to give evidence the claimants did not focus on one or other hapū. The tribunal led by the chief judge and Bishop Bennett undertook a significant and well-informed inquiry devoting significant time to these issues and this settlement follows the tribunal recommendations and provides redress to serve the many not the few. The tribunal did not investigate the Crown's taking of land from the Taupō and the Ngāti Karaka blocks. It was up to Mr Wake Tua and others of the Kaitangata hapū to call the Crown to account for that sorry history including the needless taking of pā and urupā during negotiations around 2006.The Crown's actions caused hurt to the people across the rohe ultimately affecting a claimant group of now over 3000 people and an area of over 50000 hectares and I am so pleased that through this settlement Ranfurly Bay and the Kōwhairoa Peninsula as well as the Thomson and Clarke blocks and many urupā and pā sites are at last being returned. The people of Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa will once again be able to exercise their kaitiakitanga over their land and the $6.2 million in financial redress will enable them to repair the deteriorating state of the farm a situation that simply cannot continue.There are so many people who should be acknowledged for their contributions over the last 16 years: all of the chairs of the Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa Trust Board the trustees of the Kahukuraariki Trust your legal counsel and negotiators. All have worked so hard and selflessly in very very difficult circumstances. I also want to acknowledge my ministerial colleagues and Government and other agencies who have contributed to this bill and in fact all the House because the members of the Māori Affairs Committee looked at this bill very very carefully indeed. Together they have helped place the future of Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa in the hands of its own people.Let us be perfectly blunt about this—getting to this point was not easy. It is well known that for a number of years some members of the Ngāti Aukiwa hapū have occupied Stony Creek and it is well documented that numerous attempts have been made to reach a resolution. I certainly want to acknowledge Mr Korako and the members of the Māori Affairs Committee for their very hard work on this issue and their exploration of the issues raised in submissions.We know from history that the problems in this region have been caused by the Crown picking winners. That is why I am reassured that the trust wish some assistance over the last few months from independent facilitators—and I acknowledge Peter Douglas and Ken Mair—is working hard to provide a pathway for Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa members to resolve these issues between themselves. That will involve a number of steps including bringing forward elections for marae-based representatives to replace the current trustees and work in the post-settlement era establishing a commercial enterprise to restore and repair the farm and bringing forward the comprehensive process involving all parties to determine the future ownership of the station. So they are not easy issues but I am certain that given the hard work to date we will find success.I was not aware that there had been a bell but I see that the time is drawing to a close so I will jump a few pages. The Deputy Speaker is retiring in a few days and he is obviously starting to slip up. [Bell rung] Ah there we go. That gives me 4 seconds to wish Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa all the very best for the future. I am so delighted we have reached this stage and I commend the bill to the House.