Roche Denise: Te Kawerau ā Maki Claims Settlement Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRoche Denise: Te Kawerau ā Maki Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 04 November 2014. Volume:694;Page:570. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENISE ROCHE (Green):Tēnā koe Mr Deputy Speaker. Tēnā koe e te Whare. Rau rangatira mā tēnei te mihi ki a koutou i runga i te kaupapa o te rā. Tēnā koutou ngā rangatira ngā tangata o Te Kawerau ā Maki. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa. I rise to speak to support Te Kawerau ā Maki Claims Settlement Bill which is before the House. Firstly let me acknowledge all those who have been involved in the negotiations and settlement process of the bill before us today. I recognise that this bill is the culmination of hours and hours and hours of work. To the people of Te Kawerau ā Maki I pay tribute to them and to their kaumātua and kuia who have passed who have been involved in these claims over many many years and have brought these claims to the House today. I also want to pay tribute and acknowledge Eru Thompson who has joined his ancestors along the way.I acknowledge the deep feelings and loss that these iwi have suffered as a result of the wrongs that have been done to them by the Crown. I pay tribute to all those who have persisted in bringing this bill to the House in their quest for justice. They have done that over many generations. The Greens stand on a charter that recognises Te Tiriti o Waitangi as the founding document of this land of Aotearoa. One of our core principles is honouring and protecting the environment and another is a firm dedication to fairness to peace and to justice. This bill fits within our founding principles.Firstly when I look at this settlement bill I want to acknowledge the generosity of Te Kawerau ā Maki. The synopsis of the settlement deed that was written by the Office of Treaty Settlements says: “The Crown acknowledges that for too long it failed to appropriately respond to Te Kawerau ā Maki’s claims for redress and justice.” The apology that is in the settlement deed and in the bill itself records “the Crown’s profound regret for its breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles which resulted in the alienation of much of Te Kawerau ā Maki’s land by 1856. The Crown also expresses sorrow for its subsequent failure to protect lands which were reserved for Te Kawerau ā Maki. Through the apology and settlement the Crown seeks to atone for its wrongs and lift the burden of grievance for Te Kawerau ā Maki so the process of healing can begin.”When I read the full acknowledged history it is apparent that time after time going right back to just after the Treaty was signed the rangatira of Te Kawerau ā Maki have attempted to utilise the legal processes that the Crown developed to protect and retain their interests but inevitably the power of the Crown has been stacked against them. This includes allowing the private sale of their lands without their involvement and ignoring their shared customary ownership of large sections of land.An example of that is the Crown’s purchase in 1841 of the 110000-acre area called Mahurangi and Ōmaha. In this documented case the Crown dealt with other iwi on this purchase rather than Te Kawerau ā Maki and it was not really until about 1866 that their interests were recognised by the Native Land Court for their rights within the Mahurangi reserves and in 1873 for their rights at Mangatawhiri and Tāwharanui. Another example is the Crown’s land purchases between 1848 and 1865 in the west Auckland and south Kaipara areas. Again from the settlement deed it says: “There is no evidence the Crown obtained Te Kawerau ā Maki agreement in any of the 1848 negotiations for purchases of land in West Auckland and the Upper Waitematā Harbour area. No reserves were retained in association with these transactions. The land alienated included kāinga then occupied by Te Kawerau a Maki at Nihotupu … and Waikūmete … [and] significant historic places such as Te Kotuitanga at the Whau Portage and wāhi tapu at Pukeatua Muri ō Hikurangi and Tītīrangi.” and it goes on and on and on.I am grateful that the settlement deed is there as a historical record. There is no doubt that Te Kawerau ā Maki were deliberately and systematically alienated from their lands. It documents example after example of dodgy dealings by the Crown that Te Kawerau ā Maki have had to bear the consequences of. These include things like land areas being vastly underestimated like the Hikurangi block which was purchased by the Crown in 1853. That was estimated to be 12000 acres and was later found to be 54141 acres. There are other examples like the Crown’s purchasing prices being low and the losses of around 100000 acres in their heartland of west Auckland which were bought by the Crown for about £950 which works out to be about 2 shillings an acre. There are other examples like the Crown never keeping its side of the deal to ensure that there would be benefits for Te Kawerau ā Maki with access to schools medical care and ongoing gratuities as a result of these land purchases. Those are only some of the examples.I guess the swindles—that is I guess what we have to call them—were compounded by the inability for Te Kawerau ā Maki to get justice over the last 150 years or more. Te Kawerau ā Maki were not consulted about the creation of the Native Land Court. They were not represented in Parliament during the creation of the Native Lands Acts in 1862 and 1865. Their overlapping interests with other iwi were not recognised in Native Land Court cases time and time again. There was also the vesting of lands in individuals by the Native Land Court so breaking down the collective ownership of land which of course made it easier for iwi to be alienated from that whenua. In the 1920s land was appropriated by the Crown through the Public Works Act and then of course through private sales as well as the Government Acts that continued right through until the mid-1900s.The impact on the generations of Te Kawerau ā Maki has been severe. The alienation from their land means that they have suffered. The settlement records the socio-economic impacts and outlines basically the history of their diaspora. It goes into some detail about how that occurred in area after area place after place throughout their marvellous rohe.When I look at the losses I am astounded at the generosity of Te Kawerau ā Maki. There is no way on earth that this settlement will ever compensate them. That is acknowledged in the apology in the bill and in the deed of settlement. The bill does include the Crown’s apology and we do not underestimate that as well. The settlement itself offers the apology the cultural redress and the financial and commercial redress but when you look at it essentially it is only nine sites being vested in the iwi totalling 31 hectares. The financial redress of $6.5 million and $300000 for establishing a living marae for these iwi is a really big start in their future healing and economic development.But although we acknowledge the journey that it has taken to get this bill to this House we do as Greens have to state for the record that we never believe that these Treaty bills are full and final settlements. We cannot acknowledge that they are because they are not full settlements and they are not final because we do not know now how the impact of those historical grievances from before 1992 will impact on future generations. When you consider that this Government bailed out South Canterbury Finance and paid it far far more than this iwi have received in their settlement then you see that there is still unfairness occurring. Having said that we agree that this is a time to celebrate the settlement and future progress towards healing for these iwi so we commend this bill to the House. We look forward to hearing more about the issues during the select committee process and we will be supporting the bill. Tēnā koutou katoa.