Paraone PitaPITA PARAONE (NZ First): Ā tēnā hoki koe tēnā hoki tātou e Te Whare! Ngā kupu tuatahi māku kei te tautoko i ngā mihi i mihingia ki a koe te tuakana e Nuk. Nāu nei i whakaritengia i a tātou noho tahi i te rā nei. Tua atu i tēnā kei te tautoko i ngā mihi i mihingia e ngā kaikōrero i tū ake i mua i a au ki te whakatau i ā koutou ngā whanaunga nā te mea i rongo au i ngā kōrero o tōku tuakana a Peeni i whakahuangia te hononga i waenga i a Kahungunu ki a koutou nō reira ahakoa he tū wāhi iti tēnei ēngari kia mōhio mai koutou ka nui te pūhaehae i roto i a au i aha ai? Nā te mea ahakoa kīhai koutou i hainatia te Tiriti ēngari i a mātou o roto o Ngāpuhi ko mātou tetahi o ngā iwi tuatahi i hainatia Te Tiriti horekau i whakatau o mātou kerēme ēngari ēhara nā koutou te hē nā mātou hoki! Kia ahatia? Ēngari e tū atu tēnei mō Te Rōpū Aotearoa Tuatahi ki te tautoko i tēnei pire nā reira i mua i tōku huringa ki roto i tō tātou reo tuarua ka nui taku mihi ki a koutou i tau mai nei ki waenganui i a tātou i te rā nei.[And so greetings as well to you and to us also the House. My first words are to endorse the tributes accorded by your elder colleague Nuk. It was you indeed who considered a prayer in regards to our coming together today. Further to that I endorse the tributes accorded by the speakers who got up before me to pay homage to you collectively the relations. I heard the comments by my elder sibling Peeni who related the connection that existed between you and Kahungunu. Therefore despite this being a short call you have to understand there is much envy in me and why? Because even though you never ever signed the Treaty but we from within Ngāpuhi were one of the first tribes to sign the Treaty and have not settled. But that is not your fault. It really is ours as well. But so what? But I stand here for New Zealand First to support this bill therefore and before I turn to our second language I have much admiration for you who landed here amongst us on this day.]It is really a pleasure to stand and participate in these debates particularly where settlements have been negotiated and the process of legislating the actual settlement is brought before us in circumstances like today. This bill is no different from those bills that have already come before this House and enacted the settlements for a number of iwi. It recognises the loss and prejudices that the iwi have suffered as a consequence of the shortcomings of the Crown.Although we acknowledge that this settlement cannot and can never fully compensate the iwi for their loss at least the attempt has been made. It has been negotiated between Crown representatives and iwi representatives and so we have come to this stage. But I just want to say to the people who represented the iwi—the negotiators—that history will show that you have been responsible for reaching this settlement. If experience is anything to go by after the settlement you will always find some within your own iwi your own hapū your own whānau who will have a disagreement in terms of the settlement. So history will show that you have been responsible for a lot of what has been negotiated. Although you will know that there will be a lot of other things that you were not able to negotiate to those who will always criticise you that is irrelevant. So I just want to put that on record to remind you that in spite of the good work that you have done there will always be some people who will have a different view.This bill as has already been indicated by the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations has taken a long process which started back in the 1980s. I think that it is a credit to all involved in bringing this bill to this stage—their tenacity and their commitment to seeing a settlement and hopefully an endurable settlement that will benefit not only the iwi and hapū of Te Rohe o Te Wairoa but their wider community and indeed New Zealand. For those of our wider community who often criticise this process and the settlements that have been made I hope that they will take the time to read the history and the background leading up to this settlement. It does not make very good reading in terms of the relationship between the Crown and iwi.One thing that caught my eye was when fighting broke out between the Crown and Māori in other regions in the 1860s the iwi and hapū of Te Rohe o Te Wairoa worked hard to maintain peace among themselves in the rohe. But here I want to quote exactly: War began there only when the Crown attacked the Oamaruhakeke kāinga on Christmas Day 1865." For me from the North and a member of the Ngāti Hine iwi Christmas Day is a very significant day in the history of the Ruapekapeka Pā. It was on that day that the Crown chose to enter the pā while my tūpuna were in prayer. It seems to me that that appeared to be a common practice of the Crown—having brought the good word to Aotearoa then using the good word against Māori. That to me is a small indication of just how the Crown treated Māori at the time. Some would say that they still treat Māori like that today but I will not go so far as to say that. But suffice it to say going through the bill the summary of the historical account makes for pretty poor reading in terms of how the Crown treated the iwi and the hapū of Te Wairoa.I also want to say that one of the reasons behind this settlement and I must say it is the first one that I have actually seen where it has been articulated in the bill—is in regard to Te Reo and education. The Crown acknowledges the significant harm that children of the iwi and hapū of Te Rohe o Te Wairoa suffered by being punished for speaking their own language in Crown-established schools. I want to say that the Government has introduced a new group called Te Mātāwai that is charged with revitalising the use of Te Reo Māori. Kahungunu has a representative on that group one by the name of Jeremy MacLeod I think who will be a good representative for you and will ensure that the iwi and the hapū participate in the process that Te Mātāwai proposes in terms of revitalising the language.Time is moving on. I just want to reiterate that New Zealand First certainly supports the bill going to the Māori Affairs Committee. We hope that the people who may have a concern about what has been negotiated will take the opportunity of coming before the committee and expressing their views. Recent experiences show that after people have signed the agreement between their iwi and the Crown they are now wanting to relitigate some of the things that they agreed to in the original signing of the agreement.I just want to acknowledge again the people of Te Wairoa whose claim this bill is about and to commend them for the good work they have done in bringing it to this stage. Nā reira tēnā koe tēnā hoki tātou. [Therefore I thank you and us as well!]"