Halbert ShananSHANAN HALBERT (Labour—Northcote): E te Māngai o te Whare tēnā rawa atu ki a koe. Kaupeka ki runga kaupeka ki raro kūī kūī whiti ora e! He mihi ki ngā rangi he mihi ki te whenua he mihi ki ngā tāngata ngā whānau o Ngāti Kahungunu ka mihi atu ki a koutou.Nau mai haere mai ki te Whare Pāremata ki te whare raiona nau mai haere mai. Ki ngā kaumātua ngā kuia o te motu ka mihia ki a koutou nau mai haere mai ki te kōrerorero mō te kaupapa nei nō reira e mihi ana ki a koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa. [Madam Speaker a warm greeting to you. Kaupeka above and below alive and flourishing. Greetings to the skies greetings to the land greetings to the people and the families of Ngāti Kahungunu we greet you.Welcome to the House of Parliament to the lion's den welcome welcome. I acknowledge the elders both male and female who have come to discuss this issue and so welcome to you all welcome welcome one and all.]Whānau mā it's beautiful to see you this evening and to join you this afternoon at the pōwhiri. You'll hear the whakataukī that I take from Mōkai Pātea at the start of my kōrero this evening. But many of you will know that we are not too distantly related and in fact our rangatira our tupuna is Kahungunu. It also reminds me of familiar faces—as you came through the door this afternoon—of my late father Winston Halbert and growing up in Ngāti Kahungunu we travelled to many marae where he spoke where you spoke not too different to this Whare and the kōrero that we are having today. But deeply and humbly can I welcome all of our whānau here for this very important kaupapa.Ka mihi atu ki a koutou Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-ā-Rua tēnā rawa atu ki a koutou.[I acknowledge you of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tamaki nui-ā-Rua; my sincere thanks to you all.]As a member of the Māori Affairs Committee and as somebody that's new to this House it's always a privilege to go through the number of Treaty settlements that we have in the past 18 months. To sit there to learn to hear the stories to hear the kōrero of our people on both sides to hear the history is very very important to understanding how we proceed forward. I sat here this afternoon in the general debate and listened to the leader of the ACT Party's kōrero and I looked up to you. And while you may have seen a little a bit of shouting at this end it came with passion and aroha and embarrassment for that kōrero over the other side of the House that diminished the state of our people and the contribution that we can make to this nation as Māori. It was divisive and it challenged all of us to stand up and be very very proud of what we can do together and today's mahi our kaupapa here [today's work our purpose here] is the start of that.After that I heard from my colleague the other ACT Party member Karen Chhour who talked about fighting for what is right. I know as a member of Parliament—and I'd like to think that all members of Parliament that are here are here to fight for what is right. And we can use a term of co-governance as a political tool to bash each other with across this country but when we look at pieces of legislation like this—and I'll speak to it soon—it is that we share common values of what we want for the future of this nation what we want for our taiao what we want for our wai. And indeed there are ways that we can work together.This particular settlement includes significant pūtea—yet not enough to acknowledge the hurt and mamae that has been done—but it brings forward a Crown apology and acknowledgments. And in my readings of the Tribunal report it speaks of the speed of changes that happened in the Wairarapa-Tararua district in colonial times as one of these things that in particular not just us but the Tribunal marvelled at. The Crown's whirlwind buy-up of 1.5 miriona—1.5 million—acres in the Wairarapa in 1853 and 1854; in the space of no more than a decade from the 1850s to the 1860s tangata whenua were no longer being landlords of their own whenua. And in my memories I look back to the first time that I spoke in this House in my maiden speech and I remember my other tupuna Hiraka te Rango who came to Omāhu marae back in the 1800s as a part of te kotahitanga to stop the confiscation of Māori land. So those are the memories that we remember when we're looking through these pieces of legislation in this first particular reading. This settlement has been 30 years in the making with ongoing negotiations and litigation along the road and I acknowledge that in the report our kaumātua and kuia have been organising and researching these claims. Some of those kaumātua and kuia are no longer with us today: moe mai rā. And it is fitting that we should mention one in particular namely the late Hinepatokoriki Paewai who was tireless in her efforts to take these claims forward to the Crown. Treaty claims were presented to the Waitangi Tribunal over nine weeks of hearings between March 2004 and March 2005—a long time ago. The Wairarapa ki Tararua report was released on 26 June at Te Ore Ore marae back in 2010. And that particular report makes findings in relation to Barton's run Mangaroa the collapse of the Wairarapa leasehold economy Crown purchasing in the Wairarapa Native Land Court operations in the Wairarapa the loss of Wairarapa Moana the provision of Pouakani Pouakani and Mangakino issues the Public Works' takings and local government the Department of Conservation and taonga-protection issues.Whānau mā I'm the last speaker of this first reading for this piece of legislation that is before the House. You will also see myself—and can I put in the apologies from our chair Tāmati Coffey who is away at the moment but he did ask that I pass on his apologies—along with Rawiri across the way and Joseph Mooney Arena Williams. We will be there visiting your whenua in order to hear your oral submissions as a part of the Māori Affairs Committee. And know that we are with you know that we are there to hear from you. Kōrero mai ki a mātou. Talk to us. Put it all on the table once again so that when we put the departmental report back into this Whare it has been scrutinised it reflects the correction of this mamae of this hurt and we can move forward together. But most of all whānau mā remember the kōrero in this Whare today. Remember it for months; remember it for years because today we remember you. Nō reira mihi ana ki a koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.