Flavell Te Ururoa: Te Urewera-Tūhoe Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFlavell Te Ururoa: Te Urewera-Tūhoe Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 22 October 2013. Volume:694;Page:14145. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]TE URUROA FLAVELL (Co-Leader—Māori Party): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Ka nui te mihi ki a koe i tēnei ata otirā ki tō tātau kaiwhakarite. Ka nui te mihi ki a koe e whakatau nei i te āhuatanga o tō tātau noho tahi i tēnei ata. E kī ana te kōrero Ngāi Tūhoe kiri kawa ki te kupu kiri kawa ki te riri kiri kawa ki te rākau; tēnā koutou haere mai.Ka noho a Rangiwhakaekeau a ia Uenukurauri ka puta ko taku whakaihu waka a Te Hāpito-o-te-Riri. E kīia ana tōna ingoa ko Rangiteaorere nāna hoki te kōrero: “He kotahi nā Tūhoe ka kata te pō.” E kīia ana anō hoki te kōrero: “Ngā mate o Te Arawa mā Te Arawa e tangi ngā mate o Mātaatua mā Mātaatua e tangi.” Nō reira e hoa mā kawea mai ngā pare kawakawa kai a koutou mā mātau e mihi mā mātou e tangi. Kua puta kē te kōrero “Tūhoe moumou kai moumou taonga moumou tangata ki te pō.” Otirā ngā uri o ngā ika a whiro o Ngāi Tūhoe haere mai tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa.Ko te ngākau kei te kī me kōrero Māori mō te roanga ake o ēnei 10 meneti ēngari arā anō ētahi kōrero ē te tikanga o te āhua nei ka whakaputa i Te Reo Pākehā kia tuhia e ngā tāngata nei mō āke nei mō ake nei. Nō reira kaua e riri mai. Kia hoki mai i te wā tuatoru ā ko Te Reo Māori te kōrero.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. I appreciate you greatly this morning and in particular the person who conducted our prayer. Thank you immensely for that in respect of our sitting together this morning. According to a saying Ngāi Tūhoe is short tempered with words short tempered in battle short tempered with weaponry; salutations to you and welcome.Rangiwhakaekeau had a liaison with Uenukurauri and begat my famous ancestor Te Hāpito-o-te-Riri. It has been stated that his name was Rangiteaorere. He gave rise to the saying: “A single one of Tūhoe cause laughter in the underworld.” Another saying also states: “Te Arawa’s deaths will be mourned by Te Arawa and Mātaatua’s deaths will be mourned by Mātaatua.” So bring forth your head greenery adornment ofmourning for us to acknowledge and mourn over. The saying “Tūhoe wasteful of food wasteful of treasures and wasters of men.” has already been mentioned. And so welcome to the veterans of Tūhoe greetings acknowledgments and salutations to you all.The heart is saying to me to speak on in Māori for the remainder of these 10 minutes but there other statements to be made that must be done in English so that these people here can capture them in the record forever. So do not be angry. When we come back for the third reading it will be totally in Māori.]I thought I would just say as the MP for Waiariki that I kind of like to think I have been pretty close to the action over these many years. I do not say that I know it all about this particular bill the Te Urewera-Tūhoe Bill but I have been pretty closely involved in terms of many things that have gone on. I thought I would take the opportunity over the 10 minutes I have got left just to put some comments out there.I want to acknowledge Minister Finlayson for his efforts. Like Minister Sharples has said I too have been at the end of the lift when he has come down saying: “I’ve got it! I’ve got it! I’ve got it!”. After five times it sort of wears off Minister but you did it today.Ka nui te mihi ki a koe—congratulations. Congratulations also to Mr Woodsand to the other negotiators Tāmati and Kirsti. Tēnā koutou katoa. There will be more acknowledgments of you I am sure in the future.Talking about settlements I think for me it is pretty hard to get a feeling for what those people who come into this House like the ones who are here today really feel unless you live there and you are part of the community. When you go to Taranaki you cannot talk about understanding confiscation until you sit there you sit in front of the people you sit in those communities you hear those stories you go to Parihaka and you feel what it is like and what they feel like when they come through the doors to listen to these settlement speeches. I cannot say that I have lived in Tūhoe—close enough Ngongotahā—but be that as it may I would like to feel that I have got enough close contacts like Mr Tau Henare talked about: the fortunate experiences of sitting next to people like Tame over the many years and visiting Tūhoe.The one thing I do remember is back to the time when the Waitangi Tribunal went into the Tūhoe valley. What a day! I will never forget it. I will never forget it because it was the first time I had seen cars tipped upside down on the side of the road—not just one but about a dozen. I will not forget the fires. I will not forget the smoke. I will not forget the hot day. I will not forget not one not two but at least three pōhiri to the tribunal. I will not forget the 30 people who were on horseback who came in and ushered the tribunal into the Tūhoe nation. I will not forget the semi-naked Tūhoe people who made the point about scorched earth policy which affected those people on that day. I will not forget even though I missed it a certain person armed with a certain shotgun aimed at a certain flag. I will not forget that because it is well documented. That for me brought it home because I was with my young child at the time. It was a hot day and I could not stay for the whole day but it will never ever—never ever—be forgotten by me as a part of my experience with this bill.But there were others. I think about the first efforts that were made to pull together the Tūhoe people. Tāmati of course has been acknowledged. I think about Matiu Te Pou and I think about Robert Pouwhare. I think about Te Toka.I think about the many others who took this claim around to try to get some agreement byTūhoe. The people came and in fact had the signing here in Parliament and I believe were of one mind one spirit and one heart. There was a real desire to have settlement brought to conclusion—the history that has already been discussed in this House. They went through a process of formalising entities and of course you get to the point where some would fall away. There were some fromNgāti Haka Patuheuheu a little bit ofMaungapōhatu and a little bit ofWaikaremoana. I do not know all the details but what I do know is that some fall away as they do in all settlements.But a few things happened for me. One was that I was asked to present concerns raised by some people to the Minister of Māori Affairs and I can put my hand on my heart and say I did that. I was asked to get meetings with the Ministers to allow them to put an alternative case to what was being generated. I can put my hand on my heart and say I did that. I was asked to try to see whether we could pull the parties together. Hand on heart I think I tried to do that. But the trouble was that it did not quite pan out. I was asked to attend meetings at Waiōhau where the Te Umutaoroa Collective pulled together numbers of people asking that I present a case to the Ministers. I did that.I remember going to Tūhoe and to Ruātoki to visit taraipara a hui of the collectives of all of the marae of Ruātoki where I was told in no uncertain terms firstly that the door is always open to anyone to come through the claims process. I was told that Urewera is at the heart of their settlement claim and to get it back. We tried to facilitate hui but unfortunately it did not come to pass as I say. So the things that stick for me about those hui were that the door was always open a proclamation on the part of pakeke at Ruātoki and that there was a willingness to meet with the other parties the disaffected parties. That was great. But the Tūhoe settlement could not be held up for the few especially as everyone had stood together here in this Parliament to get the signing. Finally I was told that no discussions should be had with any other disaffected groups if Tūhoe substantively was in front of the court. And they were at that time. I think about that because that is the part of the long history that gets us here today.I recall the court cases. Tūhoe have not only had to suffer injustices way back and in terms of the Crown but internally in a sense because they have been hauled to court. I need to say that there is a particular president of a political party called the Mana party who was the lawyer at the time who had I suppose the audacity to say that the Tūhoe settlement should go ahead on the election trail and yet she was the lawyer at the time who took the action against Tūhoe. That for me was way out of order. So there have been court cases and there have been challenges.I have been to the taraipara hui in Ruatāhuna and Ruātoki and the view has always been that Urewera is at the heart of this settlement. In fact I recall one hui in Ruātoki where Tāmati and other pakeke advised me again that that is at the very heart of how they wanted to move forward.I was asked to give some support and give some assistance. I know it is not right that MPs treat for votes—in other words throw incentives for people to vote for you and I have to say I have not done that. But I am not sure either whether it is appropriate or whether there are any rules around people saying that if you do certain things then they will vote for you. I do not know whether it is the opposite side. Well at the recent signing I reminded Tūhoe of a gesture made to me by I will say the taraipara at the time but it was probably Tāmati I think. He said that if we could achieve this deal today a magnanimous gesture would be given to me in that a swamp would be named after me. It is not every day that you get a swamp named after you but I make that statement simply to remind us I suppose of the depth of feeling. Even if it is a shallow swamp I will take it.We should remember that all of the debate has been against these difficult circumstances. There have been others. Firstly the deal has been on the table against the backdrop of what other members have talked about so Tūhoe needs to be commended for the avenues it has taken. The raids have been talked about. I do not want to go any further than that apart from saying that they would have tested the relationship between the Crown and the negotiators. I leave it at that. It was a sorry saga and we may come back to that later. Also there were the statements from the Prime Minister from time totime when he said that Urewera is not going to be part of the settlement. Well you got proved wrong. Well done Minister. I think that the master stroke was a deal or at least a relationship agreement signed on 28 June 2011 which was an attempt to bring the parties together. I say to the Minister and to those associated—master-stroke theatre.Just to wrap up just to say this—2 nights ago 3 nights ago maybe onNative Affairs there was a professor Professor Innes Asher who talked about the psychological harm done to the children of this generation with those raids. I hope that the positives of this settlement will also be in the hearts and minds of young Tūhoe in the future. Talking about the history—not long ago I read the book calledThe Prophet and the Policeman by a person by the name of Mark Derby talking about the relationship between Rua Kenana and John Cullen the first policeman ever to arrive in New Zealand. He went up to Maungapōhatu and for all intents and purposes you would understand why people feel pretty sour about the historical context because that event was duplicated some 5 years ago.There is a lot at stake in this bill and you can take it that the Māori Party is fully behind its settlement. We look forward to the future debates but I commend Tāmati. Ki a koutou ngā mātātahi o tēnei kaupapa ki te Minita i māia koutou.Kua eke ki te Whare Pāremata tēnā koutou tēnā koutou kia ora tātau katoa.[To you the young battlers of this matter to the Minister you were courageous.It has made in Parliament House so greetings congratulations and thank you all.]