Peters Winston: Ngati Manuhiri Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Peters Winston: Ngati Manuhiri Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 14 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6667. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) 
: 
 E nga matua e nga karanga maha me nga hoa tena koutou tena koutou tena koutou katoa. 
[ 
To the fathers many callings and colleagues greetings salutations and acknowledgments to you all. 
] 
It is high time a discordant note was introduced into this debate. We have been through the introduction first reading and Committee stage and a full examination of the Ngati Manuhiri Claims Settlement Bill. Some people’s reputations have been maligned and impugned and I am here today to defend them. I recall when Ngati Wai was under attack back in the 1970s from both the Crown and the Whangarei County Council. I want to know where some of these critics were back then when we needed help when we turned things round. 
You see it is said that this bill is a breach of the Treaty of Waitangi and that certain so-called claimants’ claims are more meritorious than claims from those who have been around for a long time defending these issues. This is what these claimants took to the Waitangi Tribunal you will recall and they said that Ngati Wai if they dealt with the Crown that way would be involved in significant irreversible prejudice. They said that Ngati Wai were not consulted that the chairperson of the Ngati Wai Trust Board and the Ngati Manuhiri negotiator and trustee of the Manuhiri Omaha Kaitiakitanga Ora Trust were the same that the chairperson of the Manuhiri Omaha Kaitiakitanga Ora Trust and the Ngati Manuhiri negotiator was a marae representative on the Ngati Wai Trust Board and moved the motion for the board to support the Ngati Manuhiri settlement and that the legal adviser to the Ngati Wai Trust Board was the same adviser to the Manuhiri Omaha Kaitiakitanga Ora Trust and the Ngati Manuhiri negotiations. Those claims have been maintained on marae at the Maori Affairs Committee and on regardless of the fact that the Waitangi Tribunal found no merit in them at all. 
Here is the fact of the matter. The facts of the matter are that the Ngati Wai Trust Board endorsed Manuhiri proceedings with their settlement as part of the Tamaki Makaurau settlement of the Auckland isthmus. That is No. 1. And there is no integrity in coming before this House with ignorance supporting certain groups whose reputations I remember. For example look at my people up there. Let me ask you this: HoriParata—how much land does HoriParata keep at Pataua? Not one inch. But I hear people telling the Green Party something else and those members fall for it. It is a slight on Ngati Wai from the south to the north. 
 Here are the facts. The resolution referred to in Part 1 that is the resolution I am talking about. It is a resolution that says that the Ngati Wai Trust Board does not support any settlement that extinguishes any iwi rights interests or redress to the islands within the Ngati Wai rohe. That was the resolution and it still stands. So why would the Greens come here today as they have in the past and put up there all manner of people with no understanding at all of Ngati Wai or our history as though they know more than the people who have slaved away for decades to see this right? I do not come here with any joy but I am not going to stand by while people get defamed and maligned. The settlement deed specifically states that settlement with Manuhiri does not impinge upon any claims the Ngati Wai Trust Board has. The Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations has said that so has the Waitangi Tribunal. But no those members came down to the House and spread malice aforethought—to use a legal term. 
We know about the land that is in the exclusive control of Ngati Manuhiri. It is 1.2 hectares. But in respect of the conflict of interest I suggest that the Green Party considers the minute from the Waitangi Tribunal which was asked to consider the conflict of interest issue. It went on to say this. This is the key finding from the Waitangi Tribunal: “Taken in conjunction with the Minister’s assurances that the door is open for further redress to be negotiated with Ngati Wai I have come to the view”—this is Judge Milroy on behalf of the Waitangi Tribunal—“that there is no significant and irreversible prejudice to the applicants. Ngati Wai are recognised to some degree in the Deed. Redress that recognises shared manawhenua is still available to the applicants.” 
Those are the facts. Do you want me to read it again? No no but this is to do with the law not prejudice and bias or picking up the view of a few troublemakers who came before me and told me “We represent Ngati Wai.” Well that was a big surprise to me because I have been around a long time since we started the Ngati Wai Land Retention Committee to take on the Crown and the Whangarei County Council. We had 16 years of court case after court case and finally almost won the whole lot. I remember some of those ones though. They did not pay me. I am still waiting for my legal fees. And to have people come to this House and defame my family or Laly Haddon and people of that standing—well those are the things up with which we in New Zealand First will not put. 
Hon Christopher Finlayson 
: Don’t hold your breath for an apology. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS 
: Well I am asking for an apology. My brother has been the solicitor for the trust board for a long time and the board was well aware of his involvement with Manuhiri and his assisting of them with their negotiations although in effect his role was primarily involved in advising on structures around receiving the settlement assets as opposed to deciding what the form of the settlement should be. However I do not suppose the Greens want to have that story spoiled by facts. But an apology is deserved here. 
The second thing is that people have served their area studiously and with barely any compensation—go and look at Ngati Wai Trust Board’s record of remuneration to the people who have worked for it. It is a standout model of putting the iwi before self. Look at the record. We will not stand by while somebody who does not understand or a political party that should know better but does not comes down here and defames and maligns us because whatever our record is in Ngati Wai to use that old quote—and I suppose it goes for my party as well as against that of some parties—not like the seagull tossing and turning its head at every wave but like the rock steadfast against the surging sea. Thank you.