Brownlee Gerry: Ngati Awa Claims Settlement Bill — In Committee Procedure 
Brownlee Gerry: Ngati Awa Claims Settlement Bill — In Committee Procedure 
[Volume:623;Page:18808] 
GERRY BROWNLEE (Deputy Leader—National) 
: 
 I wish to make a contribution on this preamble part of the Ngati Awa Claims Settlement Bill and simply to acknowledge that the Government has finally done the right thing and put together a Supplementary Order Paper to clear up some of the translation confusion that may well have existed had that course of action not been taken. It is disingenuous for the Minister in charge of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations to hint that somehow this course of action has resulted from I suppose one would say diversionary or slowing tactics from the Opposition. That is far from the truth. 
What it does point to though is our concern about the way in which the Office of Treaty Settlements goes about its business. Although we have been assured today that these sorts of translations will be dealt with in this new manner from this day on to my mind this instance causes me to ask how many other things in this settlement bill are thereabouts—that is not quite right not quite accepted but thereabouts leaving open the opportunity for future generations of those upon whom this settlement is being settled to say it was an imposition by Parliament and not an agreed position between the iwi and the Crown. 
I state again—and I will state it over and over again—that I think it is inappropriate for the Office of Treaty Settlements to be recommending to Ministers that settlements proceed when so few of the members of the eligible iwi have committed to that settlement being full and final by casting a vote in favour of it. It does not matter what light one wants to put on it or what sort of twist or turn; the reality is that when only about 30 percent of an iwi signs up to a settlement far too many are left out there with the opportunity to say: “We didn’t accept that.” It may not be this generation it may not even be the next or the one after that but when we are dealing with a people who pride themselves on their oral history and on the strength of being able to keep those things that are taonga to them through that oral history I think we need to do a lot better than to go for settlements telling the rest of the population that they are full and final while so many of those who are the “settlors” or “settlees” or whatever the correct legal term is have not bought into the settlement itself. 
I am very pleased that in the preamble we have been able to set a new precedent for how we go about these bills and how the aspects of the bill that are described in the preamble should be kept very very similar if not completely the same in both texts. I accept what the Minister said—there will be nuance differences—but I believe that in this case the Office of Treaty Settlements has made every effort to ensure that the recitals as they are written in one language translate relatively easily into the recitals as they are written in the other language as best as that can be done as my colleague Dr Mapp said. 
So the National Party begins the Committee stage with some pride that it was National that pointed out the I suppose one could say inconsistency in the preamble. I cannot understand why the Minister responsible did not simply insist on this sort of exercise right from the outset. 
We will be looking at the rest of the bill now to ensure that all that is claimed in the bill is in line with what those who are having this claim—and I will say it—imposed upon them by the Labour Government are expecting because the full and final aspect of any settlement is its most important aspect. New Zealanders have a right to expect that when the Office of Treaty Settlements recommends to a Minister that a bill proceed because it is at a point where the parties to the negotiations one of which is the Crown—which by the way is all New Zealanders and includes every Maori in this country as well—have reached agreement between themselves then we should believe that it will be sustained.