Clendon David: Ngati Manawa Claims Settlement Bill Ngati Whare Claims Settlement Bill — Third Readings 
Clendon David: Ngati Manawa Claims Settlement Bill Ngati Whare Claims Settlement Bill — Third Readings 
[Volume:678;Page:1468] 
DAVID CLENDON (Green) 
: 
 Kei te mihi nui ki a koutou ki nga rangatira ma nga kuia ma ki nga hapu katoa o Ngati Whare me Ngati Manawa. Tena koutou katoa. 
[ 
I acknowledge you greatly leaders elderly womenfolk and all subtribes of Ngati Manawa and Ngati Whare. Salutations to you all. 
] 
It is a pleasure to take the call for the Greens to confirm our support today for these settlement bills the Ngati Manawa Claims Settlement Bill and the Ngati Whare Claims Settlement Bill. I would like to begin by acknowledging and echoing the remarks made by Minister Sharples and by the Hon Parekura Horomia and in particular their recognition of the very long struggle of these iwi to arrive at this place today—a struggle for redress; we are talking of over a century of effort and work by many people—and their acknowledgment of those who have passed away. One hopes that the events of today will help those who have passed to rest more peacefully and give hope and opportunity to the current leadership and people of these two iwi to reclaim their own future to restore the well-being of their people and indeed of the land that sustains them.  
I think it is worth noting as ever the history of these claims. They are important historical documents the bills that will become the Acts of settlement because they do record the histories. It is interesting that both of these iwi endeavoured to stay aloof from other people’s wars. They endeavoured to simply get on with their own lives in the 1840s and 1850s but unfortunately as we know of course the events of the 1860s overtook them. These iwi were obliged to entangle themselves in other people’s disputes to take sides and it was at considerable cost. It was the beginning of a long history of degradation of their land of their social well-being of their lives indeed.  
We know that what little was left to these iwi at the conclusion of the shooting war continued to be whittled away over time by the machinations of the Native Land Court and the Crown of the day. The actions of the Crown were neither honest nor honourable and it is a privilege and a pleasure to us all I am sure to endeavour to restore to give back a little of what was taken today albeit after a very very long time has elapsed. I think recognising the very poor treatment of the Crown in the past simply reminds us of the responsibility all of us parliamentarians have to ensure that all people are treated fairly and decently and in an honourable way.  
These settlement bills for Ngati Manawa and Ngati Whare also highlight the importance of rivers the lifeblood of the land and of the people who depend on that land critical to the identification of us as Maori through our whakapapa and increasingly important to non-Maori New Zealanders who have considerable physical and spiritual attachments to the riverways to the waterways in this country. It is clear that our rivers have not been well managed. They have not been protected. They have been degraded as have been the catchments that feed them. It is a very positive thing that these bills restore the status of kaitiaki to the people who know the rivers best who have got the longest history of caring for them of managing them and it is a good thing that there is more opportunity now for the kaitiaki to exercise a degree of power a degree of authority in the restoration and the well-being of those rivers.  
I note the Maori Affairs Committee report did express some regret that the level of control of authority if you like is perhaps not consistent with that which has been allowed in other bills notably the Waikato river settlement which some of us hoped might set the standard and might set the baseline. But nevertheless there is a considerable step forward and I am sure that the commitment and the determination of the people who have these rights restored to them will ensure that these rivers do thrive do improve and to the benefit of us all.  
The select committee also noted that there was some nervousness among consent holders—people who have resource consents that are relative to the waters and to the riverways—and that they were concerned that giving iwi and hapu a degree of control might threaten their resource consent renewals. I say to them that if those people act honourably if they act in ways that respect and acknowledge the importance of those rivers and if they are respectful of the conditions that apply to their current consents then they will give iwi and hapu no reason to not restore or to not renew their consents in time. It is in the hands of those people holding those consents to ensure that the future of those consents is assured.  
I think I will leave my comments there simply again to acknowledge the very very long struggle of Ngati Whare and Ngati Manawa to offer the respects of the Green Party to them and to wish them all the best going into the future. May they thrive as they deserve to. Kia ora koutou.