Turei Metiria: Te Roroa Claims Settlement Bill — Second Reading 
Turei Metiria: Te Roroa Claims Settlement Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:640;Page:10085] 
METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
: 
 The Green Party will vote for the second reading of the Te Roroa Claims Settlement Bill and we will see how the Committee stage goes but we reserve our position on further stages of the legislation. 
Te Roroa have sought redress on a wide range of issues since 1861. The Crown has successively failed to appropriately deal with the grievances of Te Roroa prior to and I think including this settlement. This settlement provides some redress to them but it does not provide real justice. Lands stolen are not being returned. 
One of the primary purposes of the 1992 Waitangi Tribunal claim by Te Roroa and the subsequent settlement was to remedy the Crown’s failure to set aside Kaharau Te Taraire Manuwhetai and Whangaiariki from the lands that were purchased in 1875 and 1876. Protest over Kaharau Te Taraire and other smaller Waimamaku wahi tapu is as old as 1887. It was 120 years ago when a surveyor began the process of cutting the area up. The iwi were consistent in their understanding that those areas were to be set aside from any sales but the Crown rejected that and would accept only that “any old graves on the block a few acres surrounding them could perhaps be reserved under the provisions of The Land Act without causing any inconvenience.” And that title would remain in the hands of the Crown. Indeed the Kaharau block with its very long history of dispute will not be returned to iwi not even in this settlement 120 years after the first cutting up. 
I do not accept Minister Burton’s comment made earlier in the process of this legislation: “the settlement falls shorts of your desires in relation to Kaharau. It is my hope that you are able to be reunited with Kaharau at some time in the future.” In fact it is the Minister’s job to reunite Te Roroa with Kaharau and he has failed to do that. I know that the Government argues that Te Roroa could have used the settlement quantum to buy the land but this disguises the fact that Te Roroa need to acquire a number of other Crown-owned properties to make sure that the settlement is economically viable into the future. Kaharau is an area of about 600 hectares with an approximate rateable value of over $1.5 million. The residue of the quantum that Te Roroa have left after they purchase the other Crown-owned properties that they have to purchase is $70000. They have no hope of getting this land back with that. 
The Government’s position on Kaharau and Te Taraire was neither fair nor in good faith. The point of the settlement was the return of those lands. The settlement quantum should have been sufficient to include the purchase of those two key properties and it was not. The Government simply did not consider that the return of those properties was of sufficient importance to increase the quantum. If it had it would have made sure that those properties were returned. 
This is one of the key problems with the Office of Treaty Settlements and with the settlement process: claimants and their needs are simply not taken seriously enough by this Government or I think previous Governments. I think this is obvious in the recent critiques against the department in the Waitangi Tribunal report on Ngati Whatua o Orakei. The Office of Treaty Settlements was severely criticised for failing to engage with tangata whenua groups failing to give them accurate information and failing to communicate with them in any meaningful way. The Office of Treaty Settlements would not assist Ngati Whatua in dealing with cross-claimants and left them to manage the problems that the Office of Treaty Settlements had caused by its failure to engage properly in the first place. In effect the Office of Treaty Settlements has become complacent to a point where it simply ignores what it does not want to engage with or does not need to engage with and instead uses its considerable resources to bulldoze settlements through. 
I understand that the Government probably thinks that it is meeting the needs of the public by its unseemly haste to conclude settlements regardless of the inherent unfairness of them. I think it has been driven by focus groups and by the resonances of the racism from the last election. But the fact is that the New Zealand public do not all think like Don Brash. So before I conclude my speech tonight I want to read some quite long extracts from a letter from Stephen King a founding trustee of the Waipoua Forest Trust which established the Millennium Kauri Forest and a member of the Pakeha community who lives within the Te Roroa rohe. 
He says this: “Tena koutou katoa as you are aware our trust and the parent NZ Native Forests Restoration Trust have been working for 22 years working hard to restore the Waipoua Kauri Forest for which Te Roroa are the kaitiaki. We have invested more than $4m in land protection and restoration and for the past 9 years worked in a formal partnership with Te Roroa to restore this national treasure. I have lived at the forest and worked with Te Roroa for more than 13 years. During this time in the community I have observed the grief of Te Roroa and been to claims hui and to the tangi of numbers of kaumatua and kuia who did not survive the negotiation process. I have shared the pain of two negotiators who suffered heart attacks as a direct result of the crippling and heartless negotiating terms and process. 
I have seen the sacrifice of 18 years of prime leadership particularly of Rev. Daniel Ambler and Alex Nathan whose outstanding abilities would have been better invested in forwarding Te Roroa and our community than being bogged down in unnecessarily protracted negotiations. During 15 years of protracted negotiations the crown has continued to take logs and profit from Te Roroa land amounting to a sum substantially more than that offered to settle the claim. Now the Te Roroa Claims Settlement Bill is set to consign another generation of Te Roroa to economic hardship (having to borrow money to purchase back its lands) while the crown continues to profit from another full rotation (27 years) of log extractions. It is impossible”—he says—“to see how the crown has acted fairly or sincerely in settling this claim. 
… Following parliamentary submissions commencing 1907 the court awarded in their favour in 1932 and then endorsed by Wai 38 in 1992. Signing and enacting a deal won’t erase this issue from the community. Despite signed agreements I advise the government that this is unresolved and will remain so until a provision is made for crown purchase now or in future when landholders are ready. One landholder has been awaiting an approach from the crown for the last 10 years. The other major landholder is receptive to future acquisition or acquisition with lifetime use. … 
Until this is settled Te Roroa elders will continue to feel ‘enslaved’ ”—as my colleague has referred to—“… because they do not have control of the bones and resting places of their ancestors. Further their mana will be eroded within Northland for failing to deliver on a core of the claim something that generations before have fought for and they carry the mantle for. … 
I implore you to address the situation. Failure to do so will affect not only Te Roroa but the pakeha community as well particularly the farmers whose land will always be affected by the knowledge within the community it is stolen land that rightfully belongs to Te Roroa. Te Roroa will always feel they belong to that land. Legislation will not break the link or expectation for resolution.” 
He goes on: “2008 will mark exactly 100 years since a Waipoua Kauri National Park was first promulgated to parliament by govt. ecologist … Waipoua was the site of NZ’s first lowland forest conservation battle in the 1940s. For 20 years successive politicians and public have patiently awaited the settlement of Wai 38 to enable the formation of a Kauri National Park. After years of work and careful thought we have a new style of park which the trust will be putting to government and key leaders for acceptance in 2008. The first priority however is ensuring that the Wai 38 settlement bill does in fact lay a secure foundation upon which Te Roroa can plan progress and afford the space to embrace a project which will become an internationally recognised natural wonder. Whatever form the park takes it is imperative that it is founded on a healthy relationship with Te Roroa and a proud recognition of their kaitiakitanga together with the guardianship role of the ordinary kiwi constituency … This is all part of our heritage and sense of national identity. Being fair to our tangata whenua partners is an essential part of bringing integrity to our proudly espoused kiwi values and moving forward together.” 
This is the view of the Pakeha community which the Government should be listening to. Kia ora.