Korako NukNUK KORAKO (National): Ā tēnā rā koutou ngā puāwaitaka o tō tātou mātua tīpuna. He mihi hōhonu ki ngā uri o Awanuiārangi. Nō reira e koutou rā e ngā mane e ngā reo o rau rakatira mā tēnā koutou tēnā koutou he mihi atu ki a koutou katoa.[Well greetings to the fruits of our ancestors. Profound greetings to the descendants of Awanuiārangi. Therefore to the authorities to the voices of the many leaders greetings greetings greetings to you all.]What a hard process the passage of this bill has been. I want to just acknowledge very quickly the Māori Affairs Committee of the 51st Parliament and particularly those members that are not here in this 52nd Parliament—Chester Borrows Marama Fox and also Pita Paraone—because there was a lot of work actually that was done on this particular bill.There are two aggrieved peoples before us: the Manukōrihi and Ōtaraua hapū of Te Atiawa and the leaseholders on the iwi's lands who were given reassurances of being able to buy the land they leased. It's been encouraging to see all parties acknowledge the grave injustice committed against the Manukōrihi and Ōtaraua hapū. Not 20 years after a treaty was signed between the iwi and the Crown fighting had broken out in Waitara. Notwithstanding the loss of life that occurred on both sides of the fighting lines any reasonable view of Māori land alienation could only have concluded the Treaty obligations the Crown then and to this day had. The various hapū of Te Atiawa Taranaki iwi Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāti Tama along with the support of their once mortal enemies Ngāti Maniapoto reluctantly took up arms to try and protect their diminishing landholdings.The Crown response was almost gleeful as they took up the patu of confiscation to hasten the alienation of the land Taranaki Treaty partners were objecting to. Confiscation is a dreadful tool that shines a poor light on our predecessors in the House here. Quite how a New Zealand Government could think it just to impoverish a people for protecting lands they held for hundreds of years—what did the Crown think would happen to Manukōrihi and Ōtaraua? I shudder to think of what the answer might have been from my predecessors. That history—and we are bound to repeat the mistakes of our predecessors. Are we going to do that?Before us today is the New Plymouth District Council (Waitara Lands) Bill. Finally we can begin to correct the hara of the past. As is so often the case with matters Treaty and endeavours to address the past the solution here in a lot of ways is imperfect and that is because we cannot address one injustice by creating another injustice. Irrespective of the rights and wrongs of the past and irrespective of how the leaseholders came on to the land they are here the leasees and they have made lives for themselves and their families. They have invested time money and sweat into the property. They were mistakenly told they could convert their freehold title. I think it's a callous person that is unreceptive to the genuine anguish of ordinary Kiwi folk trying to minimise their family losses.Our role as politicians in this House is to carefully balance the needs of all New Zealanders as we seek to address the past wrongs. This bill is that balancing act in action. This is I believe a pragmatic albeit imperfect response to the issue before the House today and it has the support of the New Plymouth District Council. It is to this council now that I turn my gaze. Like us you are a Crown creation and like us you have Treaty responsibilities that extend back to 1840. I applaud you for having been in discussions and finally coming to the point we are at here today. As the Crown's parliamentary representative I have to take the accolades and spoken attacks that go with my role. I have to be responsible for the actions of my parliamentary predecessors. I have to own Crown failings as though they are my failings and to the New Plymouth District Council so do you—so do you.It has taken 30 years for you to get to this point and I have to express my surprise that it took this long. Notwithstanding that the fault lies with people who were in your seats before you it is still your responsibility as a collective entity. The issue was indeed black and white. The lands unlawfully taken were passed across to people who were given reassurances that should never have been made. It is as much these reassurances in the leases that brings us here today that finally is the end of this journey.All the acknowledgments have been made to those that have assisted in this bill but one thing that I'd like to do is to finally acknowledge again the hapū of Manukōrihi and Ōtaraua because your journey has been hard but you have now the opportunity to actually make that journey and then it is for your children and their children after you. Nō reira e huri noa i Te Whare nei he mihi atu ki a koutou katoa.[Therefore right around the House greetings to you all.]