Whaitiri MekaHon MEKA WHAITIRI (Labour—Ikaroa-Rāwhiti): E Te Māngai o Te Whare tēnā koe. Ngā mema o Te Whare nei tēnā tātou katoa. E te iwi Ngāti Rangi tēnei te mihi aroha ki a koutou katoa kua tae mai i runga i te karanga o te rā—te pānui tuarua o tā koutou pire o tā tātou pire nō reira ōku rau rangatira mā tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa. [Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. To the members of this House greetings. To the people of Ngāti Rangi I extend warm greetings to you all who have answered the call of the day—the second reading of your bill of our bill. Therefore ladies and gentlemen I greet you one and all.]I'm pleased to rise in supporting the second reading of the Ngāti Rangi Claims Settlement Bill; I'm pleased as a representative of the Tairāwhiti to stand in honour of the second reading of Ngāti Rangi. Can I just acknowledge for those who have travelled down here and to remind members of the House that we are talking about Ngāti Rangi who are based in the western and southern foothills of Mount Ruapehu. The area of interest includes Ōhākune Waiōuru and borders on Raetihi. Some would call it the venture capitalist tourism capital of Aotearoa New Zealand where many people come to enjoy the beautiful slopes of Ruapehu and of of course the lovely manaakitanga we receive from Ōhākune Raetihi and of course we had the Hon Mr Ron Mark talk about the military readiness of Waiōuru.For those who are here and maybe those who are listening at home it's just timely to remind us that the second reading is to assure the House that the bill has been thoroughly scrutinised through the Māori Affairs Committee. As a member of that select committee and all previous speakers we have attested to the fact that we've had 26 submissions on this bill of which seven were heard up in Ōhākune. It's important to assure the House that submitters were listened to that where we made technical amendments they were made. It's in that regard that I just want to touch on a couple of proposed amendments that the select committee have brought to the House and make some comments on that.The first is the Taonga Tūturu Protocol and the Chair has touched on that the cross-agency instrument called the Whakaaetanga Tiaki Taonga. And this reminds me of a former colleague who helped facilitate this negotiation Che Wilson in our time with the Department of Labour many many years ago coming in for his expertise in actually getting Crown agencies to work together. It's a challenge. It was a challenge back in the early 90s and it remains a challenge today.So I want to acknowledge Che Wilson and the negotiators for the hard work in getting and bringing forth this particular amendment to their settlement bill. So ngā mihi ki a koe. I want to acknowledge that he was also only a few weeks ago a chief judge of the largest matatini just down the road here at the Cake Tin. Now I won't make a comment on who finally won because there were about 38 judges but let's just say we love to share the love around the country from the Tairāwhiti. So I mihi to my colleague the Hon Peeni Henare as we travel to Tāmaki-makau-rau in 2021. Back to the bill—back to the bill.The other amendment is of course the amendment to the Karioi Forest and so I want to acknowledge the work in achieving amendments to accurately give Ngāti Rangi forestry licence to perform and benefit from the fact that they now have shares in a forest. Of course that is another economic enabler for the people of Ngāti Rangi.The other area I wanted to touch on is obviously the dissenters to the bill. Of course there are always going to be people who believe that this is not the right way and I'm glad particularly in acknowledging Uenuku Charitable Trust who realised that because Ngāti Rangi is progressing their own rights and interests are protected. I just want to acknowledge them in this second reading.It is important to acknowledge the hard work of the Māori Affairs Committee. To all the officials; Parliamentary Counsel Office which actually drafts the legislation; of course Te Arawhiti officials; and of course our own clerks of the Māori Affairs Committee; to all our members who work collaboratively on the Māori Affairs Committee so that we can ensure that Treaty bills pass through this House in an expedient way: I commend this bill to the House.