Loheni AgnesAGNES LOHENI (National): Nei rā te mihi aroha ki ngā uri o Kurahaupō waka ngā uri o Te Rongopai o Tohu me Te Whiti. Tēnā koutou katoa tū mai Taranaki.[This is a sincere acknowledgement to the descendants of the ancestral waka of Kurahaupō the descendants of Te Rongopai of Tohu and Te Whiti. Greetings to you all to the tribe of Taranaki stand strong.]I am privileged to have this opportunity to make a contribution to this bill as a descendant of those later migrating iwi from Samoa. May I acknowledge the Hon Andrew Little for his work in concluding this bill with the people of Parihaka. I also paid tribute to the previous Minister the Hon Chris Finlayson for his work to bring this settlement to the table. To the members of the Māori Affairs Committee and the chair Rino Tirikatene fa'afetai lava mo le avanoaI am humbled to stand and address the iwi of my children. My Kamo-Dix children have direct whakapapa to Parihaka that culminated in their great-grand-uncle Manny Dix who upon hearing the call from his Taranaki iwi whānau travelled from the Chatham Islands to assist in the building of homes post the events in 1881. He is buried at Parihaka. Make no mistake. The first reading of the Parihaka Reconciliation Bill was a signal that the war was over—a war we the Crown lost before it even started. We lost the war the day this House decided it would be a good idea to send 1800 soldiers in to Parihaka unlawfully detain the ploughman of the village rape the women and raze their homes to the ground. How does a Government win with that sort of decision making?My parliamentary predecessor and ancestor of my Ngāti Mutunga and Ngāi Tahu children the Hon Hōri Kerei Taiaroa would take little satisfaction in being right if he was able to observe this legislation today. Taiaroa fought to the bitter end to have the rule of law applied in all matters pertaining to Māori. And it irked him to no end that the rule of law was ever only suspended where Māori were concerned. In this House on 31 May 1882 Hōre Kerei Taiaroa stated The only way to settle this trouble is to do away with these bills. To let Te Whiti go before the court and be tried." The bills Taiaroa referred to include the sinister Maori Prisoners' Trials Act 1879 the unconscionable West Coast Peace Preservation Act 1882 and its evil twin the Indemnity Act 1882—the content of which has been well rehearsed in this Chamber. The rule of law is a mainstay of our democratic institutions and they were suspended to subjugate the people of Taranaki and to speed up the taking of Māori land. The irony is not lost that the greatest defenders of the rule of law and democracy in New Zealand in the 1880s were Māori and not those who had imported these incredible institutions into New Zealand. But we've been given a second chance. And we know how rare that can be in history.Before us is the Parihaka Reconciliation Bill. It is the start point not an endpoint. And that is because the relationship between the people of Parihaka and us the Crown is everlasting guaranteed under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. And this time we intend to honour that relationship. There is still some way to go and some matters to be negotiated for the Māori Affairs Committee and the people of Parihaka. Parihaka people have rightly sought protection of their tūpuna Tohu Kākahi and Te Whiti o Rongomai. The story of these two incredible men precedes that of Mahatma Gandhi of Dr Martin Luther King and of Nelson Mandela. There is already incredibly considerable pressure to tell the story of these two men so the inclusion of clause 3B into this bill to prevent the commercial exploitation of the Parihaka name is a step in the right direction. It will be a challenge to try and extend those protections to the names of the prophets and their legacy and I urge the select committee to continue to consider this. May I finish with the most prophetic words uttered in this House—words of prophecy that some might say match Te Whiti's. They were spoken by a former member of Parliament Hēnare Tomoana on 16 July 1880 when he stated in reference to the legislation we were passing to subjugate the people of Parihaka—and I quote—"When a Māori looks an eel in the water it seems quite still and straight. But directly you catch hold of it it curves up doubles and twists around you and slimes you all over." The Parihaka Reconciliation Bill is the step to cleansing this House of the eel slime the legislation of 1879 to 1882 left on us. I commend this bill to the House. Tēnā koutou katoa."