Jones Shane: Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara Claims Settlement Bill — Second Reading In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeJones Shane: Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara Claims Settlement Bill — Second Reading In Committee[Sitting date: 17 April 2013. Volume:689;Page:9516. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon SHANE JONES (Labour): Tēnā tātou katoa i roto i tō tātou Whare i tēnei ata me ngā mahi i oti i roto i ngā rangi pahure ake nei: te whakatūturutanga o te nohonga tahitanga o te hunga takatāpui te tangihanga me ngā karakia i whakaritea mō Baroness Thatcher i tērā pito o te ao.Ēngari kāti ēnei kōrero mō ngā baronesses o rāwāhi me huri atu ki te kōrero ki te tangata whenua o Aotearoa. Nā reira e ōku tuākana e ōku mātua tēnā koutou katoa kua tau mai ki Te Upoko o Te Ika ki te mātakitaki i a mātou ngā kanohi o te ao tōrangapū e tū kotahi ana ki te whakatūturu i tēnei pire e whiwhi pānga ai ngā whānau o roto o Ngāti Whātua ki te Kaipara ki ngā taonga tuku iho mai i ō tātou wheinga i tērā pito o Te Tai Tokerau. Nā reira tēnā koutou katoa.[Acknowledgments to us all in our House this morning in regards to the business completed over the past days: the passing of the bill that will enable those of the same gender to marry each other and the State funeral and service for Baroness Thatcher on the other side of the world.But enough of these talks about baronesses from overseas. Let us turn to address the indigenous people of New Zealand. And so to my senior siblings and all my elders acknowledgments to you all who have arrived here in Wellington to observe us the faces of the political world standing as one here to pass this bill which will enable families of Ngāti Whātua of Kaipara to have a share in the treasures inherited from our very old people from that extremity of the north. So salutations to you all.]I rise to support the passage of the Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara Claims Settlement Bill along with my colleagues. It has become the custom that all of the speakers with the exception of a few irritating dissenters from time to time support pieces of legislation promoted by the Government to address our historic Treaty grievances. Ngāti Whātuarepresents an interesting case as to how the Treaty grievances in this part of Māoridom have been dealt with.Can I just cast my thoughts back briefly to a former stalwart of the Māori Battalion a senior member in his day of the National Party and chief of Tai Tokerau Eruera Patuawa Nathan otherwise known as Ned Nathan. He took a lead in the Te Rōroa portion of the Ngāti Whātua estate. A number of us felt that it would have been better in all honesty for Ngāti Whātua not to have disaggregated but I quickly learnt to my cost as the chair of the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission that those matters are best left to iwi. If the descendants of an iwi find that it was not the best thing to do then they can sort that out with their mātua and their whāea not the occasional Dalmatian Māori politician.So that was the first attempt and of course that attempt was marred by the antics of Allan Titford and his neighbour Mr Harrison who in the areas of Whāngaiariki and Manuwhētai lodged a host of very destructive acts against a small group of Ngāti Whātua all of whom have gone now: Lovey Te Rore Raiha Pāniora matua Ned Nathan and a host of others. Then we turned our attention to what is commonly known as Bastion Point or Ōrākei and that was a portion. Then we also—prior to a number of us coming into politics—watched the Te Uri o Hau settlement. And now we come and today support the descendants of Paora Tūhaere and a variety of other tūpuna around this area of the Kaipara.I think a couple of things need to be pointed out: that there is a range of assets tied up in this settlement but there are also first rights of refusal. I have to single out the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations and congratulate him and his team on getting together the multiple interests that comprise the Tāmaki-makau-rau Māori ancestral community—I think they are the iwi collective—because it has not been easy. Indeed the High Court exasperated I am sure had to poke its nose into the affairs of Ngāi Tai. One wonders whether once a group gets so small that it is almost sort of an appellation problem they should not have joined forces with the Ngāi Tai further down the countryside but then again that is not for an MP to say. But things can be observed in the House without being sued for such observations. It might change when we get on the marae. But the Minister and no doubt the Minister of Māori Affairs shepherded forward these groups.I raise it only in the context that this hapū this group has interests in the area around Whenuapai Hobsonville and a large block of Crown land formerly dedicated to a military purpose—I believe it was in our time—through the Public Works Act or words to that effect which came back into serving another Crown purpose called “housing”. Recently I went to this development when I popped in to visit Māoridom’s most famous accountant called Rob McLeod currently the Chief Executive Officer of Ernst and Young in Australia—no doubt a contributor to the other side of the House but that will soon be redressed. I looked at that Hobsonville development and I send a signal to my relations up here: guard jealously the first rights of refusal because the goodwill evinced through this Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations and a variety of other politicians does not necessarily go forward to the next generation of politicians.In the future you will have to look at the first rights of refusal and establish whether they are a kosher example of the Crown still needing use of such property and such resources. We can all agree in that part of Tāmaki-makau-rau that when it was used for the military it was beyond cavil. But when it moves into a kind of housing development—and I am not being partisan because we on our side of the House initiated it—and I look at those developments I have no doubt in my mind that very few people from that part of the Kaipara from Ōtakanini Haranui and other such places are going to find a home on land that was originally Crown land and has since beendedicated to serve a Crown housing purpose. But that is more of an issue that belongs in social policy rather than a signal to the visitors here today to guard jealously the first rights of refusal and ensure that when the Crown makes a call not only is it to your interests but also no one is exploiting it to your disadvantage.It may actually have the capacity to sully the day that we raise commercial matters of this nature when there is a great deal of symbolism and history to be commemorated in this part of the bill’s journey but at the end of the day all our fine rhetoric has to turn into an economic reality. There is a good opportunity here in the forestry asset. It is also valuable real estate which over time will grow in value and it may come to pass that pine trees are not the best thing to do with the Woodhill Forest but the value is that it will be your decision subject to the various nooks and crannies of the contract that lies upon that land. The Kaipara Harbour does need a great deal of remedial action. The fact that there are statutory acknowledgments and a willingness to take on the cultural leadership only bodes well for the future management and stewardship of the Kaipara. In days gone by that was the huarahi—that was the waterway.Kia manawa nui kia manawa roa kia kaha koutou ki a koutou. Ka hoki ngā whakaaro ki tō koutou matua nā mātou i karanga ko Happy Dynamite ēngari ko Hapi Pīhema. Nāna mātou i mau ki Ōtakanini mātou i ahu mai i roto i Muriwhenua. Ka haere ki konā ki te mātakitaki i ngā mahi whakatere kūmara whakatupu kau whakatupu kararehe. Kua pau katoa rātou ēngari ēnei kaupapa i nāianei e amohia ana e koutou. Hoinō tā mātou ngā kanohi Māori ahakoa ko Tau ahakoa ko Pita ko mātou he tautoko i a koutou me tā mātou kī i te tūpono he raruraru karawhiua mai ki a mātou pēnā e oti i a mātou tētahi rongoā kia kore rawa atu ēnā momo raru e māturuturu tonu ki roto i a tātou tamariki mokopuna. Nā reira tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.[Be big-hearted be long-hearted find strength in each other. My thoughts go back to your elder whom we called Happy Dynamite but who was really Hapi Pīhema. He was the one who took us to Ōtakanini those of us who were from Muriwhenua. We went to observe operations involved in launching kūmara breeding cattle and animals. They are all gone now apart from these proposals that you bear now. All we the Māori members can do whether it is Tau Pita or us is to support and say to you that should a problem arise fire it in our direction for us to find a remedy so that those kinds of problems do not filter down to our children and grandchildren. And so greetings and salutations to you and to us all.]