Logie JanJAN LOGIE (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. I too would like to mihi to the people from Ngāti Rangitihi who are in the House today for all of their work to bring their settlement to this point for their people. I acknowledge that this has early origins of 1860s that this process today can whakapapa back to and that even for the negotiation of this specific agreement that has been reached with the Crown the mandate was sought in 2010. Here we are in 2021—11 years on—and the slog of that work when it's about the very essence of who you are and the future for your people I really think needs to be acknowledged. I stand here as the Greens' spokesperson on Te Tiriti o Waitangi. In first readings we always acknowledge and put on record that the Crown and the representatives have breached Te Tiriti o Waitangi—and continue to—and that from our perspective this process is another breach of the sovereignty of hapū. We believe that there must be resolution and restitution that does honour to the harm that was done and that continues to be done which is why we never believe that these settlements as hard fought for as they are should be considered full or final. This is a step in our history of partnership and we have a vision of a fuller and more honouring partnership in the future where we truly acknowledge the sovereignty of hapū. In this speech I want to be specific to the experience of Ngāti Rangitihi. I want to start by acknowledging the points that guided the negotiation as articulated by Ngāti Rangitihi which were the aspirations for kaitiakitanga manaakitanga rangatiratanga and the desire to restore the mauri—the health and spiritual wellbeing—of all those places in their rohe that contribute to the healthy environment for their people; to restore the health and wellbeing of the Tarawera River system which is synonymous with the health and wellbeing of Ngāti Rangitihi; and to take an integrated approach to the management of our natural physical cultural and historical resources. I want to start by acknowledging those guiding principles and the contrast between those principles and the historical actions of the Crown to seize land to have that philosophy of man over nature about economic output at the cost of all else and facilitating in effect at the heart of it the destruction of the land that supports us. How much we could learn from actually taking our guidance from those aspirations and that world view as so beautifully articulated by Ngāti Rangitihi. I want to acknowledge within that too the really obvious generosity of taking those aspirations as the starting point within the negotiation which required being able to set aside the pain of seeing the land that you are part of destroyed to the point where Tarawera Awa was considered dead the people and the atua desecrated. To set that pain aside with the aspirations and the hope for the future is phenomenal generosity and extraordinary leadership that I really wish would filter in to the thinking of everybody in this House and I acknowledge how much I have to learn in that process. So to touch on just a few of the points in terms of the history that are acknowledged in this settlement one of the starting points I want to acknowledge is that Ngāti Rangitihi were part of the Te Arawa inter-hapū hui that agreed not to sign Te Tiriti o Waitangi at the time or to accept the authority of the Crown while they still actively engaged with the emerging colonial economy. I want to just remind people that may think that Māori have benefited from colonisation and that things have come out super-well—just on those points right there—Māori were able to have sovereignty and engage in the economy and trading and were global participants which is not quite what's been represented recently. Then in 1866 there were large-scale Crown confiscations and I also want to point out that there are several key things for me even in this settlement where the use of language is I believe important. As a voice for responsible Kāwanatanga I want to put on record that confiscation" which is what the phrasing is in relation to public works taking is trying to put lipstick on a pig. It was theft. I believe that a true apology would be honest about what has happened and to refer to confiscations when my association with confiscation is when I had been really badly behaved in class at school and the teacher had confiscated the thing I was messing around with because I'd done something wrong—that was not the scenario. This was Crown theft of Māori land and I really look forward to that future we will have where we can be honest about our history and we will be able to shape a different future. In response the pathway that was offered for Ngāti Rangitihi and other iwi and hapū to be able to try and resolve or address or complain about those confiscations was the Native Land Court. That was an institution established by the Crown that was putting out results and rulings that benefited the Crown which again for me brings back too a fundamental problem with this House signing off and having a final say on settlements. When sovereignty was not ceded why does this House have the final say? I do believe that we need to have that constitutional conversation and consideration of the recommendations in the work prompted by Matike Mai to work to a process that actually enables settlements to be truly agreed and finalised by the relevant parties being hapū and the Crown. While it was mentioned by a previous member that this is about historical breaches going back into the 1800s actually we know that those public works takings were in the 1900s and that a huge amount of land was taken at that time. Then the Rangitaiki Swamp was drained in the 1910s. That had a massive impact on the food base as well as damaging urupā and the mauri of Te Awa o Te Atua and that cannot be ignored. Even then in 1954 Crown legislation allowed Tasman Pulp and Paper Co. to discharge waste with heavy pollution of Te Tarawera Awa and Lake Rotoitipaku. These are not way back in the mists of time. The breaches from the 1800s are carried by people today and the breaches are far more recent than so much of our discussion in this country would suggest. The Greens are very happy to support this as the best that is possible at that time and we call out to our fellow tangata Tiriti to consider the process to do better. But I want to thank again Ngāti Rangitihi for their generosity and leadership."