Mooney JosephJOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland): Thank you Mr Speaker. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa. To the members of Ngāti Rangitihi watching this afternoon I want to say welcome to Parliament virtually. I wish you could be here in person and I hope we will be able to see that for the third reading. But this is a good step today that we are progressing this through the House. It's been a long time coming and it's good to be here on what is a historic day despite the fact that we are doing it effectively by Zoom which seems to be the way of the world at the moment. Look I do hope that I have an opportunity to visit with Ngāti Rangitihi and to speak with them in person in their rohe. I do have a personal connection to this region having spent a relatively small but very memorable part of my childhood living on the shores of Lake Tarawera as a child and taking a bus into Lynmore Primary School in Rotorua and going past the Buried Village of Te Wairoa every day back and forth. I'm very aware from that experience—it impressed on me deeply as a child—of the Tarawera eruption on the people of Ngāti Rangitihi back in 1886. About half of the approximately 110 people killed in that eruption were from Ngāti Rangitihi and it led on unfortunately to injustices where the Crown didn't assist the people of Ngāti Rangitihi at that time adequately and that's part of the injustices that we're seeking to restore here today. So it's a special moment for me personally to be aware of some of that history from my childhood and to be here today speaking on a bill that's helping to restore some of the mana of Ngāti Rangitihi—and I acknowledge some of the pain and suffering that their ancestors have experienced—and as best we can in this process to make that right for their descendants and those who followed on. I am a permanent member of the Māori Affairs Committee and we were grateful to hear from those who submitted on this bill. We are happy to recommend that this continues through to the third reading with a couple of minor amendments which I acknowledge the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Andrew Little spoke to previously. There are some other matters that were considered. The cultural redress sites in the Tarawera region: some submitters from Tūhourangi raised concerns about the cultural redress sites being offered to Ngāti Rangitihi. Specifically submitters did not believe that Ngāti Rangitihi had the right to seek redress in the Tarawera region. The Waimangu Volcanic Valley is one such redress site and as the Māori Affairs Committee we understand the concerns regarding the cultural redress sites in the Tarawera region led to some uri of Tūhourangi applying to the Waitangi Tribunal for an urgent inquiry. Although the application for an urgent inquiry was declined the tribunal continues I understand to consider the matter. However it's not for the committee to comment on matters under active consideration by the tribunal but we wish to acknowledge the views we heard from submitters on the matters raised. Also we heard about the Waimangu Volcanic Valley. When there are disagreements between iwi in relation to specific items of redress the Crown prefers that they are addressed by mutual agreement between the interest groups and we had been advised that Te Mana o Ngāti Rangitihi Trust and Tūhourangi Tribal Authority the governance entities for the two iwi resolved to seek an enhanced parcel of land at Waimangu. This enhanced parcel of land includes the adjoining Ōtūkapuarangi site to which the Crown agreed. Outside of settlement the two iwi have resolved that Ngāti Rangitihi will transfer ownership of Ōtūkapuarangi in full and Waimangu in part to Tūhourangi. The two iwi also resolved that the sites should be jointly administered by Ngāti Rangitihi and Tūhourangi. The bill provides for these arrangements to be implemented post-settlement and it will be up to the post-settlement governance entity to make the arrangements necessary. We did hear that transferring land in this way to other interest groups is unusual and Ngāti Rangitihi is only the second iwi to have these provisions in its settlement bill. We will have an opportunity to speak more at the third reading on this bill and I will save some of my comments for then. Like I say I do hope that Ngāti Rangitihi can be here in Parliament when we do have that third reading. I do want to acknowledge all of the work that has been done to date to get it to this stage and I also acknowledge the former Treaty negotiations Minister Christopher Finlayson for the work he did on this and for the work that has been done by Minister Andrew Little as the present negotiations Minister and his staff. So with that I will commend the bill to the House.