Clendon David: Whanganui Iwi (Wanganui (Kaitoke) Prison and Northern Part of Wanganui Forest) On-account Settlement Bill — First Reading 
Clendon David: Whanganui Iwi (Wanganui (Kaitoke) Prison and Northern Part of Wanganui Forest) On-account Settlement Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:659;Page:7850] 
DAVID CLENDON (Green) 
: 
 Ki te mana o nga iwi o Whanganui tena koutou. 
[ 
To the integrity of the Whanganui tribes greetings 
.] 
The Green Party acknowledges with respect the work and endurance of the hapu the whanau and nga kaumatua rangatira [ 
the chiefly elders 
] of Whanganui who have worked and who continue to work for the return of what is rightfully theirs and what has been taken from them. 
The Greens are pleased to support this bill. Although we believe that there are clearly flaws in the Treaty settlement process we will always support genuine progress towards making amends for historic and indeed contemporary injustices. I was never more proud to be part of the Greens than on the day a decade or so ago when we amended our own party constitution to include in it a preamble that stated our acknowledgement of Te Tiriti as the founding document of Aotearoa New Zealand and Maori as tangata whenua. This amendment was not made without some difficulty and the trepidation felt by some within the party of our going down that path was I think a fair reflection of wider society where many still see the Treaty as a threat or perhaps an historical anachronism. One extreme expression of this view of course is routinely heard emanating from a particular local body politician well known to the people of Whanganui. Those views expressed there have at least one value in that they provide a useful benchmark against which to measure the progress made in understanding and awareness among the more enlightened general population. 
The Treaty settlements that have already occurred the return of land and assets and just as important the Crown apologies that have been central to them have been powerful catalysts for opening up the debate for raising awareness and for building an understanding that this country’s political social and economic foundations will rest on uneasy ground until such time as there is a reconciliation. The Greens’ policy for resolving the Crown’s historical injustice against Maori is to set up a Treaty settlement framework that ensures that any timeline must be agreed with Maori that there is full fair and durable restitution to Maori for Crown breaches that there are adequate resources for the Waitangi Tribunal and more important for claimants and that opportunities exist for Maori to have their resources returned to them. 
In particular the question of timeliness is one that continues to rate highly in much of the rhetoric around Treaty settlements. The Greens have already called on the Government to scrap the quite arbitrary deadline of 2014 for settling all Treaty of Waitangi claims. We believe it is more important to do it right than to do it quickly. The unilateral imposition of a deadline will simply provide a platform for pushing through a singular agenda based on hasty and superficial consultation rather than honest dialogue and Maori generally and particularly many of the smaller hapu and iwi will bear the brunt of that. That is not to suggest that unnecessary delay or procrastination is acceptable. All too often the rhetoric about the need for a deadline for settlements somehow implies that Maori intransigence is the underlying cause of the protracted process. This is far from the truth. I have never at any hui on any marae or in any Maori context ever heard support for anything other than a swift resolution. Too many of our elders and indeed generations of elders have passed on after lifetimes of effort without witnessing the fruit of their labour and we of later generations acknowledge our debt to them. 
We commend this on-account settlement bill to the extent that it will increase the capacity of iwi Whanganui to pursue a further and more complete settlement. It is to be hoped that this and future Governments will accept their very real responsibilities to continue and indeed increase the support in resourcing of the relevant Crown agencies and critically that similar support is given to claimants. 
There is a sad irony in the fact that part of the land being transferred under this settlement is land upon which a prison was built some 30 years ago. It is well known that Maori are heavily overrepresented in the prison population and that our prison population overall is one of the highest per capita in the world. Between 1950 and 1990 there was a sevenfold increase in the number of Maori sent to prison which is about four times the comparable non-Maori increase. It is no mere coincidence that this period saw also the major urbanisation of Maori which has been described as the most rapid on record for any ethnic minority anywhere in the world. Perhaps this Whanganui on-account settlement will give cause for thought and encourage an examination of the effects of the repeated and chronic violations of the Treaty by the Crown and by the Government which began almost as soon as the ink was drying on the document and have continued to this day. 
These violations have torn at the structure and fabric of Maori society and have served to destroy much of the economic base that assured Maori independence and self-sufficiency. It is little wonder that the alienation the fragmentation and the loss of trust and respect for law that this destruction engendered have inevitably led so many of our young and not so young along the path to prison. In my own rohe of Tai Tokerau some 10 years ago the Greens joined others who fought hard albeit unsuccessfully against the building of a prison not only because of the offence to tikanga of desecrating a sacred site but also because we could not understand why when there was no money for a polytechnic for a youth centre for a community economic development strategy there was money for a prison. There is little satisfaction in observing that the site continues to be a place of strife and that the buildings themselves continue to sink into the ground as predicted by those who know best that whenua. 
The return of the mana over the land and other assets within this settlement can be seen only as part of the redress and add to the capacity of Maori to rebuild their economic base so providing the opportunities and skills that will keep our rangatahi out of prisons and reduce other negative statistics that shame all of us as New Zealanders. 
Settlements such as these are necessary though not in themselves sufficient to ensure that current and future generations of Maori have the resources and capacity to restore the natural environment to rebuild social relationships and to develop an economic base that will contribute to the assertion of tino rangatiratanga. 
E rere kau mai te awa nui nei mai i te kahui maunga ki Tangaroa; ko au te awa ko te awa ko au; tena koutou tena koutou tena koutou katoa. 
[ 
The great river flows from the mountain region to the God of Oceans. I am the river and the river is me. Greetings greetings and greetings to you all. 
]