Young JonathanThird ReadingJONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth): I move That the New Plymouth District Council (Waitara Lands) Bill be now read a third time.Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa. Madam Deputy Speaker and members of the House tēnā koutou. To Te Atiawa iwi tēnā koutou. To New Plymouth District Council tēnā koutou. To Taranaki Regional Council tēnā koutou. Tēnā koe Mum—great to see you up there.This bill addresses one of the most contentious land issues that this Parliament has seen in recent years an issue that has vexed the people of Waitara the people of Taranaki and the people of Aotearoa New Zealand for over 150 years.In 1860 the first shots of the New Zealand Land Wars were fired at Te Kōhia Pā just to the south-west of Waitara over the Crown's attempted purchase of the Pekapeka Block. Wīremu Kīngi Te Rangitake refused to let the land at Waitara be sold. He said I will not permit the sale of Waitara to the Pāhekā. Waitara is in my hands. I will not give it up." The Crown persisted in the purchase of the Pekapeka Block despite its prior commitment not to purchase disputed land and when it came time for the block to be surveyed Wīremu Kīngi sent a party to prevent this but martial law was declared. I have reflected on the words of Wīremu Kīngi—the words that he made to Governor Browne about the Pekapeka Block in April 1859. He said "You should remember that the Māoris and the Pāhekās are living quietly on their pieces of land therefore you do not disturb them."However in early March 1860 the Crown took military possession of Waitara. Kīngi's supporters then built a fortified pā at Te Kōhia on 15 March. Two days later on 17 March 1860 the Crown fired and bombarded Te Kōhia Pā. This action of the Crown firing shots against the people defending their rights under Te Tiriti o Waitangi sparked the New Zealand Land Wars.In 1861 peace was reached and the agreement to investigate the purchase of the Pekapeka Block was committed to. In the meantime it remained occupied by military troops. Before the investigation was completed in April 1863 Governor Grey renounced the purchase of the Pekapeka Block. Sadly though this did not help the people of Waitara as it later became part of the land confiscated in 1865 for rebellion against the Crown. Over one million acres of land at Taranaki was taken.I was once conversing with somebody on Facebook and at that point in time they were asking questions about Te Atiawa Treaty settlement claim. They asked me "How much will it cost?"—I know this is separate to this bill—and I replied "Not nearly as much as it has cost the iwi of Taranaki and of north Taranaki." And the reply came back: "Fair enough." So somebody out there had seen just the tremendous loss that had occurred in those periods of time. So of those one million acres of land at Taranaki taken only three hectares today remain in the ownership of Ōtaraua and Manukōrihi owns no land. That's what's happened.The Crown apologised to Te Atiawa tīpuna hapū and whānau for the dispossession in its 2014 deed of settlement and I'm so pleased to have beside me the Hon Christopher Finlayson who has led such tremendous work in our country and particularly in Taranaki. The Crown in the 1860s granted much of the confiscated land in Waitara to settlers. However it also transferred land to the borough council and to the harbour board as what is termed "endowment land". Over time this land was developed into leasehold land in order to provide much-needed housing and a reliable income stream for both borough council and harbour board. In the 1940s all land was consolidated into the hands of the Waitara Borough Council.New Plymouth District Council took over the endowment land as part of the 1989 local government amalgamation. Since then the district council has been attempting to address the historical issues in relation to the Waitara lands. This bill is the council's third attempted resolution after previously promoting a local bill to Parliament in 1992 and then offering the land to the Crown for inclusion in Te Atiawa's settlement.The Supplementary Order Paper 184 provides for a number of funds to be established. The Hapū Land Fund has been established to enable the Waitara hapū to be able to form a strong economic cultural and spiritual base for their onward and future development as a hapū and I believe that is one of the core facilitations of this bill. There is a Waitara Perpetual Community Fund for the social economic cultural and environmental benefit of the Waitara community another fund to enable health and well-being of the Waitara River and its catchment and a fourth fund to improve Waitara and the lower river catchment.So accumulated income and future income from the Waitara endowment lands through lease income or freeholding of leasehold properties enables these different funds to receive income and the expending and investment of those funds is for the community of Waitara—for the hapū for the people there for the health and well-being of the Waitara River and I believe it is going to be in terms of what this bill seeks to achieve an incredible opportunity for the people of Waitara as they look forward to that.So I want to thank the people who have been involved in this. This is a bill that has come from the local people New Plymouth District Council the Regional Council Te Atiawa iwi Waitara hapū leaseholders and it is something which as a community in North Taranaki we have worked together to develop and bring to this point. It has been a long journey. The long journey of this bill has been only since 1992 and latterly in the last couple of years but for the people of Te Atiawa it's been a journey of 160 years. So we acknowledge that. My hope and my prayer is that this becomes a foundation for going forward for establishing the aspirations and being able to fulfil the dreams that you have for your people.I would like in the last minute or so of my speech to acknowledge a number of people. First and foremost I would like to acknowledge the person who has worked relentlessly behind the scenes Nashwa Boys who has done a tremendous amount of work as she worked between all parties. Thank you Nashwa for your amazing work. I would like to acknowledge my good friend and colleague the Hon Christopher Finlayson for his work and the Hon Nanaia Mahuta and my North Taranaki fellow MP Adrian Rurawhe. Thank you very much. I'd like to acknowledge the Hon Andrew Little for his contribution as well and I would like to acknowledge also the Mayor of New Plymouth Neil Holdom. Thank you to you and your team in particular Alan Bird. Thank you for the work and the willingness and the vision that you have shown. Thank you to the Waitara hapū who have had to grapple with not only the past but you have needed to take hold of the future in this bill. I acknowledge you and I thank you for your courage and your belief and your faith in your future. I'd like to acknowledge David Cochrane and his team at Simpson Grierson David McLeod and chief executive Basil Chamberlain from the Taranaki Regional Council. I'd also like to acknowledge Andrew Judd the former Mayor of New Plymouth and thank him for his care and his vision.Without a willingness of all parties to find solutions and progress this issue the Waitara community would not be able to anticipate a strong unified prosperous future. Through this bill our prayer is that that can be achieved. Thank you very much. I commend this bill to the House."