Whaitiri MekaHon MEKA WHAITIRI (Ikaroa-Rāwhiti): He mihi tuatahi e ngā mate o te wā. E te māreikura Whetumarama Wereta kua hinga haere i te taha o tō hoa rangatira o Tūmanako haere haere haere atu rā. Ko tōna whānau kua pūāwai kia kaha kia maia kia manawanui.[First acknowledgments to recent loved ones who have passed. The esteemed Whetumarama Wereta who has passed farewell back to your husband Tūmanako I bid you farewell. The family has blossomed. Be resolute be brave and be strong.]I was saddened to hear in the contributions today of the passing of Whetumarama Wereta who was clearly somebody that had a significant role alongside many others in this particular bill that we are reading for the first time. Can I mihi to Ngāti Tara Tokanui for the work that they have done in bringing this bill to the House. But I want to add the unjust Treaty process that we find ourselves in because at the hands of the Crown these people's land as previous speakers have acknowledged went from probably in excess of 290000 acres which was confiscated right down to currently 232 acres—that was at the hands of the Crown. Not only did they confiscate their land acquired their land; they put paru into their rivers and so I feel very very saddened for these people Ngāti Tara Tokanui. But it is their day. It is their tino rangatiratanga that has brought this bill to the House. But I wanted to acknowledge their hard work and acknowledge the passing of Whetu Wereta. Like many maybe in this House I came to know Whetu as a very young person when I first started in the Public Service. She was inspiring for me as a young Māori woman to claim such heights and she had such great mana Whetu as did her husband Tūmanako. So here we are discussing and contributing to a reading of the bill but its premise is in an unjust settlement process that previous speakers in this House have alluded to. It's unjust because not only has the Crown taken these people's land but they determine the process in which we settle and for Te Paati Māori on their behalf it is important that I put on record that Tiriti o Waitangi is not to be settled. It should never ever be settled I say to colleagues in this House. We should never have Te Tiriti" and "settlement" in the same sentence. It's about honouring the Tiriti if we go back to 1840 and the purpose in which it was signed and that is why it's important that we acknowledge that it's an unjust process and an unjust system. I do want to acknowledge all the work that the Ngāti Tara Tokanui negotiators have done to get it to this place. I don't want to repeat what messages other contributors to this bill have said but in reading particularly the deed of settlement which gives us broadly how this bill came about it gives an insight into the historical account. There were a couple of facts that my attention was drawn to that I want to raise in my contribution here and that is that the deed of mandate the process in which we acknowledge who is going to negotiate on behalf of this iwi was signed on 29 June 2011. The agreement in principle (AIP) which is what iwi agree with the Crown are the key areas that we have negotiated for was signed a month later on 22 July 2011. The deed of settlement was not signed until 1 June 2017. So the question I have to ask is why did it take six years from AIP to deed of settlement? Perhaps that's something that the select committee can traverse and perhaps come back to this House on. I support this bill."