Clendon David: Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara Claims Settlement Bill — Second Reading In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeClendon David: Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara Claims Settlement Bill — Second Reading In Committee[Sitting date: 17 April 2013. Volume:689;Page:9512. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID CLENDON (Green): Kei te mihi nui ki a koutou ki te mana o Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara ngā manuhiri ki tēnei Whare te Whare Raruraru. Tēnā koutou katoa.[A big welcome to you the authority of Ngāti Whātua of Kaipara and visitors to this House the House of Perplexity. Welcome to you all.]Could I begin to speak in support of this bill the Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara Claims Settlement Bill on behalf of the Green Party by just acknowledging the opening remarks of the Minister of Māori Affairs Dr Sharples to associate ourselves with those comments and to acknowledge his considerable work on this settlement and indeed on many others over the years.One of the mixed blessings of this job of being an MP is that we travel a great deal and for me my journey from home heading south is always somehow either by air or by road passing over or by the Kaipara Harbour. Particularly when flying over the harbour one recognises the extraordinary landscape that it really is. It is the largest harbour in New Zealand a remarkable landscape and historically an extraordinarily rich landscape for the people who live there. It is worth remembering and recalling that the collective of hapū and whānau who make up the Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara have dwelt in that land occupied that land for some three centuries. The Ngāti Hine element of that grouping are relative latecomers with only 200-odd years in occupation and as kaitiaki of that land. I think something we should dwell on is the fact that prior to Pākehā arrival I have no doubt it was very productive land and very fruitful land and it has been degraded over time—over a relatively short time. I think we all share responsibility with the kaitiaki to ensure that over the next generations the quality of that land of the moana and of the whenua is restored at the same time that the health and well-being of the people whose right to that land is recognised in this Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara Claims Settlement Bill is also restored.I have said before and I will probably continue to say that these settlement bills not only are of great value in themselves to the extent that they do acknowledge wrongs that were done and seek to offer some level of restitution to those who were wronged over time but also are extraordinary historic documents. They are very accessible histories of what has occurred. For some people the documents generated by the tribunal process may be a bit daunting a little bit too much at once but anybody can read these bills and get a very good summary and get a real flavour of what has occurred historically around this remarkable land of ours that we all share. These bills do have the history written in very clear and concise language. Nevertheless it is language that cannot help but stir the emotions as well as being quite objective statements of what has happened over time. I recommend anyone in New Zealand read these bills to understand what is at stake here and to understand the value of the settlement process that this reading is part of.The point has been made that Ngāti Whātua cooperated considerably with the Crown. They made the Crown and the new Pākehā settlers very welcome. They engaged and sought benefit both for themselves and for the new settlers out of the new relationship that was established which makes it doubly unfortunate that their hospitality their welcome and their goodwill was not reciprocated. The point has beenmade in the bill in fact that by 1853 only 13 years after the signing of the Treaty Ngāti Whātua o Kaipara had lost access to their lands around the upper Waitematā. By 1900 90 percent of their former landholdings had been alienated from them. Of that remaining 10 percent 75 percent of it disappeared by 1990. So clearly it has been a long and unfortunate history of alienation and of a failure to honour the spirit or indeed the letter of the Treaty—by legal means and illegal means. It is good and it is a genuine privilege to be a small part of this process of restitution of making right some of the wrongs that have been done historically.I think it is useful to mention as ever that of course we recognise that what is given back in material terms is only a small part of what was taken historically. We know that if all the material value was restored to iwi and hapū throughout the country the New Zealand economy as we know it would be destroyed and that would be to nobody’s benefit. So although the material return—the land and the money—that is involved is not a trivial matter by any means I think what is central to these bills is the Crown’s acknowledgment of wrongs that have been done over time and critically the apology—the unreserved apology—which I believe is as important as the material return if not the most important aspect of these bills. I think it restores some of the mana of the Crown and indeed of the Government as it does recognise the mana whenua of this particular rohe the south Kaipara district which is at stake in this bill.I simply want to conclude by affirming the Green Party’s support for this and our pleasure at seeing a turn shall we say for the better. We do support and are willing to be part of the ongoing restoration of value to those who have waited for such a very long time to have that restitution made. Kia ora.