SpeechHARETE HIPANGO (National): E ngā mana e ngā reo e ngā rē rau ieriki ieriki mā. Tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.[Exalted figures and voices of authority and multitudes of leaders; acknowledgments to you and all gathered here.]This is the second reading and as members of the House well know the second reading is after the bill has been scrutinised and examined by the select committee. I'm always cognisant of members of the public and the people from the Chatham Islands who may be listening in to this debate this afternoon. The purpose of a second reading is for the bill to as I say be examined for it to be brought back to the House for the members to consider the principles of the bill and any changes that have been recommended. The Māori Affairs Committee which was comprised of those members that the Hon Nanaia Mahuta has named presided after the bill had been referred to them on 23 February 2021—this year. That was the first reading. There were 55 submissions that had been provided from interested parties. Oral evidence was heard from 12 of those submitters.I stand here understanding that the members of the select committee and my colleague Joseph Mooney as a mainlander had the distinct privilege with our colleague Rino Tirikatene to travel through to Rēkohu the Chatham Islands. Oh kāo? So Rino didn't. We shared the privilege of travelling to other rohe within Aotearoa at the time. We spoke and we were aware that the Moriori Claims Settlement Bill was coming before us. I didn't have the privilege of sitting on the committee at the time. However I have read with some considerable interest—because these debates are traversing back into the history and it's a history that many New Zealanders are not privy to. Our childhood education didn't talk about the history. The facts as are presented through to the Waitangi Tribunal come through these negotiation settlements and here we are today presenting those facts for the record to be corrected.The report back to the Māori Affairs Committee is dated 19 August 2021. I said there were 55 submissions with 12 oral submissions that have been heard. This bill is about the Moriori imi and it has been commented by Minister Mahuta that the reo of Moriori people is something that not only the people have struggled to survive themselves but have fought for the revival and the sustenance of their reo. That is something that had been addressed by the select committee and in the select committee inquiries into that it was revealed that despite the plea of the Moriori people to recognise ta rē Moriori as an official language the select committee did not have the power or the scope to be able to do that. That would require a legislative change. However the committee had been advised or told that Te Taura Whiri has provided funding for the development of ta rē Moriori and that through the Te Mātāwai strategy there is provision for the sustenance of the reo. I mention that because like the Moriori people our language is a living being also.Talking about a living being and on that thread of the language I reflect that on Māori TV there's some wonderful documentaries that come about. More recently there is one called the Chatham Islanders that screens on Māori TV on a Monday evening at 8 p.m. and episode five I believe screened last night. That is really just portraying to our people what life is like for Chatham Islanders Moriori—the struggles and the hardships. The bill itself having been examined—there were proposed amendments from the select committee on hearing from submissions and that's been outlined in the report. So the Moriori language was one of those amendments not able to make legislative change but process change and through those relationships and blending.The other request that has been made by one of the submitters was to amend the historical account the summary. I've mentioned that these matters being spoken before the House are correcting the record and the history. The process of negotiations toward settlement and also the evidence heard before the Waitangi Tribunal is about ensuring that the historical account and the record is accurate and correct. There's a submission that had been received from Ngāti Mutunga o Wharekauri raising concerns about the accuracy of the account. Undoubtedly my colleagues who sat as members on the select committee would have given their due regard. However they reached the decision that the account as has been recorded in the deed of settlement through to the bill is an accurate summary of the agreed facts between Moriori and the Crown and therefore the committee does not recommend any changes to that. Detailed in the committee's report are the other amendments that have been proposed and one of those was the again mention of a visit to the Chatham Islands to Nunuku's cave. Nunuku's cave is of considerable heritage significance to the people and Moriori and Chatham Islanders know that live it and feel it. As visitors and I'm moving to the tourism aspect of it I happen to have here a brochure of the Chatham Islands and in this brochure—which again is really important because it's how people are people of a place and when we visit it's important to know the history. The accuracy of the facts have been captured in the bill but in this brochure promoting the Chatham Islands it talks about something I didn't know and many New Zealanders don't. Moriori made a conscious decision to set aside warfare and killing and to live in peace after the invasions and this is known as Nunuku's Law named after the spiritual leader or the rangatira Nunuku Whenua who laid down the covenant of peace over 600 years ago. That covenant remains unbroken by Moriori despite the fact that Rēkohu Chatham Islands which means—Rēkohu—misty skies having been invaded by two tribal peoples flowing from Taranaki. Today I reflect it's 9 November. On 5 November Parihaka commemorated 140 years since the resistance and the invasion their peaceful resistance of the invasion by colonial soldiers and their lands. So the correlation? Nunuku's Law about peace—Nunuku's cave had been asked by the people to be protected as a heritage site. So the select committee navigated course-ways through the different authorities as to how that could best be done and it was decided that as important as the site is for Māori and it's considered an important site for all New Zealanders it deserves to be protected and preserved. The committee seriously navigated how best for that to be done to the point I understand that when committee members visited Nunuku's cave there was consideration about those relationships built with local authorities for that best to be done. The second reading of this bill is about its passage through to the third reading and finally into law. The very special dynamics and relationship of the Māori Affairs Committee is that we come together we look for solutions ways to improve these negotiated settlements being passed into law and that's something very unique about the Māori Affairs Committee. The political differences are put aside to address what's in the interest of our people who come before us. And on that note as a member of the National Party this bill is commended to the House.