Turia Tariana: Raukawa Claims Settlement Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTuria Tariana: Raukawa Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 12 March 2014. Volume:697;Page:16652. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TARIANA TURIA (Minister for Whānau Ora)on behalf of theMinister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations: I move That the Raukawa Claims Settlement Bill be now read a third time. Tēnā koe e Te Mana W’akahaere tēnā koutou katoa. E ngā kanohi o Raukawa i konei i tēnei rā me ērā i te wā kāinga tēnā koutou katoa. Ka nui te mihi rawa atu ki a koutou kua tae mai nei ki te w’akanui i tēnei kaupapa o te rā. Tēnā koutou.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker and greetings to you all. To the representatives of Raukawa present here today and to those ones back home salutations to you all. I acknowledge those of you greatly who have arrived here to celebrate this matter of the day. Greetings to you collectively.]This day has been a long time coming for the people descended from Raukawa. This is the day that the people of Raukawa have come to represent to practise and to maintain the tikanga that has been left for them to protect to hold strong to the legacy of those who have passed on before them. It is a day to celebrate and acknowledge the significance of their custodial role and to practise manaw’akahaere kaitiakitanga and ahi kā roa within their rohe. It has been 5 years since the deed for the co-management of the Waikato River was signed in December 2009. The Raukawa Claims Settlement Bill completes the settlement of their historical claims. It is then right to celebrate the culmination of so many aspirations and dreams woven over time and indeed long before.This bill gives effect to the undertakings by the Crown and the Raukawa deed of settlement and the supplementary deed. The most significant milestone however is in this day marking a place to rest to recover and to restore the relationship that Raukawa has always had mai rā anō with the land and the waterways in their rohe. The bill recounts the damage and destruction that was wrought upon the people through three major attacks on the human spirit. The first attack was through war and confiscation. The Crown acted unjustly in sending forces into the Waikato in July 1863 and occupying the land and the region. Crown forces penetrated through the rohe of Rangiaow’ia and Pāterangi ending at Ōrākau. Approximately 250 to 300 tangata w’enua defended Ōrākau Pā against 1800 troops for 3 long days. During the war Raukawa chief Te Paerata was killed. Over 80 of their people were slaughtered during the battle and when fleeing the pā. The loss of prominent leadership was intensely felt.After the battle at Ōrākau Raukawa participated in the battles of Gate Pā and Te Ranga and the latter was known as the bush campaigns. Loss of life was suffered when the Crown attacked Pukehinahina and Te Ranga. Kainga and cultivations were destroyed forcing Raukawa to flee their homes. If the loss of life and property because of war and raupatu was not in itself severe the Crown confiscated the land that Raukawa had interests in. Before the confiscation was completed the Crown reformed Māori land legislation leading to the introduction of the Native Land Court within the Raukawa rohe in 1866. And so the second tranche of confiscation was suffered as Raukawa land became susceptible to alienation. They successfully used legal processes to challenge the exclusion of their tupuna Raukawa from the tūpuna of the Taupō-nui-a-Tia block. Raukawa sought to retain control and ownership of Māori land within Te Rohe Pōtae by opposing construction of roads surveys and land court hearings until the early 1880s.The third and final impact was experienced through the effect of systematic large-scale land speculation by private parties resulting in rapid and substantial land loss in the late 19th century. Eighty percent of land within the Waikato Basin was taken by private land speculation and the Crown before 1900. In the 20th century the iwi lost further land through public works takings including for hydroelectric projects. Then in 1915 the Crown gifted 20000 acres of the Pouakani block to an iwi with no ancestral ties to that w’enua which exacerbated the grievance that Raukawa continued to feel. They were rendered virtually landless.This is a deplorable history—acts of injustice that led to the economic social and cultural impoverishment of the iwi. I want to reflect today on the leadership of George Whakatoi Rangitūtia the chair of the Raukawa Trust Board who started this latest negotiation phase of their history. I mihi to him today. At the first reading of this bill I said that this is a settlement bill that has been built on the vision of honouring the words of our tūpuna and building a strong foundation for our tamariki mokopuna. Me hoki w’akamuri kia ahu w’akamua ka neke—the future is behind us.I cannot help but reflect too on the karanga that came across the airwaves this last Saturday night: “Kua wikitoria a Mōtai Tangata Rau!”. Mōtai Tangata Rau led by Paraone Gloyne and Ngāhuia Kopa saw Ngāti Raukawa win the Tainui Waka Kapa Haka Festival in the weekend. It was perfect timing to remind us of the dignity the determination and the courage that has allowed this iwi to emerge 150 years after the wars to become a leading player in the recent Kākano Investment forestry management regime the environmental restoration of the Waikato River and small business developments within their rohe.The settlement is not about justice. It will never compensate for the attack on w’akapapa the loss of life the loss of land and the destruction throughout their rohe but it will allow the people to move forward to utilise the settlement to develop their own economy to develop their people and the restore their right to their Raukawatanga. The bill enables a cultural redress package designed around their aspirations to reinvigorate their relationship with cultural sites of significance such as statutory acknowledgment of Raukawa’s association with 18 areas; geothermal statutory acknowledgment of Raukawa’s association with seven geothermal resource areas; vesting of eight conservation sites including Te Tuki Whakakahonui the Whakamaru Power Station village site and five other sites vested as reserves; and the assignment and alteration of geographic names.Over and above the quantum there is a $3 million cultural fund to negotiate the sale of or access to sites of significance situated on private land within the Raukawa rohe a $5 million fund to explore commercial arrangements with Mighty River Power and a $2 million lakebed fund.The commercial and financial redress package has been designed to contribute to the economic development of Raukawa now and for future generations. It includes the option to purchase part of Pureora North Crown forest licensed land the right of deferred selection to purchase 35 Crown-owned properties for up to 5 years from settlement date a right of first refusal for a period of 171 years from settlement date over 26 properties owned by the Crown and another 84 owned by Housing New Zealand Corporation the Waikato District Health Board and the Crown should they be declared surplus to requirements.There is one final point I wish to make. Raukawa often think of themselves as the most overlapped tribe in this process today. This settlement is about having to foster relationships with Tūw’aretoa Rereahu Maniapoto Waikato-Tainui Koroki Kahukura Ngāti Hauā Ngāti Hinerangi Ngāi Te Rangi Ngāti Ranginui Ngāruakahunui Te Arawa Pouakani and Kauwhata. The negotiations have required leadership integrity respect and steadfast determination to do what was right to allow this iwi to move forward and I think of the leadership that resides within Raukawa—those at the negotiating table those who have attended the hui and those who have cared for the w’ānau while the talks have gone on. I think about the vision your settlement represents to keep the future behind you to always be in pursuit of an opportunity to grow. I know that already Raukawa has started to experience the fruits of settlement. The future is stretching out to the mokopuna to come and all of Raukawa must continue to demonstrate the unity of purpose that has got you through to this point to build a new tomorrow that you can all share. Nā reira ka nui te mihi ki a koutou. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.