6. Question No. 6—Prime MinisterDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT) to the Prime MinisterQuestion No. 6—Prime Minister6. DAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all her Government's statements and actions in relation to the land at Ihumātao?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Deputy Prime Minister) on behalf of the Prime Minister: Yes in the context in which they were made and undertaken.David Seymour: Does she stand by the statement of Grant Robertson on 17 December about the Ihumātao deal: Let's be very clear - this is not part of the treaty settlement process"?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: On behalf of the Prime Minister yes.David Seymour: Did the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development—the Government agency that paid Fletcher Building $29.9 million for the land—ever advise that the payment might be part of a Treaty settlement process?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: On behalf of the Prime Minister on a very specific question like that the member will understand I would need to be able to go back and check. My recollection is that there was a range of views discussed throughout the period of well over a year about how a settlement could be reached at Ihumātao that would not breach the Treaty settlement process and the Government is very confident that we have reached that settlement.David Seymour: Could the redacted parts of this Cabinet paper refer to the deal being part of a Treaty settlement process?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: On behalf of the Prime Minister I recently got new glasses but I can't quite read that Cabinet paper from here.SPEAKER: Order! Order! I'm actually going to ask David Seymour to ask the question again and I'm going to ask the Prime Minister to answer it.David Seymour: Could the redacted part of this Cabinet paper possibly refer to the deal at Ihumātao being part of a Treaty settlement process?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: On behalf of the Prime Minister I would need to see that Cabinet paper. What I do know is that the Government is confident that we have reached an arrangement at Ihumātao that upholds and protects the Treaty settlement process.Nicola Willis: Why are we in a situation where KiwiBuild money meant to be spent on building houses has been spent instead on stopping houses being built?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: On behalf of the Prime Minister we are not.David Seymour: Why then does the redacted parts of this Cabinet paper when cut and paste out of the PDF put into Word say that Crown Law and Te Arawhiti have been working through the Treaty implications of a purpose due to the fact the land is being purchased by an agency whose land is not generally available for use in Treaty settlements for a specific purpose—e.g. housing right there?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: On behalf of the Prime Minister if the member considers what he just said he said that these issues were being worked through which is exactly what I said in a previous answer to this question. We worked through a process with a range of agencies to ensure that we had a resolution at Ihumātao that upholds the Treaty settlement process and we achieved that.David Seymour: Did the Government receive advice saying that the deal as conceived would be part of a Treaty settlement process or not?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: As I've already answered in the previous questions we worked through whether or not the settlement would do that—that's exactly what the member has just said—and the outcome of which is that we have a deal that does not undermine the Treaty settlement process.David Seymour: What does she think New Zealanders in general and iwi in particular should think about a Government that told them the Ihumātao deal was not part of a Treaty settlement process and then dastardly and failedly tried to hide those details?SPEAKER: No no no. I mean I'm reluctant to ask the member to ask it again but there are certainly some words in there which he knows add no value and characterise something in a way which is inappropriate. I'm going to ask the Prime Minister to ignore those words and just answer the question.Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: On behalf of the Prime Minister what New Zealanders in general are seeing is a situation where there was a significant stand-off there was an inability for Fletcher Building who own the land to be able to pursue a development and what they have seen is a Government that actually wants to bring New Zealanders together for a settlement that will build houses and also build a much stronger and more cohesive society.Rawiri Waititi: Does the Prime Minister accept that the land was stolen from Māori and regardless of the mechanism the land had to be given back?Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: On behalf of the Prime Minister they are not the terms under which this agreement has been made. The terms under which this agreement has been made is that we have an opportunity now to see a development at Ihumātao that is supported by mana whenua that is supported by the wider people of Auckland and New Zealand and that the Government can help with. This is a win-win-win argument and I'm very pleased the Government has got to this point alongside I might say the tremendous efforts of the kīngitanga who need to be recognised for the work that they did to bring together all of the mana whenua."