SpeechANGELA ROBERTS (Labour) (remote): Kia ora Madam Speaker. I'd just would like to start by acknowledging all of the 50 of you who are in the House. For those of us who are still in Taranaki it is hard not to be there. I want to acknowledge everyone who is watching from Te Upoko o Te Whenua Marae down the road from here. It is a beautiful day in Taranaki for such a moment. For those of you who haven't been down to that beautiful valley it sits nestled on the banks of the Waitara River in the heart of the territory that from the outside may look isolated and rugged but traditionally was criss-crossed with important tracks and trade routes. We have heard much over the three readings of the history and we have heard your lament. We have heard the lament for the loss and the degradation of the forests the rivers and wetlands and the maunga and the deforestation the pollution and the run-off has had such a significant impact on the Waitara. The Waitara obviously we've heard today isn't the only river that is connected to you but it was one that has had such an impact on this traditional source of transport and sustenance and inhabitation. So what I want to do though is take some time to take inspiration from Ngāti Maru and look at their horizons and their new opportunities that they are taking and speak a little bit about the real impact that their leadership and their mahi and their vision has already impacted on our local community. They haven't sat around—that is for sure. They're so modest. They say that they are starting small but they have big dreams and it's been fabulous to see that they are focusing on the growing and the education of their rangatahi and the restoration of their whenua. So I just want to take a moment to recognise Tupu ā nuku which is broadly speaking a workforce development programme including a forestry and conservation course and I think it's a really good example of how they look at how to sustain and thrive in the future. Ngāti Maru realised that the forestry jobs connected to the local land were taken by contractors from other regions so they saw the opportunity to train their local rangitahi for the forestry season not just in forestry health and safety and those really particular skills and everything that's needed to work the forests but to make sure that tikanga and Te Ao Māori were incorporated to make sure that the forestry service that they are developing for themselves is a sustainable one. They've worked on riparian plantings and are developing their young people to restore their whenua. These courses are so broad they include financial literacy and like I said tikanga and health and safety. They're looking at pastoral care and support to really ensure that there is a pathway to a sustainable future and sustainable employment. I need to shout out to the partnerships—the real partnerships—that they've had with people like Dave Hare and his team of mentors at Tree Machine Services and the impact that is having on our young people and the future of this community. They've brought in rangatahi from New Plymouth from Waitara from down in Pātea and of course from Stratford and Hāwera and it's a really important piece of work that they are doing. They're just getting on with it. It's fabulous to see. They have a really broad vision for their youth. It is ambitious. They are maturing the relationship with local secondary schools such as Stratford High School and helping to strengthen their alternative education and make sure that our young people are accessing higher education and are successful lifelong learners. It's really exciting to watch the very real work that they're doing. They're working at developing leadership not just as iwi with other governance bodies such as the regional council and the Department of Conservation but like I said with schools and with the Ministry of Social Development about helping to build really strong pathways to support our young people with not just entry-level qualifications but further along into tertiary qualifications and it's broadly done. Pastoral care is important and these young people are going into jobs. They've been going for nearly three years and they've had more than 30 young people come through these programmes. So it's wonderful to see the focus on conservation. Alongside these programmes they're strengthening the relationships with other iwi. Ngāti Tama and Ngāti Mutunga are helping to build those relationships with environmental organisations such as the East Taranaki Environment Trust and they're helping to restore some precious little pockets of paradise like Pūrangi to really help this part of the world to heal. A really great example of that is they've had young people come through their programmes they've now got an apprentice ranger working with Pūrangi and you hear these young people talk about how passionate they've become about conservation particularly for their iwi's rohe. They are going to go on and be leaders in our community to help all of us in what we need to do to restore our whenua and to nurture the growth of our young people. I just want to finish off by reflecting on something I was told this morning by someone from Ngāti Maru about their big dreams. I've just reflected on some of the mahi that they've done over the last few years and that they will continue to build on but I was told that there will come a time when they will tell their own story. Until now this story has mainly been told by those outside of the iwi—commentators and historians—and now they can take the time to in their own voice tell their own story. That is really important for the rest of us because we're going to be better off for hearing that and we will be able to be better Treaty partners. For those of us who live as neighbours to Ngāti Maru who are involved in education and who are involved in conservation it will help us to be better in walking beside them and doing what we need to do for them to realise their dreams as we work together to restore and realise the potential of all of our people and of our land. It's really humbling to be here today to be a witness to the decades of work that has gone in. I look forward to the day and I think we heard from a Minister earlier that there might be a really good Matariki celebration to be had a little later in the year down the road at Tarata. So at this point I will commend the bill to the House.