Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise on behalf of ACT in support of Te Rohe o Rongokako Joint Redress Bill. This is a bill that puts into practice or into legislation at least a Treaty settlement negotiated over the last decade or so between the Crown and two iwi—Ngāti Kahungunu and Rangitāne. There are many great things about our country. I can think of a few: fish and chips the All Blacks the Black Ferns splitting the atom the best farmers in the world—or the most efficient—but if I was to pick one thing that makes New Zealand truly special where it began I think it's the fact that our country unlike almost any other was founded by a voluntary agreement well well ahead of its time that gave nga tikanga katoa rite tahi"—the same rights and duties to all citizens. It was a magnificent achievement without parallel anywhere else in the world.Yet no story is perfect and the observation of that promise of the Treaty of the same rights and duties protection of taonga or property rights has been far from perfect. But if you were to take a positive from New Zealand just as I can't imagine any other country on earth packing a stadium to cheer a world cup - winning women's rugby team right now I can't imagine any other country that would have gone back over 30 years with Governments and politicians of all stripes and carried out a process of forensically examining its history and seeking to put right the many wrongs hapū by hapū iwi by iwi location by location. And yet here we find ourselves today at a point in our history where we are closer than ever to fully completing all of the Treaty settlements that were lodged prior to 2008. It is only Ngāpuhi a somewhat disorganised iwi from somewhere up north that I happen to know a few things about that haven't managed to present fully for this process but we live in hope and for members who take an interest in these things I highly recommend a book I'm reading at the moment—Chris Finlayson's He Kupu Taurangi: Treaty Settlements and the Future of Aotearoa New Zealand. Chris Finlayson was the former Minister for Treaty settlements who managed to organise and get through a great deal of these settlements over a previous term of Parliament. That is the background for bills like this and I think it's a wonderful thing of which we should all be very proud.But this particular bill as I mentioned is about the history and the grievance and ultimately the redress and the future for two iwi from the south-east coast of the North Island and that as we said is Ngāti Kahungunu and Rangitāne two iwi that have their own story of losing their assets losing their connection with their rohe and losing so much that they held dear to the point that for many people at the time it seemed like all was lost and that perhaps they should give up. But we see over the last decade the process beginning with a claim with negotiation with an agreement and ultimately parliamentary legislation—this Treaty settlement process that sets New Zealand apart carried out for them.The bill comes in three main parts. Part 1 sets out those preliminary matters and tells the story. These bills are worth reading. They have a lot of very interesting information. They go to great lengths to set out exactly what happened and why even when much of it is well before and beyond any current living memory. It then goes on to give rights to an overlay over Castlepoint Scenic Reserve a place that is special to both iwi. It gives rights over customary fishing management something that the ancestors of the people today had enjoyed for generations and still have a connection and a right to. That is affirmed. It gives three cultural redress properties which will be managed by a combination of the two iwi and trusts operating on their behalf and it gives other joint redress in the form of the Wairarapa Moana framework; in other words a framework for managing some of the seas of the coast of the Wairarapa in order that people who have an interest in those fisheries and in the health in particular of the river there the Ruamāhanga River—people that have an interest in those territories can also have an input into its management. Those are the key points of this bill and the redress that it brings about.I hope that this redress will give the people of Ngāti Kahungunu and Rangitāne a sense of ownership—not only literal ownership in some instances but also a sense of connection to the land a sense of place but most of all a sense of right; that New Zealand is a place where in the end people do the right thing even if they didn't always and in the future people can achieve their potential in a modern multi-ethnic liberal democracy that has a place for everyone. That's what bills like this are about. That's why the ACT Party has always been proud to stand and support them and we wish the people of Ngāti Kahungunu and Rangitāne all the best for their future and for a wonderful celebration when this bill passes its third reading—I understand as soon as just next week."