Logie JanJAN LOGIE (Green): Tēnā koe Madam Speaker. It is my privilege to rise and speak on behalf of the Green Party in support of the Ngāti Maru (Taranaki) Claims Settlement Bill at this the first reading. We look forward to continuing that support through the process. I'd like to acknowledge everybody in the gallery today who's made this trip down—I think with a very early start from what I saw online—for this really significant point in your journey towards resolution and being able to raise your heads and look forward. I might have started with a song like the previous speaker but I don't want to add to anybody's pain in this room. I do want to start my acknowledgment today by noting the Ngāti Maru lament that is outlined in the summary of the historical background which is: Maru Hāhā. Hāhā te whenua. Hāhā te tangata. Maru of extreme loss and breathlessness. The land is deserted. The people are gone and gasping for breath." I really hope that this process comes to represent the Crown taking its knee off your necks so that Ngāti Maru can breathe again and that this may be a point in time of a severing of a path of treachery to a path of honour which is what I believe settlement processes could represent for us as a country. I really hope that for people who may not be familiar with this history—and I recognise the other speakers before me have gone through some of that history but I will try and do that briefly again just acknowledging Ngāti Maru. There'll be many New Zealanders who as part of our process of colonisation won't even know where Ngāti Maru is. Shame on us! So for those who don't it is the rohe from Mount Taranaki east to the upper Whanganui to the north-east of the Waitara River—lush rich land. A land that was lived in richly and where there was not much contact with the colonisers in the early years of colonisation in this country which made the confiscation of land for harms against the Crown that were never committed by Ngāti Maru even more painful. And I do whenever I say "harms against the Crown"—perceived harms because actually I think self-defence you know should be considered as self-defence not harm. And then to see that Ngāti Maru—that so much of the land was taken. Again I will say "stolen" because confiscation gives a sense of right and of punishment and the right of the taker to punish which did not exist. This left people of Ngāti Maru basically landless and when those treaties were made to the Crown they were very slow in responding and the harm was compounded by the Native Land Court. When I was reading this part of it which was that "the remaining land [that wasn't taken through confiscation] was … put through the Native Land Court. Ngāti Maru had no alternative but to use … [that court] if they wanted a title that could be legally recognised and protected from claims by other Māori. A legal title was also necessary if … [they] wished to lease or sell [the] land." However this individualised the land and it was a complete cultural breach and an enforcement of an individualised liberalised world view that has caused us so much harm as a country for Māori and for everybody I would argue. And ultimately at the end of that Ngāti Maru did not retain any of the land supposedly awarded to them by the Native Land Court. So if we've ever had a case of "damned if you do damned if you don't" I would argue that the Native Land Court was it.Then in the early 1890s—so this is within just such a short period of time from being independent autonomous living rich lives to being virtually landless—Ngāti Maru appealed to the Crown for their help. The Crown's response was slow and ineffective and then eventually it got around to in 1907 awarding some small parcels of poor and limited land that would not enable Ngāti Maru to support themselves or rebuild. And an agreement to consolidate individual awards into more economically viable and culturally appropriate family holdings was never carried out. Treachery upon treachery upon treachery. The harm of this has been severe poverty of spirit of land of body and that lies with the Crown. And that it is very clear through debates online and in this House still; how often we need to repeat that that harm is from the Crown's action and not Māori inadequacy just infuriates me when I read these settlements. But I do want to move on and acknowledge the generosity of Ngāti Maru in that context to go into negotiations with that same Crown that has done over so many years so much harm and to seek and accept a redress that was hard fought for and hard negotiated and that is alongside every other Treaty settlement bill in this House completely inadequate to the harm that was done. That does enable the return of land and 16 sites of cultural significance though I will note that many of these lands still are subject to conditions because again there is still not trust from the Crown of the generosity or the intent of hapū to be able to demonstrate manaakitanga or kaitiakitanga and I believe that is something we need to do better on. The Greens will—you know I should be upfront and saying that we never believe these settlements are full and final and that we will never achieve the intent of Te Tiriti o Waitangi of being a living document until we actually appropriately recognise that sovereignty was not ceded and actually stand alongside the hapū in enabling appropriate decision-making to happen for hapū by hapū. On that point I want to reflect back that within this comes the joint management agreement for the health of the Waitara River which is about seeking to improve the effectiveness of the Taranaki Regional Council's Waitara River Committee by supplementing its functions to include a role for iwi and environmental monitoring of the river. That's progress but boy in terms of the damage that's been done it just seems like the inability for the Crown and local government to relinquish the sense of being the ultimate judge—we still have a long way to go. But I want to thank Ngāti Maru for taking up that role which will benefit all of us. Finally I acknowledge your values that have driven in this process: Maru Ora Maru Pae Maru Rota Maru Taha Mara Muri and Maru Tiketike which really does demonstrate the hope of the future and also references the harm of the past. May we move forward together."