Wall LouisaLOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa): Ā tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare. E ngā mana e ngā reo rau rangatira mā; tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa mauri ora Te Atiawa. Tēnā koutou ngā hapū Ngāti Rāhiri Ōtaraua Manukōrihi Puketapu Pukerangiora Ngāti Te Whirikura Ngati Tapurīkino Ngāti Te Whiti nō reira tēnā tātou katoa.[Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker. My acknowledgments to the authorities voices and esteemed ones of a hundredfold; greetings to you collectively and to us all and may the force of life be with you Te Atiawa. Congratulations to you the subtribes Ngāti Rāhiri Ōtaraua Manukōrihi Puketapu Pukerangiora Ngāti Te Whirikura Ngāti Tapurīkino Ngāti Te Whiti and therefore to us all.] Today is a really special day. It is a special day because this is Te Atiawa's day. It is the day when we as parliamentarians support the iwi in its process of resolving historical Treaty of Waitangi issues. It is when we as parliamentarians tautoko the process. So it is a bit of a sad day when we are not 100 percent focused on the whānau who have travelled so far today because of a Taranaki claim that went to the Waitangi Tribunal initiated by the Taranaki Māori Trust Board in 1987.So we are here because of the mahi that the tūpuna of Te Atiawa undertook when we opened up the opportunity to investigate Treaty of Waitangi breaches right back to 1840. What happened after the Taranaki Māori Trust Board in 1987 took the first case was that the Waitangi Tribunal released a report on 11 June 1996. That report was called The Taranaki Report—Kaupapa Tuatahi. It took another 14 years for the process to be started again and so in 2010 the Crown recommended negotiations with Te Atiawa.The second reading of a bill is about the principles of the bill and it is also to provide some korero from the submissions. So for us to do that I just want to focus on what this process is all about. This is about the Treaty of Waitangi Act of 1975 and in the Purpose" section of that Act it says they wanted to create a tribunal to make "recommendations on claims relating to the practical application of the Treaty and to determine whether certain matters are inconsistent with the principles of the Treaty [of Waitangi]". The amendment Act of 1985 then enabled us to go back to 1840.So the bill before the House today the Te Atiawa Claims Settlement Bill gives effect to the deed of settlement agreed by the Crown and Te Atiawa that was signed on 9 August 2014. I would like to read from the submission of Liana Poutū: "The settlement of these claims has taken generations to reach this point and we are grateful to our many tūpuna who worked tirelessly on this kaupapa so that their mokopuna would not have to carry the burden that they carried for so long. I am well aware that this settlement does not even come close to compensating our people for the losses and sacrifices we have endured but we are still here and intend on being around to see that the work of those before us is not wasted." So on behalf of Te Kotahitanga o Te Atiawa Trust she says it supports the bill in its entirety.I think it is really important that we focus on what is in the bill and I want to take the opportunity to read some sections from The Taranaki Report: "3.6 Waitara". The context is really interesting because obviously when Thomas Browne who became our Governor replaced Governor Grey in 1855 he was sent here for a very specific purpose and that was to secure lands. It says in that report that his resolve to secure the Taranaki lands for settlement was an imperative—an imperative of his appointment. So in 1856 he appointed a board to inquire and to report on the status of Taranaki lands and I just want to quote from that report about the board's view. It was: "the 'tribe' "—Taranaki—"that had the only authority to dispose of land and while the individual had certain possessory rights 'there is no such thing as an individual claim clear and independent of the tribal right' ". So it was really clear that any lands that were to be sold had to be agreed to by the tribe and that individuals could not sell land.Governor Browne then visited Taranaki on 8 March 1859 and he announced a policy and I would like to read that policy to the House today. First: "any person committing violence or outrage within 'European boundaries' would be dealt with under the criminal law;" but secondly he said he "would not buy land with a disputed title and 'would buy no man's land without his consent' " and herein I guess lie the issues around Pekapeka.I found it interesting when I went on to the New Zealand in History website because there is a section called "The New Zealand Wars" and a Taranaki War time line. It starts in 1859 and it says: "Te Atiawa tribe offers to sell land at Waitara. Surveying commences in 1860 but is interrupted by Wiremu Kingi Te Rangitake a Te Atiawa chief who objects to the land sale." So I found it really interesting that it said that the tribe offered to sell it but actually its rangatira objected to the sale. Obviously the issue was not about the tribe selling it; it was about land agents at that time finding someone—an individual—who was willing to sell the land.I want to quote again from the tribunal report. The person who wanted to sell it—his name was Te Teira. Kingi was aware that he had asked for payment and that he had entered into this negotiation with Governor Browne and this is what he wrote to the Governor: "I will not agree to our bedroom being sold (I mean Waitara here) for this bed belongs to all of us; and do not you be in haste to give the money. If you give the money secretly you will get no land for it. You may insist but I will never agree to it … All I have to say to you O Governor is that none of this land will be given to you never never till I die. I have heard it is said that I am to be imprisoned because of this land. I am very sad because of this word. Why is it? You should remember that the Maoris and Pakehas are living quietly upon their pieces of land and therefore do not you disturb them."In preparing for my kōrero today I found a press release dated 10 October 2000. It was by the Hon Parekura Horomia and it was to mark the 25th anniversary of the Waitangi Tribunal. He quoted from Judge Durie at the time who after 20 years of experience had four things to say: "1. The room for ethnic misunderstanding. Therefore in its reporting the Tribunal has tried to explain Maori cultural views as it appeared from the evidence so that Maori and Pakeha might understand one another better in the future. 2. The need to report fully in order to put the past at rest. 3. The need to make practical recommendations so that something positive might happen in the future. 4. And that the process underlined for him how important it is that all people should have access to an appropriate judicial forum to express legitimate concerns."So I think what the process has endeavoured to do is to provide that forum but for some people who are not aware of what is happening around them they do not engage early enough and I think if we look at what is going to happen in terms of the debate around Waitara and the proposition that the New Plymouth District Council has put to the House I think it is really important that we focus on the right of first refusal for the whānau of Te Atiawa in Waitara. I just want to highlight article 2 of the Treaty of Waitangi actually where the Queen confirmed and guaranteed to Māori "the full exclusive and undisturbed possession of [our] Lands" for as long as we "wish and desire to retain" them in our possession. What we agreed in being guaranteed our full and undisturbed possession was that the Crown had an exclusive right of pre-emption over that land.I guess if we want to look at Waitara and an opportunity for Te Atiawa to have the first right of refusal actually we should look no further than the Treaty in enabling that specific provision in the Waitara bill because from the council position it is saying: "We are going to give Te Atiawa a monopoly. They will have an exclusive right an only right to buy the land." Well I guess my challenge to us is: what is wrong with that? Because that is what we said in the Treaty. Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa."