Mahuta NanaiaHon NANAIA MAHUTA (Labour—Hauraki-Waikato): Ā tuatahi ka tika me mihi atu rā ki Te Minita i tuku i te īnoi ki tō tātou nei Runga Rawa hei whakatau i a tātou nei wairua ngā kōrero mō ngā āhuatanga kei mua i te aroaro. Ā ki a koutou o Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa tēnei te tautoko i ngā mihi ki a koutou i tēnei wā.[And so firstly it is apt indeed that I acknowledge the Minister who delivered a prayer to our Almighty God to compliment us spiritually and the comments relating to the circumstances before us. And so to you of Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa I endorse the tributes to you at this point in time.]It is difficult when Treaty settlement bills come into the House to be dispassionate to the extent that the process that the members of the Māori Affairs Committee are a part of is scrutinising and to some extent trying to understand agreements and negotiations that have already taken place. The process also lends itself towards an opportunity to give all sides of the debate a good hearing from the first reading to the select committee and those committee stages where submissions are called for. You hear from the negotiators and those who may have dissenting views and then you try to understand and break down the extent to which those views become critical in order for the bill to proceed. I know that in the way in which the Māori Affairs Committee works there is the genuine intent of utilising the select committee process for the best outcome given that what we are considering is a negotiated outcome formalised through legislation.And we are at the third reading stage so for a large part many people who come to the House are challenged by whether or not their Treaty settlement is fit for purpose fully achieves the aspirations of what was intended and restores hope that those historical interests and those breaches of the Crown can be somewhat remedied as a result of participating in this process. I cannot say it better than has already been outlined by my colleague Adrian Rurawhe: participating in a Treaty settlement process means that to an extent you accept that the process in itself governs some of the ways that iwi need to grapple with some of these issues. But what it can never do—what the legislation what the Treaty negotiation process can never do—is actually resolve many of the issues that remain within iwi across hapū with hapū and amongst whānau. I think that we would be creating a myth if we thought that the legislative process could restore things that exist outside of this Chamber—more appropriately back on the marae within hapū and within the iwi.There have been many times in this House where we have felt that we are ill-equipped to comment on matters of whakapapa. We tend not to comment on matters where there are internal disputes. We try to give people enough of a hearing to feel that they have been listened to within the context of our limitations in the process but also to give people a sense that there is time within this process for at least iwi and hapū to work out those things and that perhaps by the third reading we might be some way closer towards letting time take its course and letting those necessary actions that must happen amongst people create some kind of coming together resolution and reconciliation. Whether or not that actually happens in reality—and I make a very general comment not one specifically related to Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa—we have to trust that with the spirit of goodwill and common sense and pragmatism that exists amongst our people but most importantly aroha aroha tētehi ki tētehi [empathy with each other] that there is a glimmer of hope that our good conscience as Māori will determine a better outcome than what a Treaty settlement or legislation could ever deliver.This is one of the times when it is difficult to comment to a huge degree with any greater knowledge than the people whom I follow because while I heard the first reading of the bill I then left the Māori Affairs Committee. Much of the evidence was heard by my colleagues Kelvin Davis and Peeni Henare. But I do want to note a couple of things by way of recognising the nature of the challenge. There are a number of lands that are being vested back to Ngatikahu and when you look through the list and then contemplate the potential opportunities for Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa they look exciting. However they require significant partnering and investment opportunities with either neighbours or other people who have a like and common cause with Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa. That will be a necessary outcome.This is where sometimes the whole redress package may return a lot of properties but the amount required to invest to get these properties up in a commercial setting requires some innovative thinking. The thing about Treaty settlements is that no matter how large or small they are wherever they are in the country the growing contribution of Māori to local and regional economies is being evidenced. So people—private sector local government—are seeing that actually it is really important to try to understand the aspirations of iwi throughout the country because they are long-term committed investors in local and regional economies. So that should provide a little window—a small window—for those who are charged with the responsibility of taking the aspiration forward in this particular instance to go out and be assertive about what the opportunity could present if people think in a different space and it is evident that the vesting of several of the properties could afford that.In terms of the cultural redress just looking at it this secures an anchor for the iwi to be able not only to practically participate in the ongoing care restoration and protection of special sites of significance but to repatriate the story back to the whenua and ensure that the next generation which carries these hopes and aspirations of kaumātua mātua and tupuna is now part of embedding the Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa story within the local region in a way that will contribute to the way in which people think about that part of the world. I look forward to seeing the realisation of those opportunities.Again it is hard to be dispassionate in these particular bills. To an extent I have been because I sense there are a number of things that still have to be resolved that remain outside of the context of Treaty settlement legislation. But I have faith that actually with goodwill the spirit of goodwill and actually whakapapa relationships people will get there very quickly because the next generation deserves it. The next generation deserves the leadership of today to get over those very significant mountains so that it can move into a more assertive engaging of aspiration in a rapidly changing world. If we do not do that today then we are dooming another generation to carry a burden far too great—far too great.Nō reira he iti nāku mō te kete kōrero i waihotia i mua i ō tātou nei i tēnei wā [So what I have left in the conversation kit for us at this point in time is but a mere drop]: tēnā tātou katoa.