Goldsmith Paul; Tuiono TeanauThird ReadingHon PAUL GOLDSMITH (Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations): I present a legislative statement on the Whakatōhea Claims Settlement Bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the parliamentary website.Hon PAUL GOLDSMITH: I move That the Whakatōhea Claims Settlement Bill be now read a third time. Tihei mauriora!Te Whare e tū nei tēnā koe. Te papa i waho nei tēnā koe. Te mana whenua o tēnei rohe kei te mihi. E ngā tīpuna o te pō haere haere haere. Haere ki te wāhi ngaro haere haere. E ngā kāwai Rangatira tēnā koutou katoa.[Tis the breath of life!The House standing greetings to you. The land outside greetings. The indigenous people of this region I salute you. Dear ancestors of the night farewell. Farewell to the unseen realm farewell. To our esteemed leaders greetings to you all.]I'm pleased to stand here to support the Whakatōhea Claims Settlement Bill at its third reading. Today marks 184 years since rangatira of Te Whakatōhea signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi in Ōpōtiki on 27 and 28 May 1840 and one year since Te Whakatōhea signed their deed of settlement with my predecessor the Hon Andrew Little. Welcome to you all to your House today. It's 138 years since the Crown confiscated 144000 acres of Whakatōhea land and moved its people to the Ōpape Native Reserve. Te Whakatōhea took their first petition to Parliament 110 years ago to seek an inquiry into the confiscation of their land. Many more petitions followed. In response in 1949 the Whakatōhea Māori Trust Board was established by legislation and the iwi received £20000 in the compensation. With this money the trust board bought a farm and began the work of re-establishing the Whakatōhea economic social and cultural infrastructure.Twenty-eight years ago in 1996 the Whakatōhea Māori Trust Board agreed a deed of settlement with the Crown for the comprehensive settlement of the Whakatōhea Treaty claims. The claimant community rejected this deed of settlement and it was never put into ratification. Te Whakatōhea recommenced negotiations in 2003. At the end of 2016 the Crown recognised the mandate of the Whakatōhea Pre-Settlement Claims Trust to negotiate a Treaty settlement on behalf of Te Whakatōhea. Today 184 years since the Treaty was signed in Ōpōtiki we renew the relationship between Te Whakatōhea and the Crown.I offer this time line to the House today so that we can understand just how long the journey has been for Te Whakatōhea. I ask the House to think of those who have passed and the efforts of many Te Whakatōhea who have worked tirelessly across the generations to reach this day. I want to acknowledge Graeme Riesterer for his leadership of the Whakatōhea Pre-Settlement Claims Trust as well as Robert Edwards chair of the Whakatōhea Māori Trust Board. The Whakatōhea Māori Trust Board will be dissolved by this legislation and its assets and functions transferred to Te Tāwharau o Te Whakatōhea to lead Te Whakatōhea into the future.I acknowledge the trust board's leadership over the 75 years of its existence during which it laid the foundations for the future prosperity of Te Whakatōhea. I also acknowledge the trustees of the post-settlement governance entity Te Tāwharau o Te Whakatōhea in particular the new chair Arihia Tuoro. Te Tāwharau is made up of hapū and general representatives people who have supported the settlement and some who did not. I know that all of you will work together in the best interests of the people to make the most out of the settlement and the opportunities that lie ahead.I acknowledge those who were on the front line of those negotiations over the past 7½ years. Maui Hudson and Jason Pou brought Te Whakatōhea aspirations to the table and worked with the chief negotiator Glenn Webber and his officials including Te Arawhiti who have worked hard to assemble an outstanding package. My predecessors the Hon Chris Finlayson and the Hon Andrew Little along with other Ministers of the Crown made significant and bold decisions to make this settlement happen including the development of a new redress mechanism reserving marine space for Whakatōhea to support their pioneering work in the aquaculture industry. Finally and most importantly I acknowledge the many people of Te Whakatōhea who have travelled to Wellington today to witness this important milestone and those who could not be here in person. I welcome you to this House again. While many have passed on over the century of struggle towards this day you and your descendants carry their memories into a more prosperous future. As I said in the introduction to our greeting a couple of hours ago it's great to see all the generations here celebrating this momentous occasion.As I noted in the second reading last week I personally became aware of the tragic history of the Crown and Te Whakatōhea in the 1990s when I was studying for my Master's in history under the supervision of a historian who would be familiar to many of you: Judith Binney. My thesis was on the life of William Colenso an early Christian missionary printer. In the course of that I came across Colenso's 1871 pamphlet Fiat Justitia or Let Justice Be Done which he wrote in the turbulent backgrounds to the events surrounding Völkner's death at Ōpōtiki and the people of Whakatōhea being caught up with that. That was a powerful pamphlet and it actually sparked an interest for me in this difficult period of history and also in those core concepts of justice that he stood up for and which ultimately we are acknowledging here today.Te Whakatōhea lost much in the confiscation of their land and in the war the Crown waged on their people. Before the Crown's invasion of Ōpōtiki the people of Te Whakatōhea had developed a burgeoning agricultural industry to supply the growing settlement of Auckland. This included infrastructure in roads and ships and a windmill built by Ngāti Ira leader Hira Te Popo. Much of this was destroyed by the Crown forces in the invasion. Whakatōhea have lived with the aftermath of these devastating acts ever since. It's past time for the Crown to make redress. This settlement provides financial commercial and cultural redress funds totalling $100 million. The deed and the bill provide the transfer of 33 cultural redress sites. The deed and bill include acknowledgments of the Crown's breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi and an apology from the Crown to Te Whakatōhea.Most of all this settlement is a platform for the current and future aspirations of the people of Te Whakatōhea. The redress will help Te Whakatōhea continue to develop their economic base continue the good work in providing housing and industry in Ōpōtiki so their people can return home to live and work and continue their efforts to develop their culture and revive their language. It's my hope that this settlement can form the basis of a new future for the people of Te Whakatōhea and a renewed relationship with the Crown founded in the Treaty of Waitangi. Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Teanau Tuiono): Ko te pātai kia whakaaetia te mōtini.[The question is that the motion be agreed to.]