Turei Metiria: Ngati Tama Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
Turei Metiria: Ngati Tama Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:613;Page:10249] 
METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
:  
Kia ora koutou katoa he mihi nui ki nga rangatira he mihi nui ki a Ngati Tama. The Greens have considered very carefully our support for the restitution of claims along with our very deep concerns about the treaty settlement process but we have in the end decided to support this bill. We acknowledge Ngati Tama’s efforts to achieve some form of justice and restitution for the grievous harms caused to the manawhenua. We applaud the resilience of the iwi in getting through the difficult settlement process and in achieving a settlement at all. We were pleased to see the comparatively high ratification rate for example for the deed of settlement. 
However we are deeply aware of the strongly felt opposition to this bill—from people who like us consider that the settlement process simply creates further injustice. The ratification rate for the governance entity was not good and there were significant and compelling submissions that raised serious concerns about the exclusion of Ngati Tama people from the process and their obstruction. We urge the governance entity to take those concerns very seriously if it is to manage and utilise the settlement assets for the benefit of every member of Ngati Tama—as is its solemn responsibility. 
The issues raised and the fact that they remain unresolved highlight the serious flaws in the settlement policy and process which create a conflict fail to manage that conflict and then deny all responsibility for it. The settlement process selects the winners disadvantages the others and leaves the iwi hapu and whanau to pick up the pieces at the end. 
There are steps we believe that could be taken to improve the process which are necessary for a robust resolution of historical claims and the continuation of a healthy treaty relationship that does go into the future. The first is that the process should undergo a comprehensive review by those people who are affected by the process—that is the iwi the hapu and the whanau. This settlement has shown another serious problem within the process where a competent challenge to the mandate goes unsupported by the responsible State agency while the challenged group receives support and funding. 
We do not want to set a required level of support for the mandate that does not take into account the particular circumstances of the settlement and the iwi and hapu involved. We agree that it is not for the State to determine who is to be the governance entity or those responsible for the management of the iwi’s assets. That is a decision for the iwi and hapu alone. But despite claims to the contrary the Office of Treaty Settlements does interfere with that decision in ways that undermine the sovereignty and capacity of iwi and hapu. 
It does that in the first instance by unilaterally determining the requirements for the structure and nature of the governance entity. That in some cases has led to an unjustifiable and unconscionable delay in the process to force iwi into a particular structure and secondly as in this case to fund one possible entity over another. The process of the Office of Treaty Settlements has failed the whanau whanui and Ngati Tama as a whole. That is why the process of treaty settlements needs a full-scale independent and comprehensive review. Such a review needs to engage specifically with the mechanics of the process the mandate requirements and of course the large natural groupings policy. 
It is not sufficient for the Office of Treaty Settlements simply to say that with each new settlement the office learns more and therefore refines its process. That does not assist those iwi and hapu who have suffered a further injustice and indignity simply because the office is on a learning curve. Neither is it acceptable to claim that the processes are generally acceptable to Maori because Maori engage with them. That is wilful blindness and demonstrates a failure to understand the complexity of the social and economic milieu within which Maori operate. 
Maori have never been involved in determining the best process for the restitution of their historical issues. That is the first fundamental flaw and it has resonated throughout the whole process leaving serious ongoing injustices in its wake. The continual failure to review the process is simply another insult by this Government—that Maori should remain passive and grateful recipients of State benevolence. That is structural racism and is not and never will be acceptable. 
The time will come when historical claims have been done reparation made—such as it is—and that part of this process is over. But there remains the need for the Crown to have developed an ongoing relationship under the treaty that is not property-based but that takes into account the constitutional aspects of te tiriti. There are constitutional implications in article 2 that have not been properly considered by the Crown or the courts. There are a multitude of different views about what those constitutional implications are but no Government has yet had the will to enable that dialogue to happen in any coherent way. 
 With each new settlement a new injustice is created. This year the treaty settlement process has left open wounds within Tangahoe within Pakakohi and now within a significant section of Ngati Tama . Ngati Maniapoto is also justly aggrieved in its belief that it has legitimate claims over areas included in the redress for Ngati Tama. The Government’s treaty settlement process fails iwi hapu and the nation as a whole. 
The Green Party is committed to an ongoing national dialogue that is grounded in te tiriti. We believe that this will both give effect to the relationship that it enshrines and that it will build a high level of awareness among all citizens in Aotearoa New Zealand of the unique role of te tiriti in the evolution of our nation. The treaty is not a panacea nor is it a weapon. What it is and should be is nation-building.