Reti ShaneDr SHANE RETI (Deputy Leader—National): I te tuatahi ka nui te mihi ki te iwi moana i tēnei rā. [Firstly I would like to pay tribute today to the peoples of the Pacific.]I stand to lend my voice to the apology for the Dawn Raids that so unfairly targeted our Pasifika peoples friends family and brethren.In 1973 the Government created a task force to deal with overstayers and they were empowered to conduct random checks on suspected overstayers. The first media record the Parliamentary Library could find around the Dawn Raids specifically—recognising that raids were actually probably occurring from the early 1970s—was 13 March 1974 and the headline was Thirty-eight Islanders were arrested in a series of dawn raids today in what police describe as the biggest clamp-down on illegal immigrants." Seventeen of the men all of whom were between 20 and 30 were later released when it was found they had applied for extension of expired work permits. How was this done? Twenty-four policemen and three immigration officers began the raids in Ponsonby and Freemans Bay at 5 a.m. They roused several of the men from their beds to take them to the police station for questioning in a large police van. A police officer said 'The immigration department was running the whole show. We were only there to assist.' and so the concept of dawn raids was enabled.Five days later there was starting to be pushback in the public media. The Auckland Star on 18 March—five days later—said "The Government has been asked to declare a general amnesty for Pacific Islanders who overstay their visitors' permits following the arrest of 21 Islanders in a dawn raid in Auckland. In telegrams to the Prime Minister Mr Kirk and the Minister of Immigration Mr Coleman the Citizens' Association for Racial Equality has asked for proceedings against those arrested to be stayed and a general amnesty to be granted." Surely the red flags were already starting to be seen of those arrested. A good number of them were actually on legitimate visas they were pulled from their beds and this was clearly wrong.The first time the House records any comment of dawn raids is on 29 March about two weeks after the media started to pick it up—29 March 1974—with an oral question to Prime Minister Norman Kirk the Labour Government 1972-74. Prime Minister Kirk replied "The term 'dawn raids' is an extravagant use of language. The visits made by the police to various Onehunga addresses on 12 and 17 March commenced at 11.30 p.m. on each occasion. The New Lynn address was visited at 9.30 p.m. on 19 March. Checks of this nature are not new; they have taken place over a long period in accordance with normal procedures followed when information about breaches of the immigration laws are drawn to the attention of the police." I would contest: who cares what time they were pulled from their beds; it was wrong.Twenty years later some of our first apologies were actually to the Chinese community—and I'd advocate here for a full Crown and Government apology—around the poll tax. Prime Minister Helen Clark on the day uttered words which I think carry through to today with what we're discussing here: "Today we also express"—this is to the Chinese community—"our sorrow and regret that such practices were once considered appropriate. While the governments which passed these laws acted in a manner which was lawful at the time their actions are seen by us today as unacceptable. We believe this act of reconciliation is required to ensure that full closure can be [brought] on this chapter in our nation's history."I reflect back on Treaty settlements when I look at how we seek to make some attempt at historical apologies and historical redress and would comment the observation of many iwi that it is actually the apology and the acknowledgment that is more important than certainly commercial redress. I reflect back at a domain expert's observations of apologies under Treaty settlements the first of which was in May 1995 from the Hon Doug Graham with the Waikato Tainui deed of settlement and the comment here is: "A Crown apology attempts to recognise the impact of the breaches on the claimant group restore the honour of the Crown and begin to re-build the relationship between the Crown and the claimant group."We offer a very humble apology here today as a step towards acknowledging an historical wrong and I would say to those peoples both here and those who have passed moe mai moe mai moe mai rā. Kia ora mai tātou."