Coffey TāmatiTĀMATI COFFEY (Labour): Tēnā koe e te Mana Whakawā.Tēnā koutouE hoa māKua tae mai neiKi tēnei wāNō reira rāE hoa māKia ora rāKoutou katoa.[Greetings to youMy friendsWho have come hereAt this timeThereforeMy friendsGreetingsTo you all.]I wanted to start on a light note despite the heaviness of this conversation. My colleague Willie Jackson is right: we come here we pour our heart out we acknowledge the Treaty settlement legislation goes through here but it doesn't sit in isolation; the work that this House does on Treaty settlements needs to be echoed in everything else that we're doing. So by putting in place things like the Māori Health Authority by putting in place Māori wards by increasing Māori representation at decision-making tables that is all part and parcel of why we've come to Parliament here to make those changes. And I wanted to acknowledge that because he's right: sometimes in this House we talk with one voice and sometimes we do it just for show for the people who are watching. But actually if we're going to be consistent then I'd ask the Opposition to be consistent in making sure that Māori are continually supported around that decision-making table because sometimes they haven't been of that mind. And now that I've said that I won't say any more.Ngā uri o Taranaki maunga tēnā koutou. Anei tētehi uri o Taranaki maunga e tū ake nei ki te mihi ki a koutou i tēnei rā whakahirahira. [To the descendants of Mount Taranaki greetings to you. I am a descendant of Mount Taranaki standing here to greet you on this significant day.]I'm a Coffey from Rāhotu and I've carried that name with me through the generations all the way down to even now and even my proud Te Arawa whakapapa couldn't dilute the Coffey name—no! It stuck with me! And for that reason I carry it proudly. Our whānau were actually a whānau that left Taranaki back in the day at the time of the Land Wars and actually made our way down to Lower Hutt down here in Wellington. And we grew up as uri of Taranaki but living down here in Te Awakairangi. So I acknowledge you those of my whanaunga that may be sitting up there in the gallery today.I first of all wanted to start by thanking your people that you put out the front—the negotiators that act on behalf of this settlement—because I know that they have done a lot of work and I wanted to acknowledge them. They are actually listed in the bill; so if anyone wants to go and see check out page 22. I want to say thank you to you Anaru Marshall Nathan Peri James Tuuta Paretutaki Hayward-Howie Rowena Henry—all on behalf of Ngāti Maru. On behalf of Te Kāhui Maru Trust and Te Iwi o Maruwharanui: Holden Hohaia Tamzyn Pue Bronwyn Puata-Koroheke Eileen Hall Samuel Tamarapa Ray Tuuta and all of those other people that were there on the signing of the deed of settlement on 27 February 2021.It was a big day and obviously that has led you to this House here. We still have a bit of due diligence that we need to do and so your bill is going to come to the Māori Affairs Committee of which I am chair. You should probably know that we've got all political parties represented around the table and we generally do things quite nice—we play quite nicely on our komiti Māori just so you know. But one thing that we do is we try and honour what you've signed in the deed of settlement that was done earlier on. So much gets you to that point where you sign that deed that there are only minor tweaks that we need to do to be able to process it through this House. So today is the first reading; then what we'll do is we'll open it up for submissions hearings. And if you would like to send us an invite to come to Te Upoko o te Whenua to come to the marae to listen to those hearings send us an invite and tell us if that's what you would like us to do. We would love to come and listen to those hearings listen to the stories the richness of those stories which are actually acknowledged in the summary of historical account.I've heard my colleague from the National Party read through some of that historical account; so I'm not going to do it here. But one thing that I did want to do is read out some of the acknowledgments which is in a nutshell all of the reasons that have led us to this all of the reasons that the Crown has failed Ngāti Maru in its life. And I wanted to also just acknowledge a comment that I had from one of my aunties who came here for the Ngāti Rangitihi Claims Settlement Bill not so long ago. We had the first reading for them but one of the things that Auntie said was: we iwi ngaro mātou. [we are a lost tribe.]She acknowledged that actually because of the actions of the Crown Ngāti Rangitihi are an iwi that need to rebuild from the ground up. There is so much work that needs to be done. Her aspiration was to build a hauora not just for health but for the hauora o te tangata the hauora of our reo of our tikanga. She wanted to do that kind of stuff and as I read through your account and the things that you're aspiring to do and the history that has led you to this point I hear lots of similarities in there as well.I wanted to acknowledge Tamzyn your comment on Stuff on 23 June 2020. The comment was from the heart. It said This deed contains the tears of my ancestors the truths of the history that left Ngāti Maru landless with no reo no tikanga and no identity." I hope that this will help to start to put Ngāti Maru back on to its own journey as it should have been all those years ago. What we do in this House will never repay everything that has been lost but one of the reasons that I'm here is to try and make sure that the Crown becomes a good partner to Māori now and into the future and that we acknowledge what's happened in the past and we don't shy away from it which is why I'm really proud that our Government has chosen to teach our New Zealand history in our schools so that actually we can learn about those stories—the bad stuff that happened to New Zealand the impact of colonisation the loss of our reo the loss of our tikanga the shame that so many of our Māori whānau carry because they've become disconnected. Think about it: if I'm one of the whānau that left Taranaki at the time of the Land Wars and we ended up down here in Wellington—and now I'm living in Rotorua living in ignorant bliss—that illustrates to me a disconnection from my "Taranaki-tanga" if you will. And if that's my story how many of our whanaunga are out there with a similar story?So I look forward to you putting in your submissions. Tell the whānau to chuck one in even if they haven't put one in before. There's a first time for everything. Put in a submission write down those feelings so that we the committee can truly understand what it is that you're bringing to the table. It's easy to be able to stand here and throw out a dollar sign and say you know "$30 million—hey boom bang!" But actually the dollars don't really—yes they're important and they take the edge off don't get me wrong but actually what matters also just as importantly are the stories that come with it the depth of that emotion from the people with lived experience. And I acknowledge all of those people—our kuia koroua—who haven't been able to be part of this journey today who ran the good race but weren't able to be here to witness this. So I acknowledge them at this time. We pledge to—I pledge to as chair of the committee—do it justice as we progress this bill through and do it with respect and I think I speak on behalf of all of our committee members when I say that.One last message that I wanted to pass on was from my whanaunga who was also Crown negotiator on this journey David Tapsell. I flicked him a message and he was apologetic that he couldn't be here today to be part of this to witness this because he put a lot of hard work in—but obviously so did you all as well. So I said to him "Is there one thing that you want me to say?" And it goes a little something like this—here it is—he wanted to say that it was his privilege to work with Ngāti Maru. He wanted to acknowledge the skilled and dedicated team who he is absolutely sure will serve Ngāti Maru well into the future. That's from him. This is from me: tēnā koutou tēnā koutou mauri ora ki a tātou katoa."