Henare Tau: Te Roroa Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
Henare Tau: Te Roroa Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
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Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 I want to echo Shane Jones’ korero about how significant it is that you Mr Deputy Speaker are in the Chair when we are passing the third reading of the Te Roroa Claims Settlement Bill. 
I start my comments on the bill by saying “Not enough not enough not enough”. It is pathetic and I do not mean that as a shot at the Minister in charge of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations the Deputy Prime Minister. I say that because this bill addresses one of the most shameful acts that any Government has put across a people—that is the continued desecration of a small but proud people. Again I do not refer to the current Government. In fact this House has gone some way to putting right the wrongs of former Governments. 
I feel rather proud that I can stand in the House and speak on this bill because my great-grandfather was part of the triumvirate of members of Parliament back in the days that took on board what had happened to Te Roroa. The funny thing is that in 1993 when I took up my spot in the House of Representatives for the next 3 years I was inundated with faxes and letters from Ngapuhi saying: “Those fellows aren’t Te Roroa. They’re just a little offshoot of Ngapuhi.” I will not name those people but they know who they are. I congratulate those who are left from Te Roroa on sticking it out and going the extra mile. 
This bill is not about only Te Roroa. In the history of New Zealand in a hundred years’ time people will look back on Te Roroa and the settlement and they will think: “Allan Titford”. I want to bring up the issue of Allan Titford because it is important to the whole story of Te Roroa that we do not forget that there is still bitterness out there over this settlement and it is not felt only by some of the whanau. It is also felt by Pakeha people who have been involved in the area. I just say to Te Roroa: “Go well!” Hopefully they can smooth the rough edges that unfortunately the Government has left them. We will try our best to smooth some of them as well. 
There has been mention of Waimamaku. I cannot stand here and not mention the first time I went to Waimamaku. I was working with the Department of Internal Affairs as a community development adviser and the people from Waimamaku had put in an application to the Lottery Grants Board to get some funds for the marae. I went up there and met with Whetu Naera and the folk up there and I wrote a report saying that they should get a grant of millions and millions of dollars for their marae. Whether they were successful who knows? 
There is an issue dear to my heart that arises out of the process with the bill and that is the repatriation of taonga whether repatriated from overseas or from within our shores. I must say it should not be a case of finders keepers losers weepers. It should not be that simple especially when we are talking about koiwi tupuna taonga. Which one of us in this House would like to see our grandmother and grandfather sitting on somebody else’s mantelpiece? That is how I equate it. Surely we have to do a hell of a lot more than we have been doing to repatriate those taonga into the proper ownership the hands of those from whom those taonga have been taken. 
The other significant issue was the Aranga farms issue—the Allan Titford issue—and out of that issue came the decree that no private land would or could be used in the settlement of Treaty claims. So good or bad that is what came out of that issue. I am disappointed that we could not get the return of the taonga in question and I know that everybody who comes back to the House after November will try in their role as parliamentarians to make sure they get those taonga returned. 
I want to I suppose apologise to Te Roroa and my apology is this: “We have given you so little I do not expect miracles. We have given you so little to work with it is a wonder that any good will come of it.” I sincerely mean that and it is not because of Te Roroa; it is because of us. I am still shocked and shamed by what we have been able to do for Te Roroa. They have been waiting 15 to 16 years for a settlement bill only to get $9 million in today’s money. That would most probably be the yearly salary of somebody from AIG or Lehman Brothers Bank. 
I notice that there is a 13-page preamble to the bill and it tells the story however briefly of Te Roroa. Maybe in the future we can gather up all our Treaty settlement bills and look at all the history that has been written in those preambles and maybe we can bind them and use them for the history lessons that we should be teaching our kids in mainstream education and kura kaupapa. 
I want to end by again saying that the Maori Affairs Committee did its job wonderfully well under the good stewardship of Dave Hereora. We travelled to Dargaville and I have to say that when we go through the select committee process and hear submissions there is always one that stands out. There is always one submission that really knocks us off our seats. A guy came up to the select committee table with a little tree and I thought that it was a gift for us as a select committee. I will not mention any names. 
Pita Paraone 
: It wasn’t any tree; it was a tupuna—it was a kauri. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: It was “the” tree. It was a kauri. You know Maoris love theatre eh? We love theatre—that is why we come here. 
The guy told his story. He told us what he wanted to tell us and then he started hacking at the tree—well he was not hacking at it; he had proper secateurs or whatever they were. I was gobsmacked. I wanted that tree but maybe we will go to Te Roroa and get a couple of trees for our backyard at Christmas time. 
I offer my congratulations to the Nathan whanau and to everybody in Te Roroa on having the guts to stick it out and stick it out. For over 100 years they have been waiting for this. Finally I say that Uncle Maite would have been very very pleased and very very humbled by the experience. Kia ora. 
Bill read a third time. 
Waiata; karanga