Redmayne SuzeSUZE REDMAYNE (National—Rangitīkei): Tēnā koutou katoa. Ko Ruapehu te maungaKo Turakina ta awaNō Rangitīkei ahauKo Dossor Redmayne toku whānauKo Suze tōku ingoaTēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa.[Greetings everyone.Ruapehu is the mountainTurakina is the riverI am from RangitīkeiDossor Redmayne is my familySuze is my nameThank you all.]I must start by acknowledging the descendants of Tamahaki Tamakana and Uenuku who have come to Parliament today for the first reading of Te Korowai o Wainuiārua Claims Settlement Bill. I also acknowledge the hurt the sacrifice and the sheer hard work they endured over many years to get here. I pay tribute to the kuia and kaumātua who are no longer here who also fought hard and who were among the first to submit claims to the Waitangi Tribunal in the 1980s. They have waited a long time.When the Uenuku Charitable Trust representing Te Korowai o Wainuiārua and the Crown signed an agreement in principle in July 2023 trust chair Aiden Gilbert who is here today recounted a story of old. It was the story of four symbolic gifts given to the Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage at Parliament in 1936 by Tahupōtiki Wiremu Rātana the founder of the Rātana Church. Rātana first presented Savage with three huia feathers representing Māori. They were protruding from a potato which symbolised the land taken from Māori leaving them unable to grow their staple crop. A pounamu hei tiki tiki represented Māori mana and prestige which had also been lost. A pin with a star and crescent moon was the symbol of the Rātana Church. His final gift: a broken gold watch handed down to Rātana by his grandfather. It represented the broken promises of the Crown. It was time to give back their land.It is said that these items had such a profound impact on Savage that when he died in 1940 they were buried with him. It is fitting that Te Korowai o Wainuiārua's agreement in principle was signed at the Rautahi marae watched over by the Rātana Church on the hill.The people of Te Korowai o Wainuiārua have waited a long time. Nau mai haere mai ki te Whare Pāremata. Now is their time. This settlement is a significant milestone for my people of Uenuku and I'm especially proud to speak to the first reading of this bill as the member of Parliament for the mighty Rangitīkei. Together their story is a painful story of conflict and loss grievances and injustices. It is a history of large-scale loss of ancestral land land taken to facilitate the logging of the great Waimarino forest and to facilitate the construction of the main trunk line which helped to build the colony's towns and cities which helped to build New Zealand.The bill acknowledges breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi which literally left hapū and iwi landless and caused significant and ongoing socio-economic harm. The symbolic division of the Whanganui River at Pipiriki with Whanganui to the south and the three hapū of Uenuku Tamahaki and Tamakana to the north—those to the north were labelled hauhau" or rebels by the Crown. They endured the stigma of the "hauhau" label and they endured the subsequent painful divisions between the iwi and the iwi of Whanganui.I acknowledge this bill has been a long time coming and it hasn't been without its challenges. Although Tamahaki Tamakana and Uenuku are distinct tribal entities they are tightly connected through whakapapa and a shared history. In negotiations they demonstrated manaakitanga as a people and as iwi. In the words of Raetihi's Eliza Piu "At the end of the day Suze we're all related. We're all whānau and that's the most important consideration".I would also like to mention something else I heard during the course of my conversations with people involved in this protracted and complicated process. Treaty settlements are not just a gravy train for Māori. They honour redress for Māori but they also provide huge economic social and wellbeing benefits for all across communities and in this case across the mighty Rangitīkei. They are a springboard for hope progress and prosperity.Today begins the next chapter of acknowledging the people of Te Korowai o Wainuiārua and their mana whenua of acknowledging my people of Uenuku the God of the rainbow. I tautoko them all. I support them and I'm incredibly proud to speak for them on this momentous day. Together they can finally see the future. Today is a rainbow day. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa."