Williams ArenaARENA WILLIAMS (Labour—Manurewa): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Ki te Whare e tū nei tēnā koe. Ka karanga atu ki te whenua o Te Rohe Pōtae tēnā koutou katoa ngā mema o te iwi o Ngāti Maniapoto. Tēnā koutou ngā mema o tēnei Whare.[Greetings Mr Speaker. The House that stands here I greet you. I call to the lands of the King Country and greet you the members of Ngāti Maniapoto iwi. To the members of this House greetings.]I want to start by acknowledging our guests in the gallery and to say that usually at these second reading speeches for Treaty settlement bills we all stand up and give very formal speeches. I want you to take it as a sign of absolute and utmost respect for you and all of your uri who will be watching today that the members of the Māori Affairs Committee and the Ministers involved in this process are still having an open conversation and coming together and airing the grievance we have heard airing the differences we have heard airing the mamae that we have heard in this process. It's a sign of respect for your process for your people and for the depth of hurt in what has gone before the moment today when we acknowledge this very important milestone in the Treaty settlement process.I also want to acknowledge my colleague the Hon Willie Jackson and the member opposite Harete Hipango for their comments about those people who have disagreed with this process. We know as Māori and in Te Ao Māori that disagreement outside of here is a sign of respect that we are debating those ideas with each other and that we are talking more about how not only are these issues effective in law and in our constitutional framework but also to us as people. I know that they both know and I know that members of this House know that the Treaty settlement process is hard on the people who go through it and that that mamae that comes out is an important part of that. But I want to give this House a little bit of context about how that has occurred and for Mr Jackson's comments about why the settlement is not perfect.I'd like to step us back and take us through why we haven't come to a perfect outcome. Without going too far back—Mr Speaker if you'll indulge me—I'll start in 1857 and quote the Chief Judge of Native Land Court. Judge Fenton is often quoted in this House with his pro-colonial positions and his pro-Crown positions but it's this quote which I'll start us with: No system of government that the world every saw can be more democratic than that of the Maoris. The chief alone has no power. The whole tribe deliberate on every subject not only politically on such as are of public interest but even judicially they hold their 'komitis' on every private quarrel. In ordinary times the vox populi determines every matter both internal and external. … no individual enjoys influence or exercises power unless it originates with the mass and is expressly or tacitly conferred by them."It's important that we start there because we have come to a context for Māori society that was inherently democratic where things were discussed where there was raru in the open and where we talked amongst ourselves and then came together as a group before any decision was made. So when the story of Ngāti Maniapoto and the Crown's apology begins we start at the Taranaki Wars and in this bill the Crown acknowledges that Ngāti Maniapoto carefully weighed the justice of the war in Taranaki in 1860 before intervening in the conflict. My colleague the Hon Nanaia Mahuta read that consideration of the conflict which was careful and which was open and which was openly discussed between not only leaders but also ordinary people. When you look at it like that and you think about the clash of culture that was happening at that time where land wars were happening over title of land ownership which simply did not exist in the culture of Māori at the time and when you consider the decision-making structures that were being used for people who opposed those land takings it is no surprise that there is a history in every decade since the 1860s of clash between those tribal structures and Crown and an inability to make decisions that made sense to one another.The next is the labelling of the Taranaki people and of Ngāti Maniapoto as rebels and then followed the Waikato Wars and confiscations. My own tīpuna took refuge in the lands of Ngāti Maniapoto and in this bill the Crown acknowledges of Ngāti Maniapoto to peace after 1865 when they gave sanctuary to Te Kooti for a number of years after he had agreed to also abandon warfare and to live in peace.We have then an agreement between the Crown and Ngāti Maniapoto and if I'm so lucky to give a third reading speech I will take you through my longer more formal speech about what that meant for Ngāti Maniapoto and the Crown in the years after. But I think what that shows us is that when we have these conversations about why a Treaty settlement individually isn't perfect—and there are still parties who disagree even at this period in second reading—and where we all around the House acknowledge that people need to come together to find that spirit of kotahitanga it's built on these complicated interwoven strands of more than a century of having the ability to come together and the ability to find kotahitanga undermined. We have that within us. I have hope for this Treaty settlement process which leads us to a place where we get to start again and we get to come together and to build those bridges but it really is a heavy expectation a heavy burden that now Te Nehenehenui bears. When you hear it from members of this House that you hope we come together I also hope that you see that as a mark of respect that we respect the work you have done to be able to put yourselves in a position where you can bear that burden of responsibility and of leadership because it's not an easy thing when you look at the history of how the Crown has both deliberately and recklessly undermined the ability of an iwi a hapū a whānau to be able to do that for themselves.I think as well that there are a few important things in this Treaty settlement which are different and unique and which can be really celebrated as part of that going forward. One has been commented a lot already in this House already which is the rights in the exclusive economic zone but I also want to acknowledge the taonga tūturu protocols in this bill. The select committee did discuss these. One thing that I always get a lot of hope from in Treaty settlement processes is the ability of one entity within a group of people to be able to have responsibility for the claiming the receiving the gifting and the making available taonga tūturu when they are discovered to the people. That again is a hefty responsibility when taonga are found to be able to enjoy them with iwi and it's so important in this bill that that has been given effect to.My final comments are just to thank everyone who has come today. To all of the submitters you've made the select committee process vibrant. We've had so many really robust debates around the table. It's been an opportunity for me personally to really understand where my colleagues'—not only National members but also Government members—understandings and postures towards the Treaty settlement process are. Your settlement is a very important and special one and it's been a privilege for me to work on it. I thank you for coming here I thank you for sticking with it and I'm looking forward to working with you on it in the future."