Upston Louise: Ngati Whatua Orakei Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Upston Louise: Ngati Whatua Orakei Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 14 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6700. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupo) 
: 
 Tena koe e te Mana Whakawa tena koe e te Whare. Rau rangatira ma tenei te mihi ki a koutou i runga i te kaupapa. Tena koutou nga rangatira o Ngati Whatua o Orakei tena koutou tena koutou tena koutou katoa. 
[ 
Thanks to you Mr Speaker and the House. I extend this tribute to you collectively leaders of a hundredfold on this proposal. Congratulations to the leaders of Ngati Whatua of Orakei well done well done and congratulations to you all. 
] 
I am immensely humble and proud to be the final speaker in this part of our history. The third reading of any Treaty bill really is a momentous occasion that each and every one of us as New Zealanders should celebrate. I stand here before you as the proud member of Parliament for the Taupo electorate but I have spent more than half of my life in Auckland—as the Hon Tau Henare said in Ngati Whatua country. I cannot quite claim as he did that I was born in Otara but I can claim that Rangitoto Island was the maunga that I looked to as my place of grounding as I grew up in Tamaki-makau-rau. I am also a proud member of the Maori Affairs Committee. So I am very pleased to have been on this part of the very final part of the journey with you in reaching this settlement. I want to acknowledge Joe Hawke on the floor of the House just as I want to offer my prayers and support for Grant Hawke who was with us in this Whare earlier and is healing at the moment. 
One of the things that I have to say is quite challenging as a Pakeha member of Parliament on the Maori Affairs Committee is getting a depth of understanding of the journey of the tangata whenua. So I am not going to stand before you and be trite and say that I have any ounce of understanding. But what I do commit to my colleagues in this House is that I will spend every moment that I can deepening my knowledge learning the history and sharing that with as many New Zealanders as I can. 
I was only 7 when that battle took place at Bastion Point. Unfortunately or fortunately I was as a young child fascinated with politics so I took probably a much stronger interest in what happened in those days than many of my age. I think the thing that stood out for me was that it was a collection of New Zealanders against another collection of New Zealanders. Yes it was your iwi it was your people leading that fight but actually it became much broader than that. I think one of the things that really disturbed me at that age was the level of anger that two groups of what I possibly naively saw as New Zealanders could have against one another. I do have to say it left quite an impression on me even at that age. Even just Monday last week I spoke at a meeting in my electorate and you can probably imagine some of the conversations that come up from time to time in terms of “Why are we doing these Treaty settlements?”. I guess the thing that bothers me is the lack of understanding of your history of the history of iwi up and down New Zealand. That is why I have made a point of trying to encourage people to learn more. 
 I said to the group of people whom I spoke to at that public meeting that every single bill in this House is available for people to watch on the internet. I challenge them to watch these speeches of the third readings today because if you were ever to spend an hour and a half or 2 hours of your time doing that you would get the best opportunity—absolutely the best opportunity—with the collection of speeches from every corner of this House to at least have some better knowledge of what has gone on in the past that needs to be completed and acknowledged before we can move forward. 
I am enormously proud of Ministers Sharples and Finlayson but particularly Minister Finlayson. I have had some of the most memorable times as a member of Parliament with him being witness to a Crown apology. And again I think it is just so important that as many members of the community as possible participate in some of these defining moments because they are part of our history. 
I read that in the 1950s your marae was burnt down. Mangakino is part of my electorate. The marae there was torched only 5 years ago. I got admittedly only a very small sense from Pouakani of just how gutting that is. You know for some it is a building—big deal. But actually I know that to tangata whenua it is so much more than that. So I am really excited to be going to the reopening of the Pouakani Marae in Mangakino on Saturday because I know for people in that community that they have not had a place to connect to combine and to be together as whanau. 
There is an enormous amount of work that goes on to get to a day like today and my colleagues have acknowledged many things. But one of the things that I do want to just reflect on is the select committee process. There have been some conversations about the views of others who opposed parts of the bill. That is why we have a select committee process. I actually think that the fact that people have an opposing view is the opportunity for people to learn more and the public meeting that was referred to earlier which Minister Finlayson led I see that—so there is a misunderstanding; there is a conflict but sort of discussion and the select committee process actually allows the ability for people to have a better knowledge than when they started. They might still not agree they are entitled to their own views and we will all have an opinion about what their views are. But then when we come together and as a select committee make agreements—and we are here today for the celebration of your signing—I think it is helpful that there are alternative views from time to time. 
There are some Treaty bills that we do not have any submissions against at all. This was not one of those but I do not think that it takes away from the importance of this agreement because I think that through that conflict there is a willingness to reach a resolution and through that resolution there is a better understanding. 
So I just want to conclude by saying that it is fantastic to see a range of generations in the gallery today. I want to acknowledge that there have been generations of those past and I know that they are also with us in spirit. But these settlements are about the generations to come—those who are not here yet—because I think that is the importance of days like today and the conclusion of yet another Treaty settlement. It is a day for generations of all New Zealanders to come together—reflecting on the words of the Minister—where we can go forward together with unity and optimism. No reira kia ora. 
Bill read a third time. 
Waiata