Paraone PitaPITA PARAONE (NZ First): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker ā tēnā hoki koutou ngā uri o Ngāti Tamaoho koutou i tae mai nei i waenganui i a tātou i te rā nei koutou e noho tonu ana i te wā kāinga ki te are taringa mai mātakitaki mai i ngā kōrero e pā ana ki te pire i roto i Te Whare Raiona i te rā nei.Ka hoki mahara ki ētahi o ngā hunga i rārangitia e Te Minita me ētahi atu o ngā kaikōrero i tū ake i mua i a au nā ko Toko Pompey tēnā ā ko Mere Taka ko Ngāneko Minhinnick. Ka nui taku mihi ki a rātou nā te mea i te wā e ora ana nā rātou i tū kaha ana ki te āwhina ki te whāngai hoki i a au i te wā i tīmata ai au hei kaimahi mō Te Tari Māori i roto i taua rohe. Nā reira ko rātou ki a rātou tātou te hunga ora ki a tātou; tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker and salutations also to you the descendants of Ngāti Tamaoho you who have arrived here amongst us on this day you who remained back at home to listen and to watch the contributions relating to the bill in the lion's den today.The mind returns to some of those listed by the Minister and other speakers who got up before me: that Toko Pompey Mere Taka and Ngāneko Minhinnick there. My appreciation to them is huge because when they were alive they were resolute in helping and nourishing me when I started as an employee for Māori Affairs in that region. Therefore they the dead to themselves and we the living to ourselves; salutations acknowledgments and accolades to you collectively.]It is my pleasure to stand on behalf of New Zealand First to contribute to this the first reading of the Ngāti Tamaoho Claims Settlement Bill. I say pleasure" because in naming Mr Pompey Mere Taka and Ngāneko Minhinnick I say that they were three people who offered help and in fact looked after me when I started working in the South Auckland area and all of them epitomised what manaakitanga is all about. I am not quite sure whether in fact their manaakitanga was as a result of them understanding the whakapapa between ngā uri o Hineamaru ki a rātou ngā uri o Rongo-patu-taonga ēngari kia ahatia [the descendants of Hineamaru to them and to those of Rongo-patu-taonga but what can be done about it]?I will always remember those people particularly Ngāneko and Mere Taka because they certainly epitomised how people should treat one another. I hope that what they exercised in those days—I have retained some of that learning—reflects in my attitude to other people of that generation. From my reading the background of this claim—the way the Crown treated what could be regarded as friendly natives—I just want to say that Ngāti Tamaoho had sold part of their land interests in order to accommodate the new settlers to the area and provide a platform for commercial enterprise so that they could benefit their people. However the actions of the Crown as is recorded shows that they were certainly—I should not say "misguided" but their trust in dealing with the Crown was certainly misguided in that regard. I want to just quote a certain paragraph from some written notes that I have here. This is the quote: "By 1900 Ngāti Tamaoho were virtually landless. Many experienced severe social and economic marginalisation and deplorable housing conditions. Māori children experienced discrimination and segregation at a state-run school in Pukekohe." Can I say that that is probably the beginning of a dark part of our history for that area because up to the 1950s and 1960s there was this activity still going on. It was not amongst the schoolchildren in the way that it is described here but I know that within the township of Pukekohe itself a lot of my relatives who had migrated from the North to work in the market gardens experienced the discrimination and the segregation that is talked about here. I think that the fact that while it is not recorded in terms of the 1950s or the 1960s it is certainly a reminder of that dark time in our history as a nation particularly when it was only 40 or 50 years ago. To have that sort of thing—and some would say that it is still happening. However in terms of Ngāti Tamaoho this is certainly acknowledged in their settlement bill and the Crown has quite rightly extended its apologies for that. I also want to say that this is about seeking honour and peace as one of my colleagues has already mentioned. While Ngāti Tamaoho might seek honour and peace we ought to recognise that this claim will not be fully settled nor will they be fully compensated. Given the number of settlements that have passed through and the records of those settlements we have come to appreciate that we could never fully compensate the claimants for their losses but it is very interesting to note though the people of Ngāti Tamaoho and the extent of their area of claim. I can understand the reference that Waikato often make about Tāmaki ki runga [up above] and probably the people of Remuera would be very surprised to know that we have an iwi of 2700 people who can claim so to speak Remuera as being part of their tribal area. I just wonder how many of them are actually living in Remuera. A lot of them are probably providing services to the suburb but again I digress. I look forward to this bill being referred to the Māori Affairs Committee. I look forward to submissions. I hope that many people who have an interest in this bill and who may have some concerns about the terms of the settlement will make a submission so that we can actually hear their concerns and we can have it on the record as to what those concerns might be. But in conclusion I want to commend this bill to the House and I look forward to discussing it further in the Māori Affairs Committee. Kia ora."