Bridges SimonHon SIMON BRIDGES (National—Tauranga): Thank you Madam Speaker. Other members in this House have in their contributions acknowledged the local member of Parliament for the Chatham Islands Mr Paul Eagle. I was very recently at a gentleman's club in Wellington for dinner and the waiter came up to me and said It's so good to have you back Mr Eagle." I think that's a reflection on the fact that I've grown and he's shrunk and it's an insult to both of us frankly. But that's the way it goes.It's very good to speak on this bill the Moriori Claims Settlement Bill as a lawyer. I say that because I suppose not just lawyers but certainly as lawyers—and I say a lawyer; I no longer have a practicing certificate but once upon a time I did for several years—we perceive ourselves as righting wrongs and fighting against injustice. This bill is very much in that category; it rights wrongs and—it's not too much to say—gross historical injustices in this instance in relation to the Moriori people. It does that in three ways: it acknowledges the injustice with an apology and with apology redress it does that; in cultural redress and I'm not going to go through all of that as it's in the bill and indeed in the explanatory note in the bill; and it does that through commercial and financial redress of $18 million. As I think I basically always say when I speak on Treaty settlement bills we can and do acknowledge that that $18 million is a very small—I suppose in a sense—token of the injustice. And that's how it has to be because in truth in modern society today we can't fully recompense for the harms done; in fact if we did we'd create other injustices in the process of doing that by taking back lands and doing all manner of those sorts of things which wouldn't be practical either. But nevertheless there is redress of a sort even if it is not anywhere near full in a real sense of that.Today is a part of the story and an important part of the story in the history of the Moriori people. We learnt and I agree with I think the member Shanan Halbert made the point that the stigma and the myths that there have been around the Moriori people we learnt wrong. I can't actually remember exactly what I thought as a young kid growing up but I know we had these stories about Moriori people. I think one of them was as has been said that Moriori people were extinct and nevertheless I think one thing we did learn which is positive—and which is true as set out in the notes to this bill—is that the Moriori have always been for many hundreds of years on the Chatham Islands a peaceable people and an egalitarian people without class distinctions the way that both Western society has had and frankly that much of Māori culture has also had. If we cast forward from the 100 years of Moriori in the Chathams in the 1830s many were slaughtered and enslaved by iwi. In light of that history of peace—pacifism of a sort—little resistance tragically I suppose in a sense was given.The Crown in response to that then in the decades that followed certainly into the 1860s possibly a bit beyond that I think I'm right to say did nothing to free those enslaved people. That was despite the Crown having—I suppose to use the fancy legal words maybe not quite right in this context—a fiduciary duty because the Chathams was part of the Realm of New Zealand held by the Crown. As other speakers have said what's also true is the Native Land Court added insult to injury by holding in judgment that nearly all of that land was iwi's 97 percent—not Moriori land which was wrong and which was as the result of as I say the enslavement of Moriori people. The number the notes tell us—amazing to think probably the same number of members of Parliament in this House at this current time—of Moriori people fell to 31 people. That's not to mention the other injustices; I've talked about the teaching we learnt the wrong teaching of the inferiority of Moriori people. It's a tragic tale and a shame actually for New Zealand. Albeit today the good news is that this House through this bill as it makes its way through the process that we have in this House rights those wrongs deals with those injustices and of course National as has been made clear supports this bill.I want to say a couple of other things. Firstly National has always consistently over time supported and indeed started really under the Bolger years the Treaty process of righting historical grievances. So we support this unequivocally. We have as I say a proud history on the historical grievances and I would say—and I don't want to be overly political today in this debate—to the Minister Andrew Little and to his colleagues actually their record some four years in of progressing Treaty settlements isn't that fast isn't that flash and I say to them actually they should be not only motivated but outcomes-oriented when it comes to historical Treaty settlements. Chris Finlayson Doug Graham and other Treaty and Māori ministers in National certainly have been.It's a different position when it comes to some of the contemporary work we see from this Government where actually Ministers seem to be very motivated and I'm not going to go into the various details around things that are happening but we worry in the National Party that some of the things that are happening from this Government in a contemporary sense are not right and we will look back and see them as divisive in this country of ours New Zealand. We want to see policies—when it comes to Māori Moriori New Zealanders—that are sustainable that are unified that are commensurate with a multicultural liberal democracy which is absolutely what we are.I'm like other members—I don't know exactly what will happen—looking forward to the celebrations at the third reading. I hope that Andrew Little or if it's not him Rino Tirikatene or if it's not him Paul Eagle will make sure there is some of that fabulous kai moana from the Chathams. I've been on the Māori Affairs Committee for a term. I'm not going to lie and say I miss it massively but I do miss travelling around our country ending up on marae experiencing and enjoying local delicacies and I know from my colleague Todd Muller what a wonderful time it was on the Chathams actually as members heard submissions on this bill; I'm sure heartfelt submissions and I'm sure as I've said tragic submissions but in amongst that meeting with the people experiencing what is a wonderful part of this country.So let's hope this bill progresses smoothly swiftly that the injustices are put to bed—as it were—through this bill and that the celebration is fitting to in a sense meet and be commensurate with the injustices that have occurred over the years."