Sharples Pita: Te Urewera-Tūhoe Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSharples Pita: Te Urewera-Tūhoe Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 07 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:17643. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Dr PITA SHARPLES (Minister of Māori Affairs): Tēnā koe Mr Deputy Speaker ā tēnā koutou kua hoki mai nei ki tēnei Whare o tātou ahakoa ēhara tēnei i te rā whakamutunga mō tēnei pire e haere tonu ngā kōrero kia whakaotia ai ākuanei. Nā reira tēnā koutou me ō koutou tini aituā nā koutou i tuku atu nā tātou nā reira waiho rātou ki a rātou. Ko te mea nui ko tā tātou kaupapa nei i whakahuitia tātou arā ko te pire nei. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou nau mai whakapiri mai.[Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker. Salutations to you collectively who have returned here to this House of ours even though this is not the final day for this bill. Discussions to complete this stage will continue today. So greetings to you collectively with your many deaths whom you interred as we all do. So therefore allow them to remain there amongst themselves. This matter of ours this bill that assembled us here is the most important thing. Acknowledgments and congratulations to you collectively; welcome draw closer.]I am pleased to again rise in support of this bill the Te Urewera-Tūhoe Bill to address the historical grievances of Ngāi Tūhoe. When this bill was introduced to the House last year I said then that every New Zealander should know the history and stories of this country. I am pleased to announce that right now our Ministry of Education our tāhuhu is working on a whole scheme to set up a sort of a framework by which our history can be introduced into the school curriculum. Our history did not start with Captain Cook. All these things—the battles at Ōrākau and at Gate Pā and so on—are unknown to tauiwi. How can they understand what it is like to be mana whenua tangata whenua if they have not learnt that part of our history?Soon it will be in our curriculum. It will take a while to build up as each area contributes to the content but hopefully all students will learn about the history of the locality of the school the movement of tribes and hapū in past times the battles and then of course colonisation and the effect on language and how their grandmothers were punished for speaking Māori in school and so on. I think this is major and it is long overdue to inform the rest of New Zealand about our history in that time and even today so that schools can value their local marae know their local hapū and so on. I am really pleased that we have made progress in this particular area.First of all I would like to acknowledge Tau and the Māori Affairs Committee too like the other two speakers did. There is no doubt the committee did a really good job on this one in going out there as well as having a hearing here in Wellington. Thatcommittee really does go unthanked. I spent time on that committee and it does the groundwork that allows bills to go through in the final form.Upon reading the historical background to this settlement no fair-minded person could deny or dismiss the need to resolve the injustices that ensued. This bill documents a litany of disgraceful acts committed by the Crown against Ngāi Tūhoe over many generations. For its part the Crown apologises to Tūhoe for the indiscriminate raupatu wrongful killings and years of scorched earth warfare for denying Tūhoe the right of self-governing the Te Urewera reserve by subverting the Urewera District Native Reserve Act 1896 by excluding Tūhoe from the establishment of Te Urewera National Park over their homelands and for wrongfully treating Lake Waikaremoana as Crown property for many years.Tūhoe have always approached resolution of its disputes with the Crown in a principled and determined manner. Through this settlement the Crown has been given a second chance to bring honour to its ongoing relationship with Tūhoe. This bill contains a historical account of what happened in the past together with an apology and some redress. This bill provides a foundation for the future. This bill has the potential to produce transformative results for Tūhoe. It is late but here it is. History has shown that in order to build better and brighter futures for our tamariki our mokopuna and our whānau hapū and iwi must be involved in making the decisions that effect the future. Tūhoe have always stuck by the philosophy of taking care of their own a philosophy of self help—Tama tū tama ora; tama moe tama mate.[Those who are productive will survive and those who sit back will die or perish.]Through a social agreement to build the capacity of Ngāi Tūhoe members Ngāi Tūhoe are positioning themselves to manage their own affairs and improve the delivery of Government and iwi services to Tūhoe communities. The settlement is the enabler of a stronger Tūhoe economy. It is a lifeline that will help reinstate and redevelop Tūhoe independence and cultural permanency. These acts restore the honour of the Crown and rightly return to Tūhoe responsibility for their own health education housing planning justice and other infrastructural needs. The key principles underpinning negotiations between the Crown and Tūhoe centred on the premise that self-government is the basic principle of democracy and that Tūhoe has a democratic right to self-government. Ko tō mana motuhake ko tō Tūhoetanga. Ko tō Tūhoetanga tō mana motuhake. Ka kore tēnei ēhara noa tātou.[Your autonomy is your Tūhoeness; your Tūhoeness is your autonomy. Without this we will be nothing.]Tūhoe were not signatories to the Treaty of Waitangi and have always maintained their right to uphold their unique Tūhoe values—always—their culture their language and their identity within Tūhoe homelands. Through this settlement Tūhoe has a political authority and the arrangements necessary to serve the needs of Tūhoe their families and their communities in all aspects of their daily lives.This is an omnibus bill to be split at a later stage into the Tūhoe Claims Settlement Bill and Te Urewera Bill. The parts of the bill that will become Te Urewera Bill will lay out striking new arrangements for the governance and management responsibilities and obligations over Te Urewera. The bill creates an independent legal authority for Te Urewera. It recognises Te Urewera in her own right with her own identity. Te Urewera will be released from the shackles of Crown control and will be governed by Tūhoe and Crown nominees with Tūhoe having an increased role in management over time. Cultural values associated with Te Urewera will be captured in the bill. These include principles relating to the protection of biodiversity natural and historic heritage and public input into the management and future public access. Internationally agreements like these have been held up as important achievements for environmental protection.To promote its unique cultural values Tūhoe will seek international recognition of Te Urewera as a Unesco biosphere reserve.In the face of incredible injustice today we witness the incredible generosity of the families of Tūhoe pōtiki who wish to settle their grievances with the Crown. I want to acknowledge the sacrifice pain and injustice Ngāi Tūhoe has endured due to the actions and the omissions of the Crown.I would just like to acknowledge Minister Finlayson. This has been one of the most important areas of his work and he has been very very active time and time again to get the bill to this stage and soon to the final reading.Again I pay tribute to the sons and daughters ofHinepūkohurangifor their leadership and their mana. Tēnā koutou tēnā tatou.