Flavell Te Ururoa: Whakarewarewa and Roto-a-Tamaheke Vesting Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Whakarewarewa and Roto-a-Tamaheke Vesting Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:658;Page:7574] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker Barker. Kia ora tatau katoa e hui nei i roto i tenei Whare te Whare Paremata. Koutou kua hara mai i te kainga tena koutou. Kua korerohia te ahuatanga o nga mate o te kainga ko Ta Hauata tera ko Arapeta tera. No reira waiho ake ma te motu raua e tangi. Ka mutu ko Frank tera me te hunga noa atu kua ngaro atu i te tirohanga kanohi. Waiho ratou kia moe. Ko tatau nga uri nga tamariki nga urupa o ratau ma haere mai me te ahuatanga o nga mate; tena koutou nau mai hara mai ki te Whare Paremata. 
[ 
Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker Barker and greetings to us all seated here in this House of Parliament. To you who have come from home greetings. The deaths at home have been referred to—namely those of Sir Howard and Albert. The nation will mourn their passing. I mention Frank’s death here as well as a host of others who are lost from view. Allow them to rest there. To us—the descendants the children the charnel house of departed ones—welcome with our deaths in mind and welcome to the House of Parliament. 
] 
A day when we get land back for our people is a day of celebration and a time to be remembered because it does not happen too often. However the settlement process is moving us in that direction. Thank goodness for that! The land brings us mana; our mana is our land. I acknowledge the previous Minister of Maori Affairs Parekura Horomia for his initiative in putting this bill forward prior to the election with the help of Dr Cullen and also the Hon Mita Ririnui who I am sure was behind the scenes promoting this particular bill. I acknowledge them all and all their efforts to move this particular bill forward to enable land to come back in this case to the people at home. 
While I am standing I also want to acknowledge Mr John Clarke Jonathan Easthope Tom White and Dr John Tamahori who were involved with me in a process I will outline shortly. But I wanted first to acknowledge all the work that was done from our team. I thought we did pretty well—not quite there but pretty well. 
As the Minister has outlined today is an awesome day for Ngati Whakaue for those involved with the Pukeroa-Oruawhata Tuhourangi and nga koromatua o Ngati Wahiao. Of course the bill has some beginnings in the Pumautanga bill and we need to acknowledge that someone had the foresight to make sure that it got in there to ensure that it got captured I suppose in the net of settlements. Even though it is not purely a settlement it at least got in on the table. So I acknowledge those who were able to set that out. 
There is no doubt that from the very beginnings of this bill even back to the discussions around the Te Arawa Lakes bill as well as the Te Pumautanga bill one particularly important issue has been raised by submitters during the select committee process and as the Minister outlined in a number of submissions to him. It has actually resulted in issues of protest and I understand that there is a protest on as we sit here today. The issue is to do with the whole notion about finding a space for those of what could be loosely termed the kaumatua of Ngati Wahiao. 
That was signalled throughout the select committee process; it is not new. The Minister heard the discussions and those members on the Maori Affairs Committee last year as well as this year heard about that concern. So it is not new; I am not talking out of shop. To deal with that concern the Minister of Maori Affairs Dr Pita Sharples sent Mr John Clarke a member of the Waitangi Tribunal and me to go and see whether we could facilitate a process to bring the parties together. It was under and against the background of some personal flack and also some votes of no confidence—I suppose we could put it that way—that we went up. I am pleased to say that we were able to engage the parties. 
The key issue there—with no disrespect to those involved with Ngati Whakaue because no discussion came through the select committee—seemed to be finding a space for Ngati Wahiao on two parts: first Wahiao on a holding trust which will get the asset once it has passed over to Pumautanga; and second finding a space for those groups to determine that issue of mana whenua. How will the land once it has gone back be divvied up? 
The great thing was that those parties agreed at least to come to the table so I acknowledge them in the first instance because it could have been seen as a little bit of interference. Happily enough though they did come to the table and we were able to engage over a period of about 3 to 4 months. 
It was great—and I will talk only about the issues of the facilitation process I was involved with—that certain principles were accepted. Firstly it was accepted by all the parties involved that the land should go back to Tuhourangi Ngati Huarere Ngati Tukiterangi and Ngati Hinganoa. It was really clear that everyone knew that they were the landowners. That is important. Secondly it was agreed to have a new register because of course the registering of people to be able to vote in the processes for whatever reason was an issue. 
It was also agreed that the registry would be based on whakapapa. It was agreed to have check-offs of those whakapapa such that any two or four koeke o te kainga could sign off the process. It was great that there was an acknowledgment of whakapapa being a part of the process and that people were also agreeing to check-offs. 
It was agreed that there would be a hui a-iwi at Wahiao to work out one of the trustees—because there are four associated with let us say the Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao group as well as Ngati Whakaue. So again there was a commitment and acknowledgment of that; the Minister has just talked about that as did the Hon Tau Henare. That hui is to take place this weekend. That is great. 
The next question was how we would find four people to negotiate on behalf of Tuhourangi Hinganoa Tukiterangi and Huarere. The answer was easy enough: get a new register. Of course the thought was that Te Puni Kokiri might assist in facilitation of that great new register and those people can get involved. The next question was how they would vote. One group said and theirs was the first problem—one person one vote. The other group said it should be multiple votes—if we put down three whakapapa lines we should have three votes. 
We got to that point and asked how we should decide. That was easy—the answer was to take it back to the people. Let the people decide. So the thought was to call another hui; all of those who are registered could come together have a korero and whatever was the outcome of that hui that is it. In other words if the hui decides one person for one vote that is it. If they decide to have multiple votes koi ra the process could carry on. That was agreed to in a sense. 
The next stage having got all that sorted with the help of Te Puni Kokiri other independent facilitators and so on was to call for nominations and get on and vote. Those koromatua and hapu will have their own voice to be able to negotiate their pieces of land. That was important. Why? Because all the parties said right from the very start that that was important. So that was all achieved and as I say I thank all of those involved. 
We went to the select committee and advised that we were there—we had an agreement. The select committee considered that request. Indeed the select committee reported: “We are aware that a facilitation process has been used during 2009 to seek assurance that Ngati Wahiao may participate in the structures set up to receive the Whakarewarewa Valley lands (the Whakarewarewa Joint Trust) and that Ngati Wahiao are appropriately represented in the Beneficial Entitlement Determination Procedure that will follow from the enactment of the bill.” 
The report continues: “We understand that Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao trustees on the joint trust and the members of Ngati Wahiao who have engaged in the facilitation process have discussed the details of a process to elect four representatives one of each from three Ngati Wahiao hapu and the iwi of Tuhourangi who will discuss mana whenua entitlements under the Beneficial Entitlement Determination Process with Ngati Whakaue. We understand that the details of the voting process will be decided at a hui-a-iwi by the people of Tuhourangi and Ngati Wahiao.” 
So the select committee process happened. The committee reported back to the Minister and basically the bill was able to advance on those agreements. As I say it is always something to celebrate when land comes back to the people. Having achieved this process of setting out how we might determine this land’s coming back to the people the Minister is absolutely convinced and assured that the process we have talked about is something that will stand the people in good stead in respect of determining the process. 
In closing I say that my only hope is that in having given some time to that we do get the land back to the right people. I have outlined the background because most people may not necessarily know the full background over a period of discussions. The good thing about it is that it will now be resting on the record of this Parliament as a record of history. We can say: “He mana ano to te kupu.”; that what people say is actually their bond their word. 
The goal in terms of my role and that of Mr John Clarke I am sure was always honourable. It was to facilitate the bringing together of a people. Whether or not people believe that that is what I say. My only hope is that having set that high goal—and what followed was a process that certainly had integrity and honesty to it—in the end we tried our very best to facilitate that process and we have reported to the Minister accordingly. 
The Minister believes that that process will be followed to ensure that that land does go back to those people who belong to that land. As he said mana whenua is a very very important concept amongst our people. I hope as I am sure he does that in the end our process will set the scene and mean the bringing together again of our people at home such that we get rid of protest get rid of litigation and finally make sure that the land falls back to the descendents of those who belong to that land. No reira koi nei te mihi atu ki a tatau katoa i tae mai i tenei rangi. Huri noa i to tatau Whare tena koutou. Kia ora tatau.