Roche DeniseDENISE ROCHE (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. E ngā mana e ngā reo e ngā rangatira mā tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa. I want to join with others in the House in welcoming the people and the leaders of the iwi and hapū of Te Rohe o Te Wairoa to the House today. We celebrate with them in this first reading of their Treaty settlement bill. Before I start I want to similarly join with others in acknowledging the process that has occurred to get this bill to the House. I want to acknowledge those who have worked so hard on this bill. They started 30 years ago the negotiations for this settlement so I want to acknowledge all those who have exercised that amazing persistence over those decades and over those generations to get this bill to the House.I also want to acknowledge those who have passed away along the way. I want to recognise the fact that the settlement covers problems and issues and injustices that have occurred since basically the 1840s. The first issue where the Crown acted in a way that they really should not have towards the people was around not offering Te Tiriti o Waitangi to the iwi and hapū of Te Rohe o Te Wairoa at all. That was the first one but then of course there have been others since. I acknowledge the apology that the Crown has made which is set out in the settlement deed and is also set out in the legislation. I also acknowledge the truth and reconciliation process that has occurred as a result of the settlement process. All those things are about healing—healing the hurts that have occurred across generations. But the settlement itself—and I think we should acknowledge this—is not really about reparation. It is actually a deed of settlement and it is an agreed historical account but it is not full compensation. I want to just touch on some of the breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi that are listed in this settlement bill. Those breaches around the alienation of land go right back through to the 1860s with the Crown purchases in 1864 to 1868 when they used some very dodgy practices around surveying and not investigating customary rights to actually acquire 83000 acres of land. Then it continued in 1867 when the Crown basically put Māori under extreme duress to acquire another 42000 acres. Then again in 1875 the Crown basically exploited confusion about the legal status of blocks around Lake Waikaremoana to acquire another 178000 acres of land. Then of course there are the issues around the Native Land Court and the breaking up of customary and collectively owned land into individual ownership in 1867 and 1868 which actually allowed the Crown to onsell individual blocks of land. Then there is the other matter which was from the 1870s: more than 500 acres of land were acquired compulsorily from iwi and hapū under the Public Works Act—and it has been noted and it is noted in the settlement deed—while Pākehā neighbours had their land leased so it was not alienated from them continually.What happens when the alienation of land occurs is that the economic base is removed from the people and this is exactly what happened to the iwi and hapū of Te Rohe o Te Wairoa—not only the economic base of course. There are also the spiritual elements and the kaitiaki roles which also become alienated.The other parts of the settlement refer to the introduction of war the summary execution of prisoners and the detention without trial of some of their people on the Chatham Islands. As I say that really just cannot be compensated for. It is harrowing reading—it really is harrowing reading. So if it is harrowing reading for me then it must be even worse for those whose tūpuna lived through this.I will just now address what the settlement actually is. Others have said it before—it is actually the fifth-largest settlement. It is about $100 million in various ways. We have to acknowledge that that is the best settlement that the iwi and hapū of Te Rohe o Te Wairoa could actually get from the negotiations but we also have to recognise that it is a deal. The Greens will say this at every reading but we do not actually recognise that it is a full and final settlement even though that is what is written in the legislation because it is not full by any stretch of the imagination and we do not believe that it is final because there is no way of telling at this stage what the impact of those historical breaches will be on future generations. But we recognise that to get this bill to the House and to go through the processes that the iwi and hapū have gone through is a huge achievement.We also want to acknowledge the generosity of the iwi and hapū of Te Rohe o Te Wairoa not only in accepting a settlement that does not actually compensate for their losses but also for accepting that five different parcels of land in the conservation area will be returned including the Māhia Peninsula and the Mōrere Springs Scenic Reserves but that the iwi and hapū will then gift them back to the Crown. That is incredibly generous. We also in this settlement see that there is the right of first refusal on 147 properties. Again we recognise the patience and persistence of the iwi and hapū of Te Rohe o Te Wairoa in that they may have to wait some time to be able to acquire those properties. We recognise that for the 25500 people under the 2013 census who are part of the iwi and hapū of Te Rohe o Te Wairoa this is the recognition of a better social and economic future. They have I think we need to recognise not only lost their land; they have also lost their language and lost their place. It is in the deed of settlement I think that by 2001 more than 90 percent of the iwi and hapū were living outside of Te Rohe o Te Wairoa. We see this as the start of the restoration of the mana of the iwi and hapū of Te Rohe o Te Wairoa in their role as kaitiaki of their lands and rivers and wetlands in their areas. So it is good to see that that statutory recognition is outlined in the settlement.I want to finish just by touching on the apology. I think it is really important that these are included in the settlement deeds. I wanted to just look at the clause that says that The Crown admits that the cumulative effect of its Treaty breaches has been very significant damage to the cultural spiritual and physical well-being of the iwi and hapū of Te Rohe o Te Wairoa as well as to their economic development. (f) The Crown seeks to restore its tarnished honour and to atone for its past failures to uphold the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles". I do not think the Crown can do that but this is the start of a true Treaty relationship and we recognise this. We celebrate with the iwi and hapū of Te Rohe o Te Wairoa and we commend this bill to the House and will see it through to its second and third readings. Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa."