Delahunty Catherine: Ngāti Hauā Claims Settlement Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDelahunty Catherine: Ngāti Hauā Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 09 December 2014. Volume:702;Page:1307. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green):Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Tēnā koutou e te Whare. He mihi nui ki a Ngāti Hauā Te Kīngitanga; he mihi nui ki Tainui me Te Kotahitanga o Ngāti Hauā he mihi nui.[I extend a huge acknowledgment to Ngāti Hauā the King Movement the collective of Ngāti Hauā a real mighty one.]I would just like to acknowledge the people in the gallery the people who have travelled from the Ngāti Hauā rohe down here today and to say that the Green Party stands in respect and celebration of your achievement in this time of progress.I am going to make a contribution that the Minister may describe as a “nothing” contribution the Green Party’s contribution on this take but actually I believe that in order to fulfil the vison of Te Tiriti o Waitangi all of our contributions are needed all of our korero is valued and all of our challenges are part of the story. So as we celebrate we can also challenge not out of moral superiority but out of respect for history and out of a recognition that we are in a political evolution towards a vision not yet fulfilled but it is a vision that this iwi before us has contributed to generously on behalf of their people to my people.I have to say as a Pākehā that I feel very small today not because the contribution is not important but because the history is quite overwhelming for me. I lived in Hauraki on the edge of Ngāti Hauā and the history is overwhelming. Also I need to say that unlike the Prime Minister who has a somewhat bizarre view of history I do not believe that this country was settled peacefully and that the myths of the 1950s are useful any more. I think the history of Ngāti Hauā makes it pretty clear that colonial settlement was from the 1840s on a troubled and violent process and that we cannot hold our heads up and say it was better than in other countries.The story of Ngati Hauā the recognition of what “landless” means is the story that absolutely refutes the view that somehow we have anything to be superior about in terms of the way in which Aotearoa was colonised. So today is a positive day for Ngati Hauā but the history is heavy and the need for challenge is ongoing.I would like to also just acknowledge all of the parties in the efficient—you could almost call it speed-dating compared with some of the other settlements but effective speed-dating whereby a genuine relationship was completed. But behind that there was a lot more—many many many years which others have touched on of deep and profound research so that when Ngati Hauā came to the Crown they were ready with their objectives and the Crown was ready to hear them. So that is a credit to everybody. Fast can be effective. It was a credit to all who were involved.I want to talk a little bit about the tupuna Wīremu Tamihana Tarapīpipi and how his attempt to engage with the Crown left him dissatisfied. I am sure however that today he would be very proud of his own. And when we think about the sacredness of he maungarongo covenant of peace it is a challenge to all of us now in 2014 that we need to respect the unfinished business. That is why the Greens are prepared to say that we do not believe in full and final settlement. We believe in the ongoing relationship. Te Tiriti o Waitangi is not a divorce; it is a marriage. It is quite important in marriage that we keep talking. Maybe in divorce you make the deal and walk away; but in marriage we keep talking—hopefully. We keep laughing we keep arguing we keep challenging but we keep communicating with love and respect for each other. That is what the Greens would like to say about the importance of the ongoing right for tangata whenua to say: “We are not finished. We are not settled.” and that to me is a fair and just position.There are many aspects of this settlement that are interesting and important and the history particularly around the Public Works Act in the 20th century needs to be acknowledged. Sometimes settlements are presented as a long way away way back in the 19th century but in fact there is a sustained and ongoing way in which—maybe it was not direct raupatu but it amounted to the same. So if we look at 1951 and the issues around the rohe and particularly Waharoa and other places we realise that the Public Works Act was an instrument of confiscation that needed to be challenged and still does.I am actually looking at a review of the Public Works Act because I believe that there should be something in there that makes it clear that no tangata whenua land can ever be taken again under public works. I think that is a critical issue. Patricia Grace’s whānau Te Ātiawa have experienced that and others are facing threats of that. It is really really important that even if you win in the Environment Court tangata whenua should not have to go there. That is an instrument of the past that should be silenced. It should be shut down and there should be a way in which that Act cannot be used for any further form of raupatu in our time in our name. That is what I want to stand up for.There are very interesting issues within here. I would love to know what Wīremu Tamihana would have thought of the latest Waitangi ruling where the Waitangi Tribunal makes it clear that Māori never ceded sovereignty in 1840. The Crown may not want to engage with this but nevertheless it is a profound and significant moment in the history of Aotearoa that the Waitangi Tribunal has ruled what tangata whenua have always known. So that has to be part of the picture when we are talking about settling things: recognition that something was never given away and that rangatiratanga was never ceded and that the role of the Kāwana is a different role from the way in which the Crown in the last century or so has tried to present it.So for us in the Greens we are really interested in that conversation and we want to hear the voices of the descendants of Wīremu Tamihana as to how they see that; what that means for them. This is a day of celebration but also a day to raise questions about where to from here. How do we interpret the current rulings based on past knowledge? How do we actually deal with these things? It is really relevant to situations referred to in the settlement around statutory authority and statutory overlay. I have been having a little look at that and having some conversation with some tangata whenua groups around the motu who are struggling post-settlement because although the law is clear in the settlement some of the local authorities are not as clear in their understanding of the world.It is reassuring that the Waikato region has Māori seats but nevertheless the regional and district councils have an obligation. I am pleased to hear about the post-settlement commitment because it is my culture that has to be brought on board. It is my culture represented in councils that has often been the block and the barrier to the genuine expression of Te Tiriti o Waitangi relationship. There is not much point as Te Tau Ihu tangata whenua said to me that they were going to have to spend their Treaty settlement money fighting local authorities to get the Treaty settlement realised. That to me is a gross abuse—that once the settlement is settled and supposedly final they have to use their settlement money to go to court to persuade their local authorities to do the right thing by those elements of the Treaty settlement process.I am more hopeful for Waikato. I am more hopeful. We have to be hopeful but we have to be real about experience. The Pākehā culture has tremendously sophisticated ways of resisting change. We also have a new generation who want change. So there are a lot of positive people out there who understand that this is a new era and a lot can be done. But there are also pockets of resistance. I think my colleague Marama Fox just mentioned a pocket of resistance the myth of equality and all the other myths. We really need to engage so that Ngāti Hauā can fully realise through their relationship with the Department of Conservation through their relationship with Heritage New Zealand and through their relationship with the local authorities the nature of Te Tiriti o Waitangi relationship in all its meaning.I as a Green am confident that if Ngāti Hauā have the ability to express their rangatiratanga in the rohe the rivers will be cleaner the whenua will be healed the mokopuna will have some kai to inherit—all of the things that really matter the real economy which is our whenua our awa our moana. All of those things are better looked after if there is a full realisation of what is actually committed to in the settlement in terms of statutory overlay and authority. I know that the challenge then comes back to my people: make it real. But congratulations he mihi nui ki a koutou katoa. We wish you all the very best and we will continue to find ways to stand beside you in the realisation of Te Tiriti.