te Heuheu Georgina: Whakarewarewa and Roto-a-Tamaheke Vesting Bill — First Reading 
te Heuheu Georgina: Whakarewarewa and Roto-a-Tamaheke Vesting Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:650;Page:19245] 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (National) 
: 
 At nearly 5 to 11 at night I am pleased to take a call on the Whakarewarewa and Roto-a-Tamaheke Vesting Bill. We have heard the Minister set out its provisions. The Whakarewarewa Valley Land and the Roto-a-Tamaheke Reserve are of significant cultural traditional historical and spiritual importance to Ngati Whakaue and Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao. The Whakarewarewa Valley Land comprises the Whakarewarewa Thermal Springs Reserve and the Southern Arikikapakapa Reserve. 
The bill provides for the fee simple estate in the Whakarewarewa Valley land and the Roto-a-Tamaheke Reserve to be vested as follows. The fee simple estate in the Southern Arikikapakapa Reserve is vested in the Crown. The fee simple estate in the Whakarewarewa Thermal Springs Reserve was vested in the Crown but under the affiliate Te Arawa legislation it is being vested in the Te Pumautanga trustees and the fee simple estate in the Roto-a-Tamaheke Reserve was vested in the Crown but under the affiliate Te Arawa legislation it is being vested in the Te Pumautanga trustees. 
I will make some observations on a couple of matters that my colleague Tau Henare raised. I have just recited what the bill provides for; looking further into the bill we see that the statement is made—certainly in the briefing papers—that this bill does not form part of any Treaty settlement but rather it is intended to assist in building healthy relationships between the Crown and Ngati Whakaue and Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao. I am as curious as he is as to what that basis is all about. There is nothing wrong at all in the Crown’s wish to build strong and healthy relationships with any iwi but does that mean that in future as we go around the country settling claims we might effect certain transfers just because we need to build these relationships? 
I would have thought that a briefing paper might propose a better and more transparent reason for these transfers than that. I would have thought that maybe the most obvious reason for the transfer is that these are traditional lands. They were held by the iwi—presumably by Ngati Wahiao maybe—and it makes sense in this day and age when the Crown is settling a comprehensive claim with Te Arawa interests that these traditional lands or reserves are returned to the iwi. I am as curious as my colleague Tau Henare is to understand how that plank that basis can assist in building healthy relationships between the Crown and Ngati Whakaue and Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao. 
I congratulate Ngati Whakaue and Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao—no doubt about it. They have been beavering away working very hard for some years now to try to settle all those issues that have long been on the table for them and to seek some conclusion to their grievances. There is no doubt that the Whakarewarewa Reserve has been a matter of contention for them. 
Maybe the Minister needs to have someone prepare the briefing papers better. I certainly thank the Minister for sending them along to us but it just does not hold true and it is not necessarily a good basis on which the Crown might be being seen to transfer lands held by the Crown when indeed there are more valid reasons for the Crown to do this sort of thing. In any event that issue is raised. 
This bill will be referred to a select committee the Maori Affairs Committee and that committee will have plenty of time to explore that issue along with other issues that are raised in the bill. Then there is the issue of the status of the Whakarewarewa Valley lands and Roto-a-Tamaheke as a recreation reserve. What will their status be? The bill provides that the Southern Arikikapakapa Reserve Whakarewarewa Thermal Springs Reserve and the Roto-a-Tamaheke Reserve will remain recreational reserves under the Reserves Act 1977. On the one hand these reserves are being transferred to the iwi yet I ask whether this is another case like— 
Christopher Finlayson 
: Mauao. 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU 
: —yes—the Mauao reserve in Tauranga. Is this another case like that where the Crown on the one hand gives but on the other hand takes? [ 
Interruption 
] Well it does not matter for the moment. I am not really asking for an answer tonight. But I just raise the issue because it does seem odd. We have these reserves which have these deep cultural spiritual and historical associations and on the face of it they ought to be in the hands of the iwi anyway—in the ownership of the iwi. We still do not know how the Crown got them. That is not set out in this bill. That is another issue as well. 
It is a bill that obviously sets out to return areas of land of deep significance to the iwi yet at the same time it raises issues that I find rather interesting particularly at 11 o’clock at night after being in the House for 15 hours. It is the sixth bill with Maori interests in it that we have had and I suppose that at least if it raises these questions it does help to keep me on my feet and keep me going until midnight. It is an interesting question. We are giving with one hand and we seem to be taking it back with the other. 
These are reserves anyway. What the iwi will be able to do with them will be limited as well. I think that between now and when this bill surfaces again in the new year even though there might be a change of personnel—hopefully there will be—those questions will be answered. 
The only other matter I wish to raise before I resume my seat is that it will not be any surprise to the koroua sitting in the gallery that some of us have had pleas requests from certain interests in Ngati Wahiao who see this area as theirs traditionally and they say that if anyone has a deep association with the area then it is them. The issue that was raised earlier in the affiliate legislation raises itself here as well where we have the coupling of Tuhourangi Ngati Wahiao and of course that is of deep concern to some. I know the koroua understand that. The issue will be raised again here and it will be explored again in the select committee as well. 
But having said those things—and I have said it already but I will say it again—I do congratulate the Te Arawa elders who are in the gallery. I also congratulate them on coming here late at night at 11 o’clock to support the first reading of this bill. It is another part of the settlement that their affiliate has negotiated with the Crown. No reira tena koutou tena koutou tena koutou katoa po marie.