Williams ArenaARENA WILLIAMS (Labour—Manurewa): Tēnā koe Madam Speaker. Ngā mihi o te wā Matariki hei a koe. As the Minister said this is the time of Matariki. Matariki is in the sky and that is a time for all of us to look to the year ahead and the possibilities that it brings us but it's also a time to reflect on the power of te pō and te whaiao those periods of time in our metaphysical history as well as our real time at the beginning of the day before the dawn breaks. It's a time of possibility but it's also the time of profound darkness and the difference between the darkness and the light is what we notice there with te whaiao and that time is the time for us to think about those things that we have done which have wronged the people around us. I allude to those parts of our history as Māori because it is in all of our whakapapa because these settlement bills are some of the most important work that this Parliament does. They are the time for the Crown to atone to say sorry for things we have done that have wronged people that have hurt generations and that now we have the opportunity to put right. It's a real privilege as a member of Parliament to be a part of that process and it's not one that any of us take lightly.So to those members of Ngāti Tara Tokanui who are watching today I say thank you for the opportunity to be a part of this process this moment in history for you and to carry with us our role of stewarding this bill to effect the deed of settlement which you have entered into with the Crown in good faith through its final part of the process of lawmaking.If I can take the House to one of the most important parts of this bill which is giving effect to the agreed historical account in the deed those historical accounts are a feature of all settlements—as my colleague on the other side of the House alluded to this bill is a part of a broader collective settlement which is an approach that the Crown elected to take in June 2009 when it was proposed that a regional approach to Treaty settlements for iwi and hapū with interests in the Hauraki region would be taken. The Pare Hauraki settlement is a piece of collective redress which acknowledges the overlapping interests that all of the iwi and hapū have within this piece of land and that goes along with a sort of shared account of those collective interests. But it's in this bill that Ngāti Tara Tokanui has an agreed account of its history and so it's important to recognise that—it might be the most important part of it. These grievances stem back to te raupatu in Tauranga in 1864 to the land which is known as Waimatā which is the name given by Ngāti Tara Tokanui to the land which would become known as the Tauranga Confiscation District. Those lands have been subject to a number of inquiries by the Waitangi Tribunal and I have a personal connection to those inquiries because my father was involved in them as one of the original historical researchers in the time before he was a journalist. He spent years of his life recording interviews and direct evidence with kaumātua and kuia from around the region who told their oral histories and the recollections of what happened in Tauranga to them personally and also to their whānau—recollections of trauma that had been handed down to them and it was something that they carried and they shared with him. He was also responsible for compiling notes from the Native Land Court and writings of the chiefs of the area to the Native Land Court and to the commissioner who was the representative of the Crown in Hauraki at the time. Those reports that the Waitangi Tribunal has compiled—Te Raupatu o Tauranga Moana the report on the Tauranga confiscation claims; the Hauraki report; the Tauranga Moana report on post-raupatu claims in the Hauraki settlement overlay the claims inquiry. All of those inquiries have given the Crown and the Minister the benefit of those historical accounts which have been prepared by many people over time thinking about the legal rights that arise from each of those instances. So that has informed the deeds that have been agreed that we have before us which this legislation gives effect to. It's a real benefit to the Ministers when those historical inquires have been done by the Waitangi Tribunal and by the historians who have been involved.One of the letters I spoke of as being evidence in the Native Land Court is recorded in the historical account and I want to present it to the House as an example of the kind of writings that make the case. In October 1869 Te Keepa Raharuhi"—which the Minister referred to—"wrote to the Native Minister and the Crown's representative in Hauraki asking them to honour undertakings negotiated at an earlier hui". He wrote "E hoa mā tēnā kōrua. He kupu tāku kia kōrua ko mātou whakaaro kua tūturu ki runga ki o tātou whakaaro. E hoa mā tera pea mātou e mate i te Hauhau e ngari kei a kōrua te whakaaro kia mātou. Kāore hoki e tahi o mātou i whiwhi i te tika i enei mo te wahi e kino ai Te Hauhau kia mātou. E hoa mā tēnei ano tētehi o a mātou kupu kia kōrua. Kō matou pīhī whenua i roto i te rohe a te Kawana i te takiwā o Katikati i tukua e mātou kia Te Maki i mua. Whaka-ae ana ia i tēnei ra ka tukua atu e mātou kia kōrua ma kōrua e whakaputa mai kia mātou. He oi ano te kupu kia kōrua."["Friends greetings. I have a message to you both our thoughts we have agreed to what us and you suggested. Friends we may die at the hands of the Hauhau but we will leave our decisions to you. Not one of us received any rights to this block where the Hauhaus may not like us. Friends this is another message to you. Our piece of land within the boundaries of the Government in the Katikati district we gave to Mackay before. He agrees on this day to give over to you for you to hand back to us. This is all we have to say."]That writing from the chief represented the plight of his people. It is about his fear of attack and of the vulnerability of his people not only through the land takings—because Crown land was not set aside for his people—but also to neighbours who in the context of the 1860s when raupatu had occurred it had destabilised the community of iwi and hapū who were living on the land at the time. So it's representative of the political strife and the real threat to people's lives at that time that the Crown was interfering and taking land in an ecology and a community that had been working before that. In the decades before Te Keepa was writing there had been prosperous trade in the region but land takings over time and raupatu and then outright conflict had destabilised the society and that is the context in which he was writing to the Crown—an appeal of working together of collaboration which fell on deaf ears. That is part of why the Crown needs to atone for that now. It's not only the loss of land and loss of life; it's also the loss of trust that came about during those years.I'm proud to be the chair of the Māori Affairs Committee which will consider this bill and I look forward to more discussions in the select committee about the history which is so important to recognise. I commend this bill."