Whaitiri MekaHon MEKA WHAITIRI (Associate Minister for Crown/Māori Relations): E Te Māngai o Te Whare tēnā koe ōtirā ngā mema o Te Whare nei tēnā tātau katoa. E Te Māngai he member ahau o te rohe pōtae o Ikaroa-Rāwhiti. He uri ahau o Tūranga-nui-a-Kiwa o Te Tai Rāwhiti me Ngāti Kahungunu hoki e tū ki te mihi pō'hiri ki ngā manuhiri ngā iwi o Parihaka Taranaki whānau whānui: nau mai haramai nau mai haramai nau mai haramai. Nau mai haramai i runga i te kaupapa whakahirahira o te wā. Nō reira e ōku rau rangatira mā e kui mā e koro mā tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātau katoa.[Madam Assistant Speaker greetings and to the members of this House greetings to us all. To the Madam Assistant Speaker I am a member of the Ikaroa-Rāwhiti electorate. I am a descendant of Gisborne and the East Coast also Ngāti Kahungunu and stand to welcome the visitors the iwi of Parihaka of the wider Taranaki family: welcome welcome welcome. Welcome for the important topic with us now. Therefore my esteemed chiefs female elders and male elders greetings greetings greetings to us all.]It is indeed my privilege to rise in support of the passage of this reconciliation bill. Can I please acknowledge the Parihaka community who have come to Parliament today for the first reading of this bill. I'd like to also acknowledge the many people here today from Taranaki and throughout the country who have connections to Parihaka and support its legacy. I'd like to acknowledge those who have passed while they waited for the Crown to acknowledge its wrongs. I'd like to acknowledge the trustees of the Parihaka Papakāinga Trust Kawe Tūtaki Dame Tariana Turia the Rt Hon Jim Bolger the Hon Mahara Okeroa Amokura Panoho and Ruakere Hond. I'd also like to acknowledge the Hon Te Ururoa Flavell and the Hon Christopher Finlayson for their role in progressing this bill.As a young 20-year-old I ventured and visited Parihaka for the very first time. I was part of a group under the guidance of the late Hon Parekura Horomia. We visited Parihaka and in that time that I met the late Milton Hohaia who hosted us I came to appreciate the story behind Parihaka. What I got to learn on that visit was that Parihaka was a thriving community. It was a thriving community of Māori working their lands for themselves. I learnt that they actually had their own bank and their own flour mill. They were trading to Australia. There was absolutely an idyllic community if you were to point to one in this country where Māori indigenous people where practising tino rangatiratanga.That's what I learnt from those visits to Parihaka and then very quickly—as we are gathered here today and as all the former speakers have acknowledged—the acts and omissions of the Crown and the harm that it caused that community. Enough of the speakers have acknowledged that but I want to put on record what I learnt of this thriving innovative warm and caring community and then through the actions and omissions of the Crown what they turned that community into. So I want to acknowledge all those that have worked very hard to bring this bill to the House.It often makes me draw a comparison with my time as a mandated negotiator for my father's people Rongowhakaata. In reading the history of this particular bill and what the people of Parihaka suffered I draw some similarities with my own people of Rongowhakaata. One similarity is the imprisonment of our people without trial. We heard about the Parihaka people who were in prison in Dunedin. I also had the opportunity to visit those caves and I can tell you they weren't cells; they were tiny tiny tunnels. They were tunnels that people from Parihaka and those that were sent to Dunedin were locked in at night. In the day they actually built the wharf of Dunedin's port the stone walls—there's a special name for that. If there was ever a claim against ownership for a big infrastructure like the Dunedin port Parihaka absolutely has a claim to that. So we did—we shared that our people were in prison without trial. Last week I was lucky to accompany Ministers in going to the Chatham Islands where we opened the wharf in the Chatham Islands. I got to visit where Te Kooti lived and where our Hauhau and Pai Mārire prisoners that were taken from up the East Coast were sent to the Chathams for two years without trial. So I want to acknowledge the similarities between Rongowhakaata and Parihaka around the devastation—taking our people without due process and imprisoning them.The second similarity that I'd like to talk about is the one around the carving out. I want to acknowledge the Hon Chris Finlayson in his willingness to be innovative in taking off his Treaty hat and putting on his Attorney-General hat and carving off the unique qualities of Parihaka and looking at it through a legal lens. I want to acknowledge the Hon Chris Finlayson for doing that. Not many would do what he just did and I want to acknowledge him for his generosity and innovation in doing that. Our similarity with Rongowhakaata and Parihaka is that we still have our ancestral house Te Hau ki Tūranga that is still sitting in Te Papa. So we haven't settled that part of our Treaty settlement of Rongowhakaata but I wanted to draw attention to where they addressed the Parihaka issue—and I congratulate in terms of the way the Minister has dealt with it—and to an outstanding issue of our own that's still carved out and is yet to be sorted and I hope that we get some closure soon.The third one I want to acknowledge is the future aspirations. I want to commend the legacy statement and the wisdom and smarts that produced the legacy statement. But specifically the future aspirations and it is a long list. I'm not going to go through all of them but there were three that stuck out for me. The first one was around the legally securing of water supply the healing and reconciliation processes and of course land acquisition which is a passion of mine: retaining what little Māori land we have in our hands. I just want to acknowledge the work that obviously the people of Parihaka have put into the projects that are going to put the Parihaka community in a prepared position going forward.It's amazing the projects they have come up with but specifically around the legally securing water supply in terms of ensuring that they've got agreements with the neighbours around security of water. I think that's going to be critical for the people of Parihaka and I look forward I'm sure with working with the community around that. The Minister himself said it and I must endorse him that we could have an international if not a national hub for a healing and reconciliation service provider right in the heart of Parihaka. Who better to deliver that than the people who have suffered and yet still maintain being peaceful and loving people? Who better to deliver a service around healing and reconciliation but the people of Parihaka?Then the last one is the land acquisition that I just wanted to touch on and acknowledge the challenges that Parihaka have as they want to get into papakāinga development or growing the village—the requirement for land. It says Parihaka X is their neighbour. I'm sure that they have shared governors on Parihaka X and that they would look favourably on an opportunity to expand the community of Parihaka especially through papakāinga.I want to close by saying that I again am very honoured to rise and speak on behalf of this very important bill this Parihaka Reconciliation Bill. It is a long time coming. But for the grace and patience of the people it is timely that we put this bill through this House in a very expedient way. I look forward to it going before the Māori Affairs Committee where people can have their say but as soon as we can get it back to this House the sooner we can progress it. We wish the very very best to the people of Parihaka going forward. Nō reira e te iwi kua tae mai i tēnei wā tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātau katoa.[Therefore to those of you who have come here now greetings greetings greeting to us all.]