Tanczos Nandor: Treaty of Waitangi (Final Settlement of Claims) Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
Tanczos Nandor: Treaty of Waitangi (Final Settlement of Claims) Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
[Volume:618;Page:13903] 
NANDOR TANCZOS (Green) 
: 
 I consider this bill to be misinformed. It is based on a view that sees the Treaty of Waitangi as something to be dealt with and dispensed with and in its hurry to forget the past it would perpetuate enormous injustice. Its time constraint removes the power to negotiate from tangata whenua and puts decision making about fair compensation in the hands of the offender—the Crown. 
The legislation is deeply flawed in my opinion for psychological reasons and I shall explain that. Unlike some Pakeha I cannot claim that my ancestors have been here for six generations. Nevertheless for much of my life I have shared a common almost unconscious Pakeha anxiety: “What right do we have to be in Aotearoa?”. In our nation that anxiety has grown as Pakeha dominance of political and cultural affairs has lessened. The recent re-examination of history by scholars such as Belich Walker Salmon and Binney have threatened our simplistic views of the past. Waitangi Tribunal hearings and reports have made public a number of tragic stories previously kept private. 
Pakeha have long had a tenuous position in Aotearoa. We probably underestimate today the psychological effects of the fear of war in many early Pakeha communities. With the constabulary’s invasion of Rua Kenana and his peaceful community in 1916 those fears would have largely come to an end. The place of Pakeha in New Zealand seemed settled. Growing awareness of the injustices of the past along with a growing Maori population has again threatened the peace of Pakeha in this country. It was a peace built on a myth of exemplary race relations and “One New Zealand.” Most Pakeha seemed simply unaware of Maori continued agitation for their rights to political economic and cultural self-determination. 
Today no Pakeha is unaware of those demands and it creates in us a difficult cognitive tension. We know that the past has been characterised by gross injustice. We know that as a result Maori feature in the worst health education and imprisonment statistics. Many of us do feel guilty about that and we resent that guilt. So one way of dealing with our difficult and painful past is to return to historical amnesia by saying that that was a long time ago we should get on with it or to try to put a time limit on the treaty and pretend that we can deal with it get over it and put it in the past. Those are desperate measures. In fact I believe that until Pakeha are able to feel certain about our place here we will continue to show signs of anxiety defensiveness and intolerance always underlined by the question: “When do I as a Pakeha become tangata whenua?”. 
I believe that Pakeha do have a right to be in Aotearoa. The Treaty of Waitangi confers that right upon us. Maori have a right to be here as tangata whenua. Pakeha have a right because we signed a treaty giving us that right. But that right carries an obligation. It means that we do not get to be here 100 percent on our own terms. That means that we do not need to feel guilty for the past or for the actions of others but we do need to take responsibility for the future. I believe that we dishonour ourselves as Pakeha New Zealanders if we allow injustice to continue or if we perpetuate injustice as I believe that this bill does. 
It is time for Pakeha to secure our place in this land and our relationship with its indigenous people. However if we fail to honour the agreement that confers on us the right to be here if we continue to locate our emotional intellectual and institutional homeland on the other side of the planet I sometimes wonder whether we really do belong here after all.