Whaitiri Meka: Hineuru Claims Settlement Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWhaitiri Meka: Hineuru Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 11 August 2015. Volume:707;Page:5651. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MEKA WHAITIRI (Labour—Ikaroa-Rāwhiti):Mr Assistant Speaker tēnā koe; e ngā mema o te Whare tēnā tātou katoa. Ngāti Hineuru whenua Ngāti Hineuru mana Ngāti Hineuru tangata tēnei te mihi maioha ki a koutou. Tēnei te mihi maioha i runga i te kaupapa whakahirahira. Āe kua tae mai te wā kia hōnore Te Kōrōria o Te Atua. Nō reira e te iwi nau mai nau mai hara mai.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker and greetings to you all the members of the House. To you Ngāti Hineuru land authority and people my affectionate welcome to you in regard to this great proposal. The moment to honour the Glory of God has arrived and so I bid you the tribe welcome welcome welcome.]It is indeed an honour to stand to acknowledge and to support unreservedly the passage of this historic bill the Hineuru Claims Settlement Bill. Like previous speakers in the House I too want to acknowledge those who are no longer here with us both to witness today the first reading of this important bill but also to see the conclusion of what I understand has been a real struggle in getting to this point. So I mihi in their honour to those who are no longer here.In the short time I have it is important to acknowledge those who have been instrumental in bringing this bill to this House today. I do want to acknowledge the negotiators of Ngāti Hineuru and to commend them for the tenacity they have shown and the commitment and the generosity—using the words of the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations—in getting to an acceptable settlement here today. As a former negotiator myself I understand the commitment that being a negotiator requires—it requires a commitment of character when you have to travel home to your people and you get called all sorts of things; a commitment to make sure that you are doing the absolute best for your people. So I do want to commend and acknowledge the negotiators for getting us here today.Of course we would not be here unless we had the support of the Crown. I want to acknowledge the Office of Treaty Settlements officials for their role. I also want to acknowledge the Minister Chris Finlayson. He has overseen a lot of Treaty settlements and I want to support and acknowledge his support in getting us here. Of course as this bill goes to the Māori Affairs Committee I want to acknowledge the chair and the members of a very hard-working select committee that does the best for our people and I want to acknowledge them in support of the work that they get. Hopefully we will get this bill back in quick time.I do not want to go through it in detail because there is too much to cover in the short time I have. There are two parts of the historical account that I want to draw to the House’s attention and make note of in my contribution. One is about the 34 Hineuru individuals who were among the 86 prisoners of the Crown captured at Ōmarunui and the conflict near Pētane. Most were transported to the Chatham Islands which the Minister acknowledged and detained without trial for 2 years in harsh conditions. In 1868 the prisoners escaped and became embroiled in a war with the Crown. During this war the Crown forces attacked Ngātapa in January of 1869. After the attack a severed head reported to belong to Nikora of Hineuru was brought back to the Crown camp. The Crown forces similarly executed a number of prisoners captured at Ngātapa.With that record of Ngāti Hineuru’s historical account I draw the conclusion that it is one that is similar to that shared with my father’s people of Rongowhakaata who along with Hineuru lost many lives at Ngātapa. In fact women and children were shot and thrown over the hill at Ngātapa. I feel the hurt that Ngāti Hineuru have particularly for those people who were executed at Ngātapa. Kei te mihi ki a koutou.The second point that I want to raise in the historical account is what I have also seen in many other Treaty settlements. The Minister referred to the taking of land and the returning of land in 1920 to those descendants—to the individual Māori—and how that was overturned in some other forms of legislation in the 1950s when Ngāti Hineuru again became landless. There have been many settlements where we have seen the actions of the Crown reward those who either fought or enabled the Crown to take the actions that it did on our people by the gifting of land and then the taking away of land. I just want to draw attention to that particular point because right in front of this House we are dealing with a bill around Māori land which is ngā ture whenua. I wanted to draw a comparison between what the current Government is doing and some of these historical Acts that have breached the rights of the people of Ngāti Hineuru. I want to make the point that when we are passing legislation in this House that impacts on the rights of Māori landowners we have to do that very very carefully.That is my message today in celebrating this first reading of this important bill: we cannot bring legislation in here that further alienates Māori from their whenua. When we read the historical account of Ngāti Hineuru they like many many iwi were left landless. It is upon us as parliamentarians as members of this House that the property rights of iwi katoa need to be protected. I want to acknowledge this in the support of this bill.With the minutes I have left my closing comments—and I support the Minister—are around the generosity that Ngāti Hineuru have displayed in getting to this final settlement. They have been subjected to atrocious breaches of their rights as guaranteed under the Treaty of Waitangi. Therefore it is important and incumbent on all members of this House that we not only acknowledge those breaches but we support what has been negotiated like the Minister said under trying times to ensure that we can at least in a very small part accord a form of compensation of remedy that will ensure that the aspirations of Ngāti Hineuru are strong as we go forward. Therefore I stand with all members in this House in commending the first reading of this bill the Hineuru Claims Settlement Bill. Kia ora tātou.