Horomia Parekura: Nga Wai o Maniapoto (Waipa River) Bill — Third Reading 
Horomia Parekura: Nga Wai o Maniapoto (Waipa River) Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:678;Page:1489] 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA (Labour—Ikaroa-Rawhiti) 
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 I a koutou katoa o Ngati Maniapoto e mihi kau ana. E tautokotia atu te mihimihi a to tatou Minita Maori me taku tuauhine a Nanaia ki a koutou katoa e Tiwha nau mai hara mai. Hara mai ki te wahi nei mo te timata o te otinga mo koutou. Te huarahi nei he roaroa atu ahakoa e mihi kau ana ki a koe. Ki a koe John me a koe Well e mihi kau ana. Tena koutou nau mai hara mai.  
Ki a koe te tuakana e Tuku tena koe. E pai ana te kite atu i a koe i reira e manaaki atu ana i te ahua o te kereme nei. No reira e Tuku tena koe. E Gannon e mihi kau ana. Na te pai hoki o te tu kaha o Gannon me Nanaia me te puta atu o Wawaea te tama toa o koutou katoa. E mihi kau ana ki te mokopuna a Wawaea. Pera ano te rekareka e whai atu nga tuku e waihotia atu nga tupuna ki a tatou. Moumou taima ingoa atu nga pepi nga mokopuna e Leslie a Jemima pera tonu. I reira ke e ora ana nga ingoa o tatou i tu kaha atu te ahua o te motuhake. No reira i a koutou katoa nau mai hara mai.  
To members of the Maniapoto Maori Trust Board Ray Wi Bob Koroheke—e Bob tena koe. John Hirere and Miria e mihi kau ana me koutou katoa. Te mate e tu ingoa e waiho atu wetahi i waho engari e rekareka atu i te kite atu i a koutou e tae tahi i konei i te manaaki tenei tino tuku tenei tino kawenata te timata mo te rangi nei. E mihi kau ana ki a Clare Crickett me te Minita i muri ra a John Luxton tena koe John. Tangata pukumahi i te manaaki atu i tenei ahua.  
E rongo atu koutou ki te korero o Nanaia mo te ahua o te wai. E reka hoki atu i te korero o te tuahine nei o te ropu Kakariki a Denise mo te ki: “Ko wai koe?”. Pera ano te whakahaere o te wai. A tena koe mo tera.  
Na te mea e whakahoki atu nga whakaaro e timata a Bob ma. To ratou whawhai tonu atu e tae atu i Poneke nei kare te nui o te putea kare e taea i runga i te waka rererangi e tae atu i roto i to ratou motoka pakaru i konei i te whawhai tonu atu. I te wa nei kei te kaha ke koutou i runga i te waka rererangi e Tiwha e tae atu i konei. Engari na te rere haere te rere pai inaianei kei te noho tahi koutou i te taha o Tainui hei whakatikatika i te ahua o te wai.  
E mihi kau ana ki te Minita nei a Chris Finlayson. Tino tangata a Chris Finlayson. Mihi atu ki to tatou Minita a Pita. Na te pai e rongo atu au ki a Chris Finlayson e ki atu kei te tere taea te otia o nga kereme katoa mo Maniapoto mo tenei nohonga o te Whare Miere. Tena koe Chris. 
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Salutations Ngati Maniapoto. I endorse the acknowledgments of our Minister of Maori Affairs and my sister Maori member Nanaia. Welcome Tiwha; welcome everyone. Welcome to this place which is the beginning of the end for you. Although it has been a long road I congratulate you. You too John and Well—greetings. Salutations to you collectively welcome welcome.  
Salutations brother Tuku. It is good to see you over there taking care of things that have an impact on this claim. So thank you. I acknowledge you as well Gannon. Because of the firm stance taken by Gannon Nanaia and the emerging Wawaea all of you are of champion stock. A special mention of Wawaea’s grandchild too. It is wonderful to follow connections left to us by ancestors. It is a waste of time giving names like Leslie and Jemima to babies and grandchildren. That is why our names are more enduring and have a bit of independence about them. So to all of you welcome welcome.  
To members of the Maniapoto Maori Trust Board Ray Wi Bob Koroheke—hello Bob John Hirere Miria and all of you. Hi there. The problem with naming people is that someone is left out but it is great to see you arriving here together to take care of this great legacy this agreement which commences today. I want to thank Clare Crickett and the former Minister John Luxton. Hello John. He is one who worked tirelessly to look after this situation.  
You heard what Nanaia had to say about the water. It was wonderful to hear the contribution by this fellow colleague from the Green Party Denise when she said: “Ko wai koe?”. The management of water is so much like that. Thank you for that Denise.  
It brings us back to the ideas that Bob and others initiated. Their conflicts brought them all the way to Wellington here. Because of the lack of funds flying down was out of the question so it meant coming in a car that often broke down to continue the battle down here. But that has all changed now. Tiwha will concur that they fly down these days. As a consequence collaboration with Tainui is closer and faster in terms of addressing issues relating to water management.  
I congratulate this Minister Chris Finlayson. He is a great man. Our Minister Pita is acknowledged as well. It is good to hear Chris Finlayson saying that the extended sitting of the House will make it possible for all claims relating to Maniapoto to be settled and completed. Thank you Chris. 
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I am certainly buoyed and encouraged in hearing the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations promising to finalise all their settlements in this term of Government. That is encouraging. I want to thank him sincerely for the efforts he has put in as well as the efforts of Ministers who are not here like Michael Cullen and those who certainly helped. You heard about the co-governance framework and about the issue that is relevant in terms of cleaning the river. Do you know what? It is amazing that these five settlements today all have some great tributary or awa that is important not because of the ups and downs on water now or fracking or whatever is going on but because something has been tuku-ed to them through generations in the sense of kaitiakitanga 
and manaakitanga and the truism around those statements not just some modern ideology about getting the water clean because the cows have mimi-ed in it or whatever else but something that you know that you have practised. It will need a lot of effort to keep it clean.  
I do want to strongly recognise Tuku Morgan’s role in this over a period of time working on the river the late Raiha Mahuta who really battled hard to get to the stage that Waikato has got to and you people who have put in that effort. I know certainly from the work of the Hon John Luxton with his tenacity and his fairness that this is serious talk and it is a great example for nationhood. As I said earlier on we pahupahu about nationhood and about Kiwis and this and that. All I know about kiwis is that they move around at night stalking in the dark and trying to attack everything that is living. It seems to me that we need to rename ourselves something else because we are coming into the light.  
The sentiment and whatever else is something that this co-governance and management framework should and will address. I want to say here and now that we have done a few of these settlements now and there is a lot of promise in them about partnership. I know that the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations and our Minister of Maori Affairs will ensure that the relevance is serious. It is too easy—as some have done in the past with Treaty settlements—to sign agreements with Government agencies or sign charters that OK a way forward and then just pay them lip-service. That is important.  
Hone arrives late. Kia ora Hone. Tena koe Hone. Hone is a battler and he talked about what Ngapuhi did with this awa. I want to mihi to Hone. We all have an affiliation to it and it is a great statement by our elders that we want the waters to return so that we can eat the fish out of them like we used to so the fish are healthy and they grow and so the tamariki can swim in them again. It is ever so simple. It is a simple way to make a statement about the river. This is not about any other part of the settlement; it is the beginning. You need to be encouraged that it is the day for you to celebrate because it is the beginning of the end of a long long journey of water that people fought over—water that people lived on. That is the one thing about the waka. There are two great things that we still have today that we do. We hoe waka ama and that is about rowing those waters—and I want to mihi to Peter Douglas who like Hone is getting here late but kia ora Peter—and the Waitomo Caves. We remember Koro Wetere who is not here today for the effort that he has put in.  
The benefit to the community of the arrangements to include the Waikato River would be diminished if the Upper Waipa River were not included. Having this regime and listening to the Minister’s promise today about his wish to finalise things put right a terrible wrong that happened to Maniapoto. The wars are well renowned of who set to on whom and what the British did. Today is a great day to start repairing that in order to make sure that something is done.  
I want to say to the Hon John Luxton and to Tuku Morgan that it is exciting and encouraging to think that Maori are leading the way in trying to correct that paruparu. We do not need new environmentalists who arrive on the scene and huff and puff—and I want to mihi to the Green Party for its seriousness—but there are some people who are turning up and saying: “Pay us some money and we’ll show you how to clean the river.” The nation should understand that Maori have compromised in this to make sure that the river is clean. The nation should understand that Maori are serious about nurturing and looking after something that was theirs a long long time ago and that they managed lived on swam in and got food out of. It was a source of replenishment and something that nobody else used. Then other people turned up in the country and they are the new partners in this co-management framework. We need to be serious about that Minister.  
I am very thankful that Minister Finlayson—[ 
Interruption 
] Mr Assistant Speaker Tisch you rang the bell; I know this is in your territory. Tiwha Bell has done a great job along with Minister Finlayson who has promised to finish the claims in this sitting of Parliament. That is something that I will really celebrate at the end of this day. It is great for these Maori ears to hear that from a learned leader and Minister of the Crown. 
No reira e mihi kau ana i a koutou katoa. Kia pai to hoki ki te kainga kia pai to manaaki o to wai. A te wa e hoki atu koutou hei oti pai atu te kereme. E Tuku tena koe. Tena koe e noho whakahihi mai na i kona i te taha o te tangata porohewa manaakitia atu. To kaha. I a koutou katoa hoki e Tiwha e Gannon kia kaha kia maia. Kia ora tatou. 
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So congratulations to you all. Return home safely and take care of your water. In time you will return to put the finishing touches to the claim. Hello there Tuku sitting proudly over there beside that bald-headed man. Look after him. Remain strong. Tiwha Gannon all of you as well remain strong and courageous. Well done everyone. 
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