Henare Tau: Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru Claims Settlement Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHenare Tau: Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 31 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:12225. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TAU HENARE (National):Mea tuatahi ki a koutou āku rangatira tēnā koutou. Tēnā koutou Te Arawa Mātaatua te motu. Nō reira tēnā koutou katoa.[The first thing is to you collectively my leaders acknowledgments. Salutations to you collectively Te Arawa Mātaatua and the country. So greetings to you all. ]I am reminded of my colleague Rino Tirikatene who when he got up earlier this morning linked himself to Ngāti Whātua. I am sure there is a link there for me; it is just not as good as his. But I can say that my children have a link to Te Arawa through their mother’s side—so there.When this Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru Claims Settlement Bill and the speech notes came across my table I had a quick glance at them as I normally do when we get information from the honourable Minister the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations. It is the first thing in my in-tray and the first thing in my out tray. I noticed “Te Tokotoru” and I thought “What? Are we settling something at Rātana?”.I want to go a bit deeper than normal. We have an opportunity. Let me digress first. The Crown is getting away with murder. Let me make that quite clear. We are getting away with quite a lot. That does not set aside what we are trying to do collegially and it does not set aside what we are trying to do in a partnership. What we have is the opportunity and what we have through the 40-odd deeds of settlement that we have signed in the term of this Government and also in the term of the Labour Government—the past Government—is our own I suppose reconciliation process. It may not be the same as others around the world. It may not be as good as others around the world. In fact I think we do a better job than most people around the world.But the thing is as my colleague and my uncle Shane Jones says things progress—things progress. Things grow up. In his time he was one of the many architects of the Resource Management Act. Things grow and things progress. We can do now what we could not do even 5 years ago and certainly not 10 and 20 years ago. We have theopportunity to put in place a new set of rules a new regime. Who knows in 5 years’ time and in 10 years’ time the three entities that we are talking about today may very well grow into more powerful better-run entities than they are today. So I have no doubt that what we are trying to achieve here is not only for today but essentially for tomorrow’s children and the children who have not even been born yet.I will not take too much longer. I do not like to correct my colleague and my uncle Shane Jones but he did mention something about 130000-odd Ngāpuhi. It is funny that out of that 130000 there are supposedly—and I could be corrected if I am wrong—75000 Ngāti Hine. So I want to put on record now and use this opportunity if you do not mind—Hone Harawira: He wai. [A song ]Hon TAU HENARE: Oh no! What is coming from Ngāti Hine I can assure you is the idea of their own piece of settlement legislation. We might laugh and we might think “Oh yeah that’s very big of them.” but it is a development on what we are doing today. It is a development on what we were doing 20 years ago. If people thought that in 1840 we sat there and we would never progress then they are mistaken. They are absolutely mistaken. If this country was not colonised I would bet my bottom dollar that we would have progressed a hell of a lot further than people think we would have. We would not have stayed in the Stone Age so to speak.So I am pleased that I am part of a Parliament that actually looks at these things and is very well equipped and skilled to look at all of the issues that come before us. I am pleased that I am the chair of the Māori Affairs Committee which I think on the whole looks at all the issues in front of it in a bipartisan way. We have gone from Tāmaki this morning through to Kahungunu and have now ended up in Te Arawa territory. I look forward to taking our select committee to Te Arawa and listening to the stories that make this settlement along with all the other settlements that we have done just a part of our attempt at reconciliation. Kia ora.