SpeechDr ELIZABETH KEREKERE (Green): Tēnā koe e te Whare. I rise on behalf of the Green Party in the third reading of Te Rohe o Rongokako Joint Redress Bill. I acknowledge the chair of the Māori Affairs Committee Tāmati Coffey and my colleagues on the committee who joined for this and the companion bill. I mihi to the Minister and all of the officials because we know that these are difficult to get through.This bill gives effect to specific cultural redress shared between Rangitāne o Tamaki nui-ā-Rua Rangitāne o Wairarapa and Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua as provided for in their respective deeds of settlement. Me tuku mihi ki a koutou katoa.The redress includes sites to be jointly vested including the Mākirikiri reserves the Mataikona property the bed of Lake Wairarapa—which forms part of Wairarapa Moana—a wetland of international significance and an overlay classification of the Castlepoint Scenic Reserve which enables Rangitāne o Tamaki nui-ā-Rua and Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua to identify protection principles and value statements.During the hearings for this bill at Pāpāwai Marae we heard from many of the whānau including the settlement trusts of all of these iwi. We heard from all parties about how this has been a long long time coming especially since the Rangitāne Tū Mai Rā (Wairarapa Tamaki nui-ā-Rua) Claims Settlement Bill came into effect way back in 2017. We acknowledge all of the negotiators whose work led to this bill and its companion bill the Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua Claims Settlement Bill which is coming up for its third reading next week. We note the massive amount of research done by the parties involved and the depth of matauranga and whakapapa that they shared with us and of course only a tiny tiny bit of that could we hear in the hearings and the submissions we received.These Treaty bills are quite different from other legislation we have because they're based on deeds of settlement which have already been signed and that means once it's been drafted and it comes to us there are not going to be many changes. It's not going to be much changed from that point but that means that the issues that are raised in the submissions at the hearings are unlikely to be resolved through the rest of this process. So our job on the select committee is to hear those things. For many of us on the select committee it means we get sent letters and we get many phone calls. I haven't had any subsequent meetings with any of the members since the hearings but that's part of our job to hear those things and even though we know that it doesn't mean that we're going to be able to resolve them part of our job is then to give a voice to that.Some of those issues needed to be sorted out beforehand and I know and we have heard how hard Ngāti Kahungunu has worked to try and resolve those issues and have hui with other complainants to resolve those issues beforehand and they could not. We believe it was a responsibility of the Crown to do that mediation so that Ngāti Kahungunu wasn't having to bear that burden and of course we have heard only a little bit again of the distress and trauma that the whānau are still experiencing because they disagree. Matters of whakapapa are very very personal and we have no doubt that both Ngāti Kahungunu and Rangitāne are absolutely correct in their own understandings of their own whakapapa. That is again not ever for us to have a say on. Of course the key issue then is where they disagree and particularly for the hapū of Ngāti Hāmua and—the pronunciation according to Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa o Tāmaki nui-a-Rua—Ngāti Te Rangiwhakaewa and according to Rangitāne Ngāti Te Rangiwhakaewa.I've stated in the House that not only is it not our job to determine whakapapa we still end up colluding with the fact that that's what's happening and that's a very uncomfortable position to be in as a Māori in this Whare. Nobody wins—nobody wins in that circumstance.We supported this bill at the last reading and we had right up until yesterday intended to support it today because we understood that even though the concerns were raised about those particular hapū in the submissions we understood that both parties had agreed right from the beginning that they would appear in both bills. We thought Oh well that decision's been made. That's already happened." and that agreement was made even if maybe one party was thinking subsequently that maybe they'd like to change it. We have now learnt—and the Minister has confirmed today—that the select committee was given incorrect advice and that Rangitāne has never supported the inclusion of both hapū in both bills and of course that impacts on this one which is their joint redress. Yesterday we received a letter from Rangitāne Tū Mai Rā Trust saying that they were pulling out of this process and that they did not support this bill. This is their own redress. This is the finalisation of all of these issues being dragged through Parliament and a chance for everybody to take a sigh of relief and to be able to celebrate and my heart goes out to everybody involved because this is awful.We asked in our office and no one in the Greens' office has any experience of this happening before. I'm happy to be corrected. We were shocked by this and to be clear the Crown owes all of these iwi significant amends. So much harm has been caused so much loss has occurred and today this bill will go through. It absolutely will go through. For us we don't understand how a joint redress bill can be durable if one party refuses to agree to it. So sadly on that basis alone—and not because we think it shouldn't happen—the Greens will be abstaining on this bill."