Parata Hekia: Ngati Toa Rangatira Claims Settlement Bill Haka Ka Mate Attribution Bill — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParata Hekia: Ngati Toa Rangatira Claims Settlement Bill Haka Ka Mate Attribution Bill — Third Readings[Sitting date: 16 April 2014. Volume:698;Page:17405. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education): Tēnā koe e Te Mana Whakahaere o tō tātou Whare ā tēnā koutou tēnā tātou huri noa i tō tātou Whare. Hoi anō ki a koutou Ngati Toa Rangatira tēnā koutou. Ngā mihi nunui ki a koutou i hara mai i runga i tēnei rā tino whakahirahira mō koutou ēngari mō ngā iwi katoa o Aotearoa i a rātou e rapa ana te tutukitanga pai ō ngā hiahia moemoeā hara me ngā hapa. Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa.Ā i runga anō i ngā tikanga o ngā tīpuna ko te tikanga ko Toa Rangatira whenua ko Toa Rangatira moana ko Toa Rangatira taonga ko Toa Rangatira mana ā ko Toa Rangatira tāngata whānau hapū iwi. I runga i tērā ngā mihi nui ki a koutou e waha nei i tēnei kaupapa mō tētahi wā roa. Kātahi anō ka tae ki te wā ka kite ā ākuni ka mutu ka taea e koutou te whakapakari i ngā āhuatanga e tino pīrangitia ana e koutou kei roto i tō iwi kei roto i tō kāinga.Nō reira ngā mihi nui me ngā kanohi kei te mōhio ahau ā ngā kanohi kāre i te mōhio. Ēngari i raro i te iwi te mana o Toa Rangatira tēnā koutou katoa.[Greetings to you Mr Assistant Speaker Robertson of our House and to us all collectively throughout our House. Accordingly salutations to you collectively Ngati Toa Rangatira. Huge acknowledgments to you who have come on this very important day—for you but for all tribes of New Zealand as they seek the accomplishment of aspirations dreams transgressions and redress. And so acknowledgments salutations and congratulations to you all.As with the custom of the ancestors recognition is accorded to the land sea heirlooms and authority of Toa Rangatira and to the people families subtribes and tribe of Toa Rangatira. A massive tribute to you collectively for bearing this matter upon yourselves for such a long time. At last it has reached the stage when an end can be seen as to whether you will be able to strengthen features that you have really desired for within your tribe and homeland.Therefore a huge tribute to you collectively and to the faces within you whom I recognise as well as the unfamiliar ones. Furthermore and under the status and tribe of Toa Rangatira I salute you all.]Good morning. It is wonderful to be able to have the opportunity to take a call to recognise the stage at which this long kaupapa has finally arrived and to be able to see this part of the process of redress and of settlement imminently reaching this final stage so that you might be able to move forward into the future of your making having had recognised the historical breaches and grievances and the effect they have had on NgatiToa Rangatira with the opportunity to reshape the future in the way that you wish to for your people for your uri whakaheke and for the generations that are to come.It is always a delight to be in the House when these Treaty settlement bills are being debated. For a start they are debated as a Parliament because these are settlements between the Crown and iwi not the Government of the day and iwi. They are intended to be enduring to be sustainable over time and it is wonderful to be able to share in this unusual experience as a Parliament of celebrating as one the work that has been done and the opportunity to see a strengthened New Zealand as a result of the particular parts that you will choose to play based on the settlement of your claim.Can I acknowledge therefore you and your negotiators. We are very much aware from our experience of other Treaty settlements that have gone on for quite some time how much of a toll they take on the people how much times passes how many of your kaumātua kuia and pakeke pass away during the course of these negotiations and how taumaha this can be although you will be able to see the light when it lifts. So we recognise that. Certainly our Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations the Hon Christopher Finlayson has since he became that Minister. He may well have told you and it is true. I can attest to it from before we even came into Parliament.It has been an absolute mission for him as Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations to ensure that these claims are approached with respect seriousness and comprehensiveness but also are settled as quickly as possible so that you and the Crown might move on from a particular time in our history to a better place in our future. So having acknowledged all of you can I acknowledge the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations. He has worked hard not only on this settlement but I think close to 50 settlements in the time he has been the Minister. He approaches that with seriousness and with commitment to all of the work and to that principle and practice of all iwi kanohi kitea. He is one Minister who travels to know whom he is dealing with and to understand face to face what their concerns are what the issues are and how important the relationship is. He has been very involved in the appointment of the Crown negotiators—and I notice that we have the Hon Paul Swain and others in the House today—to ensure that the settlement can be conducted with dispatch but also with respect. He has been a tireless and committed Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations and I acknowledge him for that work.Can I also acknowledge our Māori Affairs Committee for the work it does. It is often unsung and unseen but it is the absolute glue that makes these settlements possible. My friend and colleague Tau Henare has chaired that committee and has got through a huge amount of work not only paperwork but hearings and travel around the country going to the places that settlements require going to—in your case to the top of the South Island as well as just out to Mana Island. The Hon Tau Henare chairs that committee in his own inimitable fashion as he does everything else in this House. He brings fire humour and passion to all he undertakes and I think it is important in that role as chair of the Māori Affairs Committee that that be the case—that the full emotional range can be expressed and experienced by all of us. I think he chairs and leads that work with great style commitment and passion.He also oversees a group of members of Parliament who are equally committed to getting this right to getting your settlement to the place you are comfortable with and that is why we have seen some changes and refinements both in the name of the bill and in the substance of the bill. The point of the select committee process is to put in front of you what it is that we think we have reached agreement on and also to use that process to refine the detail and that detail has been refined.One of the things that having grown up in Ngati Porou I have been very conscious about is haka taparahi. Therefore I am absolutely delighted that your haka which youhave allowed to become part of our haka not just here in New Zealand but overseas is being legislated for to reflect its composer Te Rauparaha. It reflects that time in history and its continuing significance not only to you as the direct descendants and how you carry that on into the future but to all of us who have had the privilege and the ihi and the wehi of experiencing and participating in Ka Mate as we go through our primary school days into our secondary school days and indeed into our history. It is the experience of what it means both here and in the reflection of your ancestor—and may I say Te Rauparaha is a very striking figure in all Māori and New Zealand history in the kinds of events and activities that he led.In more modern times the reflection of that in Porirua is the great Te Rauparaha Arena which continues to draw people not only from the local community but from all over the country. Can I acknowledge Ngati Toa not only for this particular process but for the leadership you show through Porirua and up the Kāpiti coast into Paraparaumu. You have been an iwi that saw early the opportunity the potential and actually the responsibility of working with your local government as well as with central government. You have understood and carried out the responsibilities of governance beyond your iwi about how together with the mayor and council of Porirua we make the places we live in and the everyday operations better for all citizens of that area.My colleague Kris Faafoi and I together benefit from Ngati Toa not only by your participation in governance but in the cultural authenticity that you bring to every event that occurs in Porirua and on the Kāpiti coast. That itself sits as a model for the rest of New Zealand. The debate goes on as to whether Māori representation should be legislated for or not but you just get on with it and participate in that representation and the greater Porirua area is all the better for it. As my colleague Louisa Wall has already indicated—I am afraid I have not heard all the other previous speeches—the fact that the cultural names of the places that are important and of significance and tell a story for the community will be restored to that community is also a gift a contribution and a cultural enrichment that you make to our places. Your ability to commercially participate in and grow the local regional and national economies is another contribution for which we thank you. We look forward to its growth not only for the local people of the rohe of Ngati Toa but for all New Zealanders. Nō reira i runga i ērā kōrero poto noa iho ngā mihi nui ki a koutou Ngati Toa Rangatira. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa. Kia ora.[And so my huge compliments to you Ngati Toa Rangatira upon those somewhat brief comments. Well done well done and congratulations to you all. Thank you.]Bills read a third time.