te Heuheu Georgina: Te Runanga o Ngati Awa Bill — Second Reading 
te Heuheu Georgina: Te Runanga o Ngati Awa Bill — Second Reading 
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Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (National) 
: 
 I am pleased to take a call in the report back of Te Runanga o Ngati Awa Bill. I too acknowledge my whanaunga who are sitting in the gallery tonight. I say again that every time they appear here they are a model of patience and forbearance. They started negotiating their settlement back at the time when National was in Government and it is now 2005. It is good to see them here. 
In terms of this bill I want to make some comments about the choices made by iwi regarding governance. It is interesting that yesterday the Ngaa Rauru Kiitahi Claims Settlement Bill was introduced into the House. Nga Rauru Kitahi has decided upon its governance structure which I am told by the Associate Minister in charge of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations the Hon Mark Burton will not require legislation. That is that iwi’s choice. 
The importance of this bill is that it reflects the choice of the Ngati Awa iwi. It was hard fought for on its part because I understand that it took some 2 years for the Labour Government to accede to its request to have specially constituted legislation that would set up its governance body. I think that is a great shame. We are acknowledging that an iwi is best placed to decide what sort of governance entity it should have to best manage its assets but the Labour Government somehow seem to keep stalling the iwi’s wish to have its governance entity enshrined in legislation. In that regard Ngati Awa is similar to Ngai Tahu and others. This measure is Ngati Awa choice. I congratulate the iwi. This is another step in the long journey to the resolution of the injustice dealt to Ngati Awa in the 19th century and since then. 
I was a bit surprised at the contribution from the Hon Ken Shirley from ACT. He certainly made big of his concerns tonight but I do not recall him making as big a fuss as that at the Maori Affairs Committee. Maybe I was not there at the time. If ACT feels so deeply about the bill then I do not know why Mr Shirley did not write a minority opinion on it. 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: Read the introductory speech. 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU 
: To read the introductory speech is one thing but this is the report back from the select committee. The select committee process is the opportunity for members to iron out issues although they may not be able to iron them out if nobody is of a mind to agree. I was truly surprised that the Hon Ken Shirley made such a big thing of his concerns in the House tonight. I am surprised he did not at least ask the select committee whether he could put a minority paragraph somewhere in its report. He did not do so and that is OK but if his comments have merit—and I doubt it—he should have done that. 
There is a charter attached to this bill. It is not part of the bill per se but I believe that it sets out most of the things Ken Shirley raised this evening. In acknowledgment of the big emphasis Ken Shirley put on those things tonight I say that if there is merit in what he says I am sure the Ngati Awa elders and those who will be responsible for administering the settlement assets will take those comments on board. If the comments have merit and the charter does not properly meet the issues of conflict of interest and so on and so forth I am sure that they have it in their wit and their intelligence to do something about that. That is the key to these settlement bills—it is the key to these governance bills. This one has not come easily. It has now taken 3 or 4 years for the bill to get to this stage. It is not as though a lot of people particularly those in Ngati Awa have not given a lot of thought to it. 
There were some objections to the bill. Given the way the select committee handled those objections at the hearing I trust that the objectors feel at least partly satisfied. In the end in relation to the settlement and the governance bodies put into place to administer the settlement assets I say that to get 100 percent agreement would be unique in this country—absolutely. We never get 100 percent agreement here in this House on anything other than issues like the tsunami relief response and all those things which of course we should agree on. But generally speaking it is very hard to get 100 percent agreement. I hope that the Ngati Awa objectors who were few in number but with respect not unimportant feel reasonably satisfied that we gave them a good hearing. I know we all worked hard to do that and I know we will continue to do that with regard to all the settlement bills. 
I support my colleague Gerry Brownlee and I congratulate him on what he said tonight. I thought he had some very good comments to make. National is very happy to support this stage of the bill and looks forward to its final passing.