Korako NukNUK KORAKO (National): Tēnā koe anō e Te Mana Whakawā ā huri noa i te Whare nei e mihi atu ki a koutou katoa. It is indeed my pleasure to be able to stand to speak in the first reading of the Ngāti Tamaoho Claims Settlement Bill. I want to thank the previous speaker the Hon Nanaia Mahuta for giving us a very good overview of the rohe—the takiwā actually—of Ngāti Tamaoho. It takes me back to when I was at Hato Tīpene College because we used to have a number of representatives from Ngāti Tamaoho come particularly during the times of celebration at the school but also during the kapa haka. We had a great kapa haka group and a number of waiata or the items actually came from that particular area so I want to acknowledge that.I think acknowledgments also are really important particularly—as has been done previously—around those who have passed on into the long night and who were very very serious players in taking this on the journey to where it is today. So I acknowledge those who have passed on. I also acknowledge those who have worked tirelessly and continue to do so and they were acknowledged by the Minister and the Hon Nanaia Mahuta.I think the important thing to do is to acknowledge the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations the Hon Chris Finlayson particularly for his work on this particular piece of legislation. As we know in Tāmaki-makau-rau and also right across there there are a number of iwi in those areas and it is important that we actually address the claims and the concerns as we move through so that there is a kotahitaka thing going on particularly to include everyone.The Treaty settlements process again—and we have talked many times about this—is indeed a healing process and this particular Treaty settlement is no exception. When we look at the restoring of the partnership between iwi and the Crown—and it was promised as far back as 1840 under the Treaty—it is about providing iwi with an opportunity to look forward to plan for the future as we all know and that is really very much the essence of this particular Treaty settlement as well. But before all that can happen as we also know it is important that there is a meaningful acknowledgment of the wrongdoings in the past. In the case of Ngāti Tamaoho the wrongs committed by the Crown were very very many and unfortunately the consequences were devastating.When we look at Ngāti Tamaoho by all accounts this was an iwi that actually welcomed the opportunity to form relationships with Pākehā settlers and also with the Crown. They welcomed the economic opportunities of trade and even land transactions. But little could they have anticipated the way these opportunities would be undermined by the Crown's bad-faith dealings. This was highlighted by the speech from the Minister. The Crown retained land that it had never purchased and failed to reserve the tenths—the tenths—that it actually had committed to. Ngāti Tamaoho saw benefit in loyalty to the Crown even while sharing their aspirations for Kīngitanga. I think that is a very important part of this. They were trying to actually deliver a partnership—a partnership with the colonial settlers and a partnership that was not only a physical partnership but also one about whakapapa. It was also about ancestry as well—deeply ingrained into the ethos of these people of this iwi Ngāti Tamaoho.While the Crown's actions gave iwi every reason to be distrustful and to rebel against a regime that demanded both their loyalty and their land Ngāti Tamaoho in their passiveness did not rebel. They did not rebel. Their loyalty to the Crown was rewarded by Crown troops with the inaccurate labelling of their people Ngāti Tamaoho as rebels. They were actually branded as rebels resulting in their eviction and the confiscation of most of their land. When we look at the title to the little remaining land that was gifted there was some land that was gifted to individual Ngāti Tamaoho whom the Crown considered to be loyal but they were very very few. The land was alienated actually from iwi ownership. It was just individual ownership not iwi ownership. That also went against a lot of the ethos about how Māori actually look at land. It is actually about a collectivisation as opposed to an individual right.This is now a landless iwi. Taking that on board they watched as Pākehā settled their lands changed their traditional environment beyond recognition and adversely affected their traditional resources. You only have to travel across the Bombay Hills through into South Auckland and into that area and you can see the huge transformation and how economically viable it is but this was land that was originally owned by this particular iwi Ngāti Tamaoho. The redress provided in this deed of settlement seeks to provide some reparation for the harm that was caused but it cannot and will not compensate Ngāti Tamaoho for the vast amounts of land that I have just described or for the economic potential that this land has actually given. They find themselves today as I said landless but also bereft actually of the commercialisation that they could have benefited from. What the commercial redress here does however is provide an economic base for future development. It provides an opportunity for the iwi to actually be in charge of their own destiny. It provides in some ways too their right of tino rakatirataka and their right to stand finally on their land on the whenua and also to utilise it—to develop it for their economic well-being as well as their cultural well-being. Particularly the most important part of that is that it is about their identity. It is about their identity.As chair of the Māori Affairs Committee I say that we really do look forward to considering the settlement and this bill in a lot more detail and to actually assisting as the kaitiaki to help this bill through on its journey through to the Royal assent. Should the election results and consequent appointments permit I look forward to welcoming the rakatira of Ngāti Tamaoho and all who would submit on this bill when they appear before the Māori Affairs Committee and I look forward to seeing the passing of this bill and the completion of the settlement process for Ngāti Tamaoho. Finally I want to say to them—because I know there will be a lot of them actually watching this in cyberspace or on television—that it is indeed with great honour that all of us here today particularly those who are members of the Māori Affairs Committee really do tautoko this bill and also wish Ngāti Tamaoho well on the journey through to Royal assent after the third reading. On that note I commend this bill to the House. Nō reira huri noa i Te Whare nei e mihi atu ki a koutou katoa. Kia ora.