te Heuheu Georgina: Te Runanga o Ngati Awa Bill — Third Reading 
te Heuheu Georgina: Te Runanga o Ngati Awa Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:624;Page:19264] 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (National) 
:  
Tenatatou katoa. A tena koutou tokuwhanaukua tae mai. He mihi aroha mai i te whare o te Heuheu iteneirawhakahirahira. No reira tenatatau katoa. 
[An interpretation in English was given to the House.] 
[ 
Greetings to us all. And greetings to you as well my family who have arrived here. A fond and loving greeting from the house of te Heuheu on this special day. And so greetings once again to all of us here. 
]  
Before I comment on the bill before us I must accept the compliments of John Tamihere. I certainly had no intention of making any mean remarks about him. In this place if someone says something good about one then of course one must accept it. 
The third reading of the Te Runanga o Ngati Awa Bill is the second-to-last step that Parliament must take to bring to a timely conclusion Ngati Awa’s efforts to achieve resolution of their historic claims against the Crown. Tomorrow this House moves to the third reading of the Ngati Awa Claims Settlement Bill which arises out of the deed of settlement dated 27 March 2003 and which itself took up to 15 years to manage and to negotiate but which again followed upon the efforts of generations of Ngati Awa to have their mana acknowledged by the Crown and for themselves to witness the honour of the Crown in action as indeed it moves to make amends for past injustice perpetrated upon Ngati Awa. 
Despite the generations of effort Ngati Awa have never lost their mana despite suffering dispossession and alienation. As my colleague Gerry Brownlee said we will have more to say on that matter the actual settlement tomorrow but for today this House must legislate for the entity that will receive the settlement assets and manage those assets. National is pleased to support the third reading of the Te Runanga o Ngati Awa Bill as it will also do tomorrow for the settlement bill. 
Comments have been made by the ACT party today that John Tamihere characterised as mean-spirited. I guess I would probably support those comments as well. The points that the member Richard Prebble made may or may not have merit but in my 8½ years in Parliament I have never yet seen that party offer some alternatives in a constructive way that might have allowed it to vote for a settlement bill—because of course it has never done that. That party never voted for settlement entities either. I am not sure how a party can sit in this House stand for the rule of law but not wish to see the rule of law exercised in favour of iwi who have sometimes been the recipients of actions by successive Governments that we today would rather have not had to deal with. But we have dealt with them. That is what we are doing now. The process that we have may not be perfect but it is the best one we have been able to devise up to this point. Since there are still some settlements to come it would be rather more constructive of ACT to put forward some of its suggestions in a constructive way so that they may be considered in a proper manner. 
I would like to make some comments about this particular bill. I am told that Ngati Awa has spent the best part of the last 3 maybe 4 years seeking from the Government their own legislation for their governance entity. It does not I think say much for us that after making them wait for so long—generations in fact—to have injustice recognised and made reparation for in the last 3 or 4 years they have had to wind down another tortuous path to get their governance entity in place. It may be that the Government might take the current trust board legislation from which this bill arises and perhaps see that that legislation with appropriate adjustments can be made to fit the requirements of a governance entity that is to receive settlement assets and be a proper representative body for the people concerned. That way we might save a lot of time effort and cost because as Metiria Turei rightly pointed out delay adds to the cost all the time and as she also rightly pointed out a lot of that cost is being borne by the iwi either directly or as a bill on their settlement quantum. Perhaps the new Minister the Hon Mark Burton might give consideration along with the Minister of Maori Affairs to seeing at least the good in the basis of the trust board legislation and use that as a template with adjustments for new governance entities if that is what tribes who are settling want. 
In closing I want to make some comments about the Hui Taumata that some of us were present at 2 weeks ago. The Hui Taumata and the presence of 400 Maori people there showed clearly that there is a flowering of Maori pride aspiration and entrepreneurship. It is against that background that these settlements are being negotiated and concluded. The turn-round of Tainui’s fortunes in the last 2 or 3 years after a slightly rocky start—which is probably understandable in all respects; theirs was the first major settlement—together with the achievements of NgaiTahu show exactly why it is important that this Parliament moves to settle these historic injustices in a timely fashion and why this Parliament should gladly wish the iwi the very best for their future. What this bill represents today and what the bill tomorrow will represent is a moment in time for Ngati Awa hopefully to put behind them that burden that they have carried for so long and look forward to the future. Indeed this tribe already has some very exciting initiatives in their area and this settlement will add to those initiatives. 
I want to say to my relatives in the gallery if I can say it without seeming to be— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: It is against the Standing Orders. 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU 
: Well sorry; I am going to say it anyway. I offer them my congratulations particularly for their fortitude and their unending patience with the officials and Ministers. I mean that not just for this current Government but for the last one as well. This legislation shows that if people want to stick to their principles which they always did in the end right will prevail. No reira tena koutou tena koutou tena koutou katoa.