Henare Tau: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHenare Tau: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 01 July 2014. Volume:700;Page:19102. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TAU HENARE (Chairperson of the Māori Affairs Committee):I want first of all to doff my Queensland hat to the honourable Minister Finlayson who has over the last 6 years shepherded through what can only be seen as and said to be some amazing settlements some amazing negotiations by the likes of former members of this House Rick Barker and Paul Swain and others as well. I want to thank the Hon Chris Finlayson for shepherding negotiations through Cabinet and my thanks also to the select committee which has done an enormous amount of work trying to hurry things through but at such a pace that we do not forget how important it is to do that.I want to make some points. This Government has done more for Treaty settlements than any other Government. People across the way may frown and they may pull faces but that is part of being in the Opposition.Hon Judith Collins: That’s how they look.Hon TAU HENARE: Yes that is how they look. But here is this. It was started by Sir Doug Graham and an enormous amount of work was done on the first part. Labour came along and did diddly-squat. Labour did a couple of settlements. But to be able to do settlements—Sue Moroney: It set up most of the stuff that’s happening.Hon TAU HENARE: Yeah OK. Well it set up some offices—thanks very much. But when you are doing Treaty settlements you have to be one-minded and the one thing in your mind has to be justice. It has to be getting on with it. This Government has shown that we have got on with it. It was about justice. It is about justice. Hundreds of people have been through the process—Sue Moroney: It’s a bipartisan process.Hon TAU HENARE: Yeah I forgot about that—I forgot about that. It is always a bipartisan process when you are in Opposition. But thanks very much—thanks very much for your hard work madam and ladies and men of the Opposition. But the reality is if you do not have a plan nothing is going to come from it. This Minister this Government and the National Party had a plan. They stuck with it and they are sticking with it.As we speak many negotiations are still going on around the country. I am ever hopeful that Ngāti Hine can see their way through to actually working with what is in front of them. They will get their cut of the cake either way. I am sure that Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Hine along with so many others will one day benefit from the negotiations—the Treaty settlement process.Treaty settlements are not made to fix the wrongs of society; they are about justice. And when that happens iwi and people who whakapapa directly to the respective iwi can look towards the uplifting in terms of the economic and social well-being of those same people. Six years of hard work by our Minister have made his name synonymous with success in this area in the Treaty settlement area. I am glad to say that the National Government has got in behind it and has funded more settlements than ever before because it wanted to and because there was a plan—and those are the two things we need when we are looking at settlements. Some will say that it is not enough. It is never enough and we will never ever have enough money to settle some of the grievances before our nation. Finally I say to those who vote against and abstain on Treaty settlements namely New Zealand First that that is an appalling state of affairs.