Little AndrewANDREW LITTLE (Labour): I take pleasure in speaking on the New Plymouth District Council (Waitara Lands) Bill. I acknowledge the work of all those who have brought the bill to this stage: the New Plymouth District Council; its current mayor Neil Holdem; his predecessor Andrew Judd and also the former chief executive of that district council Barbara McKerrow who worked hard with Te Atiawa to get an agreement that has led to this legislation; the Taranaki Regional Council which has the immediate legal stake in these lands; the hapū Manukōrihi and Ōtaraua; and of course the MP for New Plymouth Jonathan Young who has shepherded this bill into the House and also assisted with it going through the Māori Affairs Committee. I will come to the work of the select committee shortly. The course of events that has led this bill to come here and the issues that underpin it have their own interesting path. Mr Korako talked about the origins in terms of the land confiscations in the 1860s which are these lands. They have been those endowment lands and leasehold lands leased to the occupiers of it since then. Those confiscations followed the Land Wars about which we are all really starting to learn the true historical significance. But the issue of these lands and the present occupants of them—the residents of them—has been a festering sore in that town for a long time. Waitara is a small but very proud town just north of New Plymouth. A working town it serves the local farming district. Once upon a time it had as its principal employer a massive meatworks—Borthwicks—which has gone now. There is a meatworks there but it is a producer of very fine goods and there are a number of other industries that sustain Waitara right now. But still there are residents and occupants of the land there who are paying ground leases under Glasgow leases which come up for renewal every 21 years and every 21 years there is a massive hike in the ground rents and the whole argument gets under way again. That is not to take away from the significance of the local hapū and iwi who have been seeking their Treaty settlement of which these lands were originally considered to be a part of. So in the last 20 or 30 years there have been two trains of activity happening side by side. One is Te Atiawa—another Taranaki iwi—pursuing their Treaty claims and finally getting their negotiations under way and the other is the current occupants of the dwellings that occupy that land trying to get what they perceive as their right to purchase the freehold. That was the question that went to the court—it went to the highest court of the land at the time—based on what those residents thought was a promise made to them that they could get to own their little plot of land but they were defeated. As a consequence of the Treaty negotiations for Te Atiawa and some very progressive thinking by the community by the community leaders and also by Te Atiawa—who at the relevant point elected not to take up the land as part of their Treaty settlement—these arrangements have come to Parliament for its consideration. That is a good thing and it has been a good step. I think it is also to be acknowledged—the way the land has been administered. The proceeds from the ground rents on the land have been allowed to be used for only very limited purposes. It is currently now under the stewardship of the Taranaki Regional Council but that relates to maintenance of the sea end of the river and the port and the harbour that sits around there. Through the efforts and the energy of those who have now taken up this issue while respecting the concerns of the hapū and respecting the concerns of the settlors who are currently on that land they have come up with a solution that allows the hapū to achieve a benefit and some control about the long-term stewardship of the land as well as those who have been seeking to purchase the freehold rights of land that they occupy and a happy conclusion is close to being reached. I want to acknowledge the work of the select committee—particularly the chair Mr Korako who has now spoken—for the close scrutiny it has given to the original bill and for allowing a set of discussions and negotiations to open up to ensure that the ultimate deal that this House will give its final blessing to in the third reading is one that every party can live with and that every party benefits from. I have to say that in relation to Taranaki settlements that has been one of the virtues in the last few years of this Government's approach where flexibility has been allowed for those deeply emotionally felt historical issues. They have been dealt with in a respectful way and that has led to a resolution of those issues outside conventional Treaty settlements. I see the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations is in the House and he deserves a lot of credit for the approach that he has taken which I know in Taranaki has made a significant difference to Māori in that community and to Pākehā as well. In the end when Māori are unsettled and dispirited about the inability to achieve a resolution to their historical grievances it means the entire community faces the same disquiet. That we are now in the process of settling longstanding festering issues I think is a credit to all those involved. The approach that has been taken under this bill alone in allowing further discussion further negotiation and a settlement that meets the needs of all interested parties is really giving life to the Treaty and I think that is to be noted and credit is to be given where it is due.The changes that have been suggested by the Māori Affairs Committee are many and I think that is a good sign that the committee has been fully engaged. It has listened to those who have come to speak to it and it has been willing to show that change which in this great Parliament of ours is nothing more than we would expect. Giving a place for the hapū for Manukōrihi and Ōtaraua hapū giving them a role in the governance giving them a role and a say over the proceeds that can be generated through the sale of the leasehold to freehold owners or the ongoing rents that will be collected from the land is a positive step. Defining the Waitara River and vesting the Waitara River not in Te Atiawa but in a separate legal entity that will look after and provide stewardship for that river from its origins to where it spews out into the beautiful Taranaki west coast will I think ensure the voice of all relevant parties in managing that river getting it clean again and bringing life back to it. That is a great achievement.Ensuring a good and fair distribution of the funds to be used for a variety of purposes beyond what the Taranaki Regional Council is limited to doing right now is a positive step as well and the committee is to be congratulated on ensuring that those concerns have been heard and the ability to do stuff for that community is now to be put in place. The New Plymouth District Council and the role it has played in making other reserve land available to be picked up by the hapū from the proceeds that are generated from the sale of the leasehold lands—that I think is also in the spirit of the Treaty settlements and the restoration of land and mana whenua to local hapū and is to be welcomed as well.Like all these things like all of the settling of these longstanding grievances in the end it is about restoring justice giving fairness and giving peace back to communities again—to the tangata whenua and to Pākehā settlers there as well. This bill has the ability to do that subject to what happens in the Committee of the whole House and I support the bill.