Hayes JoJO HAYES (National): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. E ngā iwi me ngā hapū me ngā uri o Taranaki tēnā koutou. Ngā uri o Parihaka ka nui te mihi atu ki a koutou katoa.[The iwi the hapū and the descendants of Taranaki greetings to you. The descendants of Parihaka great greetings to all of you.]I stand humbled today. I have waited quite some time for this bill to enter this House of New Zealand because there has been so much kōrero that has gone on to do with the atrocities that happened in the 1800s at Parihaka. I don't really know where to start with it because it tears my heart apart when I hear and read about the atrocities that happened. Whilst I have not been immersed in the history of Parihaka I took myself out to find out some of your history. It was through the eyes of a woman that was written about—and it was a fictional book obviously; Witi Ihimaera wrote about her—Erenora. It's called The Parihaka Woman and in there she outlined all of the things that happened to her her two sisters and her husband as an example of what the Crown did to the whānau of Parihaka a Māori kāinga that boasted back in the 1800s over 2000 whānau living and thriving doing their thing looking after each other and building their economic development—to today where it only has 64 or thereabouts whānau living in Parihaka. The past of this country should be noted down as an atrocity to iwi Māori.I have stood in this House on many occasions speaking on Māori bills on Treaty bills and each time it breaks me up when I see and hear about the history that our people—that my tūpuna that your tūpuna that everybody's tūpuna Māori—suffered at the hands of a group of people that were so hungry for land that they would tread on all Māori and go and take their land away from them just because they could. So I want to acknowledge the fight of the people of Parihaka the whānau of Parihaka the tūpuna of Parihaka. Their wairua sits in this room today overseeing the proceedings of this House in the first reading of this bill.I want to acknowledge the other speakers in the House. It is a very emotional time for us all but no more so than those of Parihaka. I want to acknowledge the members of the Kawe Tutaki: the Hon Dame Tariana Turia; the Rt Hon Jim Bolger; the Hon Mahara Okeroa; Amokura Panoho representative from Taranaki iwi; and Ruakere Hond the representative from Parihaka for the amazing work that they have done to get us to this place today. Also I want to acknowledge the Parihaka Papakāinga Trust who have worked diligently with the whānau of Parihaka to get us here and who were key in the legacy statement; the Hon Te Ururoa Flavell; and the Hon Christopher Finlayson. The Hon Christopher Finlayson has done some very good work in all the Treaty settlement bills but especially in this one.As I said the book that I read The Parihaka Woman about a woman called Erenora and her two sisters outlined the passive resistance of their leader Te Whiti o Rongomai: the ploughing of the lands when the men were arrested and were killed and that the women took over and set up the fight and carried on. The injustice of the way that those men were hunted down like dogs absolutely retched my guts and it should never have happened. The way that it outlined the journey that these women took down to Dunedin to look for their husbands to bring them home and the various Māori members of Parliament that tried to help and did help on this journey—I lived in Dunedin for a little while and I journeyed to those caves and if you stand in them you can almost hear the crying echoing throughout the walls of those caves. So many lives were wasted in good men that should have been left to grow their economic development in Parihaka.I want to say to the whānau of Parihaka that I do look forward to this bill coming to the select committee as soon as possible. I want to see it come back to this House so we can move on and you can move on but not forgetting the history and the atrocities of the past because it should bring us strength so that it may never happen again. In closing I just want to recite a piece that Te Whiti o Rongomai told his people in 1880 to do with the birth of the passive resistance and it goes like this: Though some in darkness of heart seeing their land ravished might wish to take [up] arms and kill the aggressors I say it must not be. Let not the Pakehas think to succeed by reason of the guns … I want not war but they do. The flashes of their guns have singed our eyelashes and yet they say they do not want war … The Government come not hither to reason but go to out-of-the-way places. They work secretly but I speak in public so that [they] all may hear." Those words along with many of the other prophet's words will go down in the history of this country and may it never be forgotten. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa."