Fox MaramaMARAMA FOX (Co-Leader—Māori Party): Tēnā koe e Te Mana Whakawā. Nei te mihi atu ki a koutou kua hui nei i tēnei ata tēnei rangi whakahirahira mō tātau katoa i roto i Te Whare Pāremata ko ngā mahi nunui kei mua i a mātou ko wēnei mahi te tutukitanga o ngā nawe o ngā hapū o ngā iwi i tae ā-tinana mai ki tēnei Whare. Nā reira tēnā koutou nau mai haere mai ki tō koutou Whare; tēnei Whare āhua Pākeha nei ēhara mō Te Pākeha anake. Kei konei tātau kei konei tātau mō ake tonu atu me kaua e wareware kai konei mō ake tonu atu![I acknowledge you collectively those who have assembled here this morning on this day of significance for us all in Parliament in regard to the major tasks that are before us these tasks being the completion of the grievances that belong to the hapū and iwi who have arrived here physically at this House. So salutations to you collectively welcome come hither to your House this House which appears somewhat Pākeha but is not for Pākeha only. We are here we are here for ever and don't ever forget we are here for ever and ever!]There is a famous quote by Sir James Hēnare that says: It is preposterous that Māori should aspire to be poor pākehā." By the actions of the Crown throughout the years that it has engaged with Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa it is exactly that that it has wished Māori would aspire to. That is evident. That is evident throughout this settlement.Even in the documentation itself—well let me go straight there. This is exactly what it says. It says that the Crown failed to consider customary rights. The Crown failed to assess the impact of alienation of these lands on Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa. The Crown failed to survey these lands. The Crown did not challenge the Native Land Court's 1870 award of nearly 4000 acres to Taemaro within the period provided in the native land laws and it ignored their appeals. The Crown coerced them into surrendering the title for the block—failed coerced. The Crown did not include all areas occupied and cultivated by Ngāti Kahungunu—sorry that is me—Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa. See that is our whakapapa link right there. The Crown failed to ensure that Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa retained adequate reserves.The Crown went on. Lands were susceptible to partition fragmentation and alienation and by the end of all the Crown's efforts even after the Second World War Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa was left absolutely landless and was removed from their area where most of the whānau lived outside—outside—those areas. They lost sites of significance wāhi tapu and urupā. Deprived owners—owners were deprived of significant income that they had expected to receive from the 30-year lease.I think to myself and I just imagine that when people look at Māori and say "Oh my gosh you're at the bottom of every disparaging statistic." I think about how great our ancestors were and the dreams that they had for us and how they tried to retain their land how they protested at every turn and how they set up farms and set up areas for cultivation to trade because they were entrepreneurial—the very first sort of bartering system and trading of goods came from Māori to these new settlers. I think of how you welcomed them in so you could take the technologies and trade. If that had been allowed to continue what a different place we would be in today and yet you come today to accept the pittance that the Crown has offered. I am not sure but sometimes for me that feels like it is out of pure frustration that we have come so far and yet we have to accept so little but we must go on.Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa you guys have waited a long time to come to this point and it has been held up for a time to consider the petition and the struggle of Ngati Takiora. Yes I travelled there. Yes I went to listen because that is our job—to listen and to take things into account. But what is not our job is to determine whakapapa determine who has the most say or to determine whether or not people are talking to each other. I am sorry but that is now your job and it always has been.We recognise that that is difficult and all of us i roto i a Aotearoa katoa [throughout New Zealand totally] come to this point. There has not been a Treaty claim in this House where there has not been a dissenting voice where there has not been a group of people who feel that their words have not been articulated in the settlement and where there has not been a hapū who felt that their interests had been ignored. And they ask us as the Māori Affairs Committee to make the right decision. And who does that? Not you—the Crown.The Crown over hundreds of years has come to this place and asked us to be poor Pākehā. I cannot sugar-coat it. That is exactly what it asked us to do in legislation by law in this country. It left it up to us to prove to it that it did not. It left it up to yourselves to prove to it that its records were wrong that its actions were wrong. Overwhelmingly the evidence—which you have to go and search out yourselves because nobody gives you a hand up in that area—is that it has mistreated Māori for generation after generation after generation.The list of failures that I started to read—they continue right up until 1958. We can say that actually they probably continue today. And yet we come with an eye looking to the future to say "OK. We are where we are and we're willing to move on because we're resilient and we're Māori and we're strong and we thrive and no matter what happens to us we still stand up and we still take the reins and we still show them that if you have a little bit of faith—just an inch—faith as small as a mustard seed if you are a biblical type of person you can move mountains." And when our people are united we can overcome all things.I put it to you Ngatikahu ki Whangaroa that the time is now and it is within your hands to settle whatever issues are in front of you so that as a people together unitedly you can be strong and move forward and take the reins—for these ones as Peeni talked about our tamariki/mokopuna. Too often in this House I see decisions made for the next 3 years just so we can get popularity points and continue to be the Government—or change it; one or the other. We get sick of one and kick them out; we get sick of them and kick them out. It is the ever-revolving door of the blue and red. But the opportunity is within your own hands to take your own grasp of the future and make decisions for our grandchildren's grandchildren.Sometimes I think this House forgets that the decisions we make need to be enduring. The decisions we make need to be looking ahead. We will not be the beneficiaries of this settlement. You and I will not be the beneficiaries of this settlement—they will and their mokopuna who come after them for our posterity.So it is a hard day it is a good day and we have finally got to this point. And so quickly over and over again we have seen many of our people come through this House and they go from grievance to future from protest to progress and switch their eyes to the future for the beneficiaries of tomorrow our tamariki/mokopuna. So I mihi to you. I mihi to all of you for all of the efforts that you have made on behalf of them despite the Crown. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou kia ora mai tātou katoa."