Reti ShaneDr SHANE RETI (National—Whangarei): Ā tēnā koe Mr Deputy Speaker e rau rangatira mā ko tēnei taku mihi ki a koutou katoa ā kia ora mai tātou.[And so thank you Mr Deputy Speaker. This is my acknowledgment to you all esteemed ones and others of a hundredfold. My appreciation to us collectively.]It is a pleasure to speak to this the third reading of the Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Bill. Today we have heard this bill called revolutionary and unique and I want to call it extraordinary. I want to extend on the concept of personhood that the member James Shaw just talked about because here today we recognise a river and its catchment as a legal entity a legal person—Te Awa Tupua under the framework of Te Pā Auroa nā Te Awa Tupua.Te Pā Auroa itself has seven components: Te Awa Tupua Tupua te Kawa Te Pou Tupua Te Heke Ngahuru ki Te Awa Tupua Te Kōpuka nā Te Awa Tupua Kia Matara Rawa and Te Korotete o Te Awa Tupua. Some of these elements are governance and operational components but it is Te Awa Tupua that joins the physical and the metaphysical an indivisible and living whole comprising the Whanganui River from the mountains to the sea incorporating all its physical and meta-physical elements"—a legal person with all the rights powers duties and liabilities of a legal person. This is such a breathtaking step that extra steps were required with the standard legislation-making process.A regulatory impact statement is not typically required for a Treaty settlement process. Treaty settlements are generally exempt from the regulatory impact assessment requirements unless the settlement affects existing regulatory requirements. The Te Awa Tupua framework is a novel redress and its implementation will require altering decision making under existing regulatory frameworks and so a regulatory impact statement was required.The key legislation that the river interacts with as a legal person are the Resource Management Act local government Acts conservation legislation fisheries and forests Acts the Biosecurity Act and the Land Act. In its full expression then when considering the river as a legal entity a person interactions with legislation must recognise and provide for the physical and metaphysical elements of the river and the values of iwi or have particular regard for the physical and metaphysical elements of the river and the values of iwi.I want to further reflect for a moment on the recognition of the river as a legal person. Is this the first time a physical entity has been given these attributes—the attributes of personhood; legal attributes in New Zealand? No it is not. It is actually the second such Act. On 27 July 2014 the Te Urewera Act recognised Te Urewera National Park as "a legal entity" with "all the rights powers duties and liabilities of a legal person." So this is not the first time but it is the first time that a river has been given the legal status of a person with all the rights powers duties and liabilities of a legal person.With personhood comes the privilege of citizenship and I contend here today that the Whanganui River now joins the Urewera lands as legally the oldest living people in New Zealand. The Latin concept of jus soli is still the fundamental concept of citizenship in America and indeed was in New Zealand until 2006. It guarantees birthright citizenship to the land where you draw your first breath and become a life. How appropriate then that the river be recognised as a person that its first breath be here in Aotearoa that its unalienable birthright be recognised under jus soli which in Latin also translates into "the rights of the soil"—how appropriate.In summary iwi have been the voice that together with the Crown here today breathes legal life into the river as it before you has breathed life into your tūpuna and those still to come. I am privileged here today at this third reading to record this moment to reflect on the physical and the metaphysical becoming one in law and the opportunity for this iwi and hapū to move forward. I wish this iwi and this hapū well with their stewardship and commend this bill to the House."