Whaitiri Meka: Waitangi National Trust Board Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWhaitiri Meka: Waitangi National Trust Board Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 09 April 2014. Volume:697;Page:17129. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MEKA WHAITIRI (Labour—Ikaroa-Rāwhiti):Tēnā koe Mr Deputy Speaker. Tēnā tātou katoa ngā mema o te Whare nei.[Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker. Greetings to us all members of this House.]I rise in support of the first reading of the Waitangi National Trust Board Amendment Bill. It gives me honour to support previous speakers in acknowledging the national significance of the Waitangi grounds and its history. I too look forward to the progress of the bill with its commitment to modernising the governance arrangements of the trust board. Can I first acknowledge Pita Paraone a former member of this House and the current chair of the Waitangi National Trust Board. Tēnei te mihi ki a koe matua. I too am happy to hear that this bill will get forwarded to the Māori Affairs Committee.My contribution is really in acknowledging the iwi of the far north. I note the Hon Chris Finlayson’s acknowledgment of Lord Bledisloe but I want to acknowledge those original iwi owners. The history in my research is that after the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840 the grounds belonged to the Busby family. In 1882 Agnes Busby the wife of James Busby sold the land 10 years after his passing. It was local iwi who felt that the farmlands were in decline and sought to persuade Parliament to support the resurrection of what was a significant site—the beginning of our history and the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. I want to pay tribute to the iwi of the time who did forge and try to pursue that resurrection and their commitment of support to make the Waitangi Treaty Grounds into what they have become now. So I wanted to first pay tribute to them.It was interesting in my own little bit of research about that time that in 1878 when members of local tribes petitioned the Government to set up a commemorative meeting house the Government of the day actually refused. I am glad we are not in that period but it is important that if we are going to be honest about our history we acknowledge that part—that there were other people just as determined as clearly Lord Bledisloe and the local MP Vernon Reed were at the time to bring the state of the Waitangi Treaty Grounds estate to the attention of Parliament.I want to acknowledge the original trustees who took part in this trust board. I want to share a little story about having attended one of those trust board meetings at Government House under the governance role of the former Governor-General Dame Silvia Cartwright. I attended a meeting with the trust alongside my predecessor the late Hon Parekura Horomia. There are times in your life when you are amongst people who have touched history that is significant to you. I can share with you that the hairs on the back of my neck rose when I sat at a table with direct descendants of Hone Heke Tāmati Waka Nene and the Pōmare whānau on one side and on the other side there were direct descendants of the Williams family the Bledisloe family and of course the Busby family as well as the Wakefield family. It was one of those occasions before which you had not thought you would ever be able to touch your history in such a personal way. I do know from that short time that I sat at the table with those trust members the absolute commitment those members have to honouring the founders in terms of reserving this site on behalf of all the nation so I do want to acknowledge like I said the original trust members.Also I want to acknowledge the work done on this particular amendment bill by Mr Finlayson in terms of strengthening the relationship between the Crown and the board. I too want to add my support to the Government—whoever is in Government—seriously considering the ongoing resourcing and investment into ensuring that with this trust on behalf of all the nation we acknowledge the significance of the Waitangi grounds in terms of forging our history as a country. It is quite fitting that we investigate ways in which we not only support it in spirit but actually support it with resourcing.So I join with all members in this House in supporting the first reading of this bill. I too look forward to it coming to the Māori Affairs Committee and I encourage people to participate in that process to ensure that these grounds have a major and unquestionable part to play not just in our history as a nation but definitely in our future going forward. Nō reira tēnā koutou katoa.