McKelvie IanIAN McKELVIE (National—Rangitīkei): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. It's a pleasure to get up and speak to the first reading of the Ngāti Rangi Claims Settlement Bill. I want to acknowledge all the members of Ngāti Rangi who have come to Parliament today but I particularly want to acknowledge Che Wilson who's always very kind to me. The first time I ever visited him under that amazing mountain in a little office across the—I can't remember the name of the creek but it's certainly across the railway line in Ōhākune. Ever since then he's kept me informed of what's going on in the world and he certainly is a great educator. I also want to just briefly acknowledge Soraya Peke-Mason who I met first in local body politics actually. Soraya has been a member of the Rangitīkei District Council ever since that time—quite a while now actually.I think this is an exciting day and I just want to comment on a press release I saw where the press release said This bill is significant for the people of Ngāti Rangi." Well you'd have to think that's an understatement wouldn't you? It's got to be more than significant. I think it's a very special day. I think all these Treaty settlement processes are very special days and before I go any further I just want to acknowledge Minister Little and the Hon Chris Finlayson who I'll talk about a little later because we had some interesting discussions in the course of this settlement bill. I also want to acknowledge Jo Hayes Nuk Korako the Hon Ron Mark and—who else spoke?—Adrian Rurawhe right out of the heart of the Rangitīkei electorate. I'm sure that South Islander Rino Tirikatene will come along and try and grab a bit of this glory here too but I'll forgive him for that. I think that it's pretty special because they can detail all the fact and I'm going to get into a bit of the fiction.This is without a doubt one of the most beautiful parts of New Zealand. There's no question that these people live in one of the most beautiful parts of New Zealand not only because it's a beautiful part of New Zealand; it's the home of certainly one national park right in the thick of Ngāti Rangi territory and another national park right on their border. Not only that when you read the details of the settlement there are significant reserve lands involved in this settlement all of which are pretty amazing places. Right in the heart of that there are huge tourism developments going on as well and I think it's a pretty special part of New Zealand. It's a part of New Zealand that they should be proud to live in and I know they are.I'm one of those very lucky New Zealanders. My family have been in New Zealand since about 1840 and we've had the privilege of living in the same street since 1870 and I'll bet there aren't too many Ngāti Rangi who have had the privilege of living in the same place since 1870. The reason they haven't is because of the way they've been treated by the Government in successive generations. When you think about it—and I should never say this because I'm extremely proud to be a member of Parliament—I'm quite pleased that my ancestors weren't members of Parliament in the days when what went on in early New Zealand went on and I think that's pretty significant. I'm pleased to say that my ancestors weren't part of those decisions. It's almost impossible when you read the background to this claim to believe the things that happened not only to this claim but only a week or two ago we had Ngāti Tūwharetoa in here—very similar thing. Wherever you go with the Treaty process it's exactly the same. I think it was Adrian Rurawhe who said that this is not a settlement; this is an acknowledgment of what's passed and it's a way forward. And I look forward to the way forward because I think it will be very exciting.I just want to make mention of the way different iwi deal with these claims and I've watched Ngāti Rangi in the last seven or eight years and they certainly haven't sat around waiting for this settlement to get dealt with. They've got on with the job of looking after their people as best they can and doing what they needed to do to prepare for a time when this settlement finally goes through—and it won't take long because I'm sure as one of the earlier speakers said there won't be a lot of dissension around the terms of this settlement process now it's got to the point it's got to.It really intrigues me that—and the Hon Ron Mark made mention of it—the dissolution I guess of Ngāti Rangi lands went on for so long. I don't think it finished until about 1970 and in 1970 I think they ended up with 13500 acres left. I'd have to say they're pretty good farmers though—they're good at that—so what they had left they made the most of and I think that's of great credit to them. I want to talk about a couple of other things that I think are really critical to this settlement process and it's something you never think about and most New Zealanders would never see because it's been done years ago. But when you look at the huge implication the Tongariro power scheme has had on where I live for example—down by the coast—and that it's had on the whole of the Rangitīkei Whanganui and certainly the area that Ngāti Rangi live in it's distorted the environment to some extent because you can't take water from one end of the country and stick it down a river on the other end of the country and not have a dramatic impact on the environment and the place that we live. I think that's a significant part of this process. It will never be fixed because it can't be fixed but it's an issue and it's not that long ago that it happened. I'm sure that sort of thing would not be able to—the Resource Management Act has probably taken care of that sort of thing and it's a very good thing it has because it's certainly made a big difference to the way that part of New Zealand works and I know that on the Rangitīkei River it's made a big difference to the way that that works. So that's one of the things that's had a big impact on this settlement process on this iwi and on this part of New Zealand. Another one—and it's very significant—is the Whangaehu River. I think if you think about it aside from the fact that it comes out of the Crater Lake on Ruapehu and I guess to a large extent it's acidic the most critical thing about that river of course is it's the home of one of New Zealand's great disasters in the Tangiwai rail disaster. I think that when you see the little bit of progress—or I suppose it's significant progress—that's been made with the memorial at Tangiwai in the last year or two at least it's an effort to recognise the significance of that event. I'm very pleased to see the way that's coming together and I hope it continues. The Hon Chris Finlayson did ask me what I thought about the proposition around the Whangaehu River and obviously I'm not qualified to comment on it but I find it very interesting. I think that putting together a group of people to—well you won't fix it will you? But certainly to try and implement the repair to that river and the catchment around it and also to its tributaries is pretty significant. Of course it runs out to sea not very far from Adrian's home—in fact I think it runs through his home on the odd occasion whether he likes it or not—and that's one of the challenges that we've got with these rivers. But it does run out to sea not very far from where he lives and it's a very destructive little river when it gets going as well you know. It does an awful lot of damage. So I find those two things are interesting. The other interesting thing for all of us of course is that the Waiōuru army base is a piece of New Zealand history and the Waiōuru training area is a piece of New Zealand history but what most people don't realise is that Irirangi was a navy base about 200 kilometres from the sea—a pretty extraordinary thing. So it originally was a navy telecommunications base right in the middle of the North Island and so those are also very significant things. I want to wish Ngāti Rangi all the best in the course of their travels. Certainly I know that this bill will get through this House in expedient time under the very careful chairmanship of Rino Tirikatene the man from Ngāi Tahu—but he won't hold that against you I'm pretty sure. Nuk Korako: Oh! IAN McKELVIE: Oh sorry Nuk—he won't either. But I guess the only other thing I wanted to mention was that whilst almost everyone's claimed relationship to Ngāti Rangi I've looked around in my history and I can't find any. I'm out of luck there so I guess I have no vested interest in this issue! So anyway I want to wish you all the best. I'm sure this process will work very well and I look forward to seeing the results of it in years to come. Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker."