Halbert ShananSHANAN HALBERT (Labour—Northcote): Te Māngai o te Whare tēnā koe. Me mihi kauanuanu ki a koutou te whānau o Moriori. E mihi ka tika ki a koutou. Nau mai haere mai ki tēnei Whare. Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou.[To the Speaker greetings. I must respectfully acknowledge you Moriori families. Welcome enter into this House. Therefore acknowledgments to each and every one of you.]It's my honour today to speak for the first time in the debate in this Whare and as the MP for Northcote and a new member at that I'm honoured and blessed in the opportunities in the short time that I've been a member of Parliament. Over the past few weeks I've heard submissions from Māori on the Māori wards and today we will hear that debate in the second and third readings. It's also an honour to stand here today with our Moriori whānau and acknowledge their special day and this bill going through the House in its first reading.I took the time this afternoon to head out and welcome our whānau to this Whare to welcome this kaupapa and most of all to hear their story and their first speaker Maui Solomon—mihi atu ki a koe te pāpā—shared the story of the whānau and what today means to them. To the whānau that have come here today and share the next part of their journey a journey that started long long ago I say that one of my responsibilities in this place is as the deputy chair of the Petitions Committee and my colleague Meka Whaitiri talked about a petition that was sent through to Governor Grey 159 years ago. Maui spoke today of the 1663 names that were signed on that petition.He also acknowledged the tamariki—the children—that didn't sign the petition but that were there at that particular time and it's those generations that are all the more important in this debate in this bill and in the future of Aotearoa New Zealand and the future of Moriori. It's important that we share their stories in our New Zealand history in the books that we read and the stories that we tell so that they know the whakapapa—that they know the history—of those particular islands and one particular analogy that stood out from Matua Maui for me today was the analogy of Rangi and Papa as an analogy of this particular journey. It's a story that we share between Māori and our Moriori whānau and he talked about the 10 pillars. In Māoridom we talk about the demigods that stand between Rangi and Papa and that help them to separate. Maui talked about the pillars and as this journey continues—and today is another step—that light shines upon this particular whānau.Today the whānau also read out the names of those who signed the petition—the names of those people that have supported this journey to happen—and when you sit in a pōwhiri like that and you hear stories from our whānau it's very difficult not to shed a tear because in amongst that you feel their hurt and their pain that that history has put upon them. Today is an opportunity to start the redress of that to make steps towards coming together on that bridge. We talk about te arawhiti—a way of Aotearoa New Zealand coming together—and this is another part. It's inviting everyone to stand on that bridge together—together—to improve our relationships and to set a pathway forward as individuals as iwi as whānau and as Aotearoa.I want to acknowledge the research of Dr Keri Mills a professor at Auckland University of Technology in Auckland. She's written a large amount of academic research that shares the story of our Moriori whānau that are here with us today that attempts to put right and correct history. When I grew up I was one of those people that didn't know that our whānau existed. Today I want to acknowledge my shortcomings in this in that my learnings weren't accurate but the research that Dr Keri Mills starts to talk about is the shortcomings in our education system up until the late 1960s.It also acknowledges the power play that through colonisation set up Māori against Moriori and that was the cover of colonisation within our country. Yes there was an attack on our people on our Moriori people—yes we acknowledge that. But what this bill does is it acknowledges the failure of the Crown and it acknowledges the loss of mana of the Moriori people.As a Māori I'm sympathetic to the loss of mana. You can touch and feel that when one of our whānau is impacted in that way and what this bill sets up to do is correct that loss of mana and to re-establish it by way of supporting this particular whānau to thrive. It enables the whānau to make decisions with the right resources to support the future of their own tamariki. It gives them rights of whenua—the things that uniquely establish them as an iwi as the whānau of Moriori.With Labour in our manifesto we're committed to completing all historical Treaty settlements in our manifesto and this bill is a step towards completing that commitment. As a whānau member I also follow my own journey in the Mōkai Pātea claim and I acknowledge to the Moriori whānau that you're well through this particular process. But what this bill does is it intends to give effect to certain matters contained in the deed of settlement signed on 14 February 2020 by the Crown and Moriori. The explanatory note of the bill states that the deed provides for the final settlement of all the historical Treaty of Waitangi claims of Moriori against the Crown and this bill aims to address the aspects of the settlement that require legislation.Today I want to acknowledge our whānau that have travelled from far and wide. I acknowledge this day for you and I acknowledge the journey that you've been on but also that that light that shines between Rangi and Papa those pillars that you have put in place. May the light shine upon all of you and your future is a very prosperous one. Nō reira e mihi atu ki a koutou. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.