Bridges SimonHon SIMON BRIDGES (National—Tauranga): I just want to acknowledge the Ministers who've been involved in this: obviously Minister Chris Finlayson no longer in this Parliament and Andrew Little. More than that though I want to acknowledge the Crown negotiator Leith Comer and of course iwi Ngāti Rangitihi who I see here today and wish them well. I don't want to take long on this bill. I acknowledge what the previous speaker Tāmati Coffey has said which is that this will get a good and thorough airing at committee. And I share with him the aspiration that it may indeed go into the rohe and local marae there and that the process will go well throughout that. I really just want to make two points. And the first one really is that of course National as we have in many debates on Māori-Crown issues relationships and so on—we have from the very beginning as it were supported the historical Treaty settlement process. And of course whether it's been the partnership really of Jim Bolger and Doug Graham or John Key Bill English and Chris Finlayson we have strongly believed in this process. And the reason for that is—in this country there may be a small group of outliers who disagree but I think there is in place in this Parliament a strong and a clear consensus that real wrongs were done in the 1850s 1860s 1870s in this land. They created very clear real grievances and it is right it is just it's the only thing we can do to apologise as this deed of settlement does and to some extent—and I say to some extent"—right the wrongs of the past. And I say "to some extent" because of course what is true here is that the quantums the recompense in kind in no way come close to the real damage that was done in the past. And that's true across the Treaty settlements; they are but a fraction of the real economic social and cultural harm that has been done. And there's a bunch of reasons for that that you know I don't need to go into. We may question—and indeed I will tomorrow at the Māori Affairs Committee with Minister Kelvin Davis—the extent to which contemporary claims contemporary issues ongoing things that happen by the Government may be right and proper but we certainly believe in this process as right. But I digress.The second thing I wanted to say is of course that this bill in relation to Ngāti Rangitihi is part of that historic Treaty settlement process I have spoken of and I just really want to say we could run through the bill but it is there; we could run through the history which is set out I'm sure at a level adequately but to make the point I think quite simply your rohe and the area that you are from are some of the most beautiful parts—if not the most beautiful—of New Zealand and indeed the world we know. I've always grown up with beaches and of course I love Mount Maunganui beach but my wife as a pom likes lakes—and I think quite simply Lake Tarawera and also your Blue and Green Lakes are the most beautiful lakes in New Zealand. I think they're the most beautiful lakes in the world. In the last year I've been in them and at them several times. We stay sometimes on Te Mu Road. I'd like to buy a place on Spencer Road but it's too expensive. Properties on the lakeside are about two million dollars and up thanks to the policies of Kris Faafoi and his Government but we won't get into that. I do just make the simple point that it's I think a wonderful part of this world of ours a real favourite of mine. I always reflect when I'm at Lake Tarawera that it has a real magical and spiritual quality to it. You can feel it simply by being there. So I want to give iwi here today the clear assurance that Her Majesty's loyal Opposition the National Party are fully supportive of this process of this bill. We wish it well and the speed that the Minister has urged upon it in his first reading and we are looking forward to participating constructively as it goes through committee. Kia ora."