Paraone Pita: Mauao Historic Reserve Vesting Bill — In Committee 
Paraone Pita: Mauao Historic Reserve Vesting Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:647;Page:15871] 
PITA PARAONE (NZ First) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Chairman tena tatou. Ae engari he honore nui tenei ki te aru i a “Bob the Builder”! 
[ 
Greetings Mr Chairman and greetings to us all. Yes it is a great honour indeed to follow “Bob the Builder”! 
] 
I am just acknowledging the privilege I have of following the previous speaker. Given his notice to the general public that he will be turning his back on this place I want it to be recorded that during his 3 years as the member for Tauranga we can honestly say that he has done something for the people of Tauranga by giving his support to this Mauao Historic Reserve Vesting Bill. I do not want to hear anyone deride the honourable member from Tauranga as not having done anything during his time here. I acknowledge the support that he gave to this bill. 
In terms of the previous speaker’s allusion to the omission of clause 7 quite clearly when this matter came to the Maori Affairs Committee the parties involved—particularly the Maori parties—were concerned about the interest that the Crown would still maintain in this reserve should the original wording remain. To the credit of all the members of the Maori Affairs Committee they heard the submissions made by the submitters and took on board the concerns they had. 
I want to signal to any claimant group or any Maori group negotiating with the Crown that if it does not agree with what is being proposed then I suggest that it does not sign anything until it does agree. In this case the agreement had been signed up to. However in spite of that the parties came to the select committee and expressed their disquiet about the agreement. Fortunately as a result of the collegiality amongst the members of the Maori Affairs Committee we were able to revisit the very concerns the parties had and the bill we are discussing at this moment is the result of that agreement. 
I also make reference to clause 14 which gives due recognition to Waitaha. We heard during the hearing of submissions a very impassioned plea from representatives of the Waitaha iwi group. In spite of their being the only people in the room who would have liked to see Waitaha get a bigger representation in this bill than they have now I think it is to their credit that they stood their ground and that they did so without any malice. At the end of the day history will show their descendants that they represented their iwi very well and that they did so without any malice. However we have to take on board the history of that relationship. We have to take on board the standing of Ngai Te Rangi Ngati Ranginui and Ngati Pukenga in relation to this very sacred reserve. As a consequence of that we have clause 14 which gives due recognition to Waitaha. 
I think that this bill is an example of how the members of a select committee although belonging to different political parties and bringing together different political views can actually work together and produce a bill that has the support of all of our different political philosophies. I commend my fellow members of the Maori Affairs Committee who did so. Kia ora.