Delahunty CatherineCATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Deputy Speaker tēnā koutou Te Whare nui o tēnei pō. He mihi nui ki te mana whenua o Waitara Te Manukorihi hapū me te whānau Te Atiawa notably Te Kotahitanga o Te Atiawa me ngā tangata Tiriti katoa.[Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker and greetings to you of this great House collectively this evening. I extend a huge acknowledgment to the mandated authority of Waitara Te Manukorihi hapū and whānau and notably the confederation of Te Ātiawa plus all Treaty people.]Acknowledgments to Mayor Andrew Judd and the New Plymouth District Council. Mayor Andrew Judd and I walked together some of the last day of the hīkoi to Parihaka. We walked for peace. I am not sure this is peace yet. Andrew Judd and I were at a hui last week on finding an end to institutional racism. I am not sure that this bill despite its best intentions achieves that yet. Another hīkoi Peace for Pekapeka took place today. Their kaupapa is they want peace too and they want their land back. We support that kaupapa. The people of Waitara have a history like no other and a place in the history of Aotearoa like no other. They could change history by stepping up to healing the extreme raupatu in the rohe which was committed against the tangata whenua. Despite the efforts of many people and the council this bill is not the healing if it allows land to be freehold and then sold taking away the people's hopes for justice for ever. The Green Party has grave concerns about the bill but in dialogue with Taranaki Māori women who oppose it and Te Atiawa negotiators we have decided to support it to the select committee with no guarantee that we will vote for it any further. We do this because the voice of the least powerful hapū members who marched today must be heard by this Parliament. However our co-leader Metiria Turei is putting forward a second select committee nomination—that this bill go to the Māori Affairs Committee—which she will speak to in her speech on this bill. We ask the other parties to support this because call it what we like this is a Treaty issue. It is about breaches violence and colonisation against Te Atiawa hapū katoa. The Māori Affairs Committee is the best place to hear these painful truths. This bill has been described as an effort to balance competing interests. I do not accept that. The leaseholders who accepted perpetual leasehold homes at least have the security of their leases but the mana whenua have no security through this bill. The homes and the whenua can be sold; many will be. This is a form of alienation a modern form and a permanent form. Te Rangitake and the people of the land were stripped of their rights. The war against them began. The perpetual leases were not paid to them but to the Land Court. They were not deemed fit to receive their own money. They still do not get direct benefit of the rent. They get small blocks of land and they get to be part of a committee that makes a decision about the money for the benefit of the wider Waitara community. That is not returning stolen goods. That is a compromise and we acknowledge Te Atiawa's effort for that compromise and the council and everyone. But we have not healed the wrong. Moana Jackson says that these are not land wars that we should be addressing; they are sovereignty wars. And actually they continue until we Pākehā and the Crown find another way. I pray that this bill is amended strongly to address mana whenua rights at the select committee because we cannot support it any further without that change. When we walked to Parihaka we attempted to build a bridge of peace through the land but Pākehā have to step up councils and citizens and say that we are the ones who hold the power. We are the ones who have enjoyed the privileges of those perpetual leases and the privileges of the use of the lands the vast quantity of land that was taken under raupatu. We actually need to be more generous than this. I understand the dilemmas that are faced and I understand why Te Atiawa have supported this but read the Pekapeka history. Read how the imperial troops came. Read how the history of this country was changed by the greed and hunger for land. We cannot allow ourselves to believe that these huge compromises are the final piece. If they were the final piece there would not have been a hīkoi today. The people marched today because they want to be heard. The least we can do in this House is make sure the bill goes to the right select committee where they have a chance to be heard because if there is no peace in Waitara there will be no peace in Aotearoa. We have to do better and we have to do more. It is on this House and my culture to step up. It is not balancing interests; it is justice that we need to make. Kia ora koutou katoa.