Delahunty Catherine: Nga Wai o Maniapoto (Waipa River) Bill Ngati Porou Claims Settlement Bill Ngati Pahauwera Treaty Claims Settlement Bill 
Delahunty Catherine: Nga Wai o Maniapoto (Waipa River) Bill Ngati Porou Claims Settlement Bill Ngati Pahauwera Treaty Claims Settlement Bill 
[Volume:672;Page:18713] 
CATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Deputy Speaker. Tena koutou katoa. I rise on behalf of the Green Party to speak in favour of these three bills and this process with some humility as a Pakeha. I acknowledge that neither of our two Maori members of caucus whakapapa to these rohe but I acknowledge the importance of us as Pakeha standing up for Te Tiriti o Waitangi and taking our place in recognising the important processes in which we engage in this House and in this country. If Pakeha are silent and we do not acknowledge the Treaty process we are pretending that that process belongs to Maori. But we are the main beneficiaries of the Treaty so I want to speak to that issue as well. 
The Green Party is supporting the first readings of these three bills and we recognise and respect the blood sweat and tears associated with getting to this point of the three iwi involved. The Nga Wai o Maniapoto (Waipa River) Bill will hopefully allow Ngati Maniapoto to uphold their sacred relationship to the Waipa awa. Ko au ko te awa; ko te awa ko au. We recognise their generosity. We recognise that co-governance or co-management is actually a generous compromise by mana whenua. It is a gift back to the nation saying that what was theirs in entirety and will always be theirs they will work through and share with us in terms of governance. I think the bills we have seen in this House previously around Waikato are very important in this regard and we will all be watching to see that they work in terms of the spirit of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. So we must pay respects to those people to Ngati Maniapoto. 
I pay respects also to Ngati Porou. I lived in the Tai Rawhiti for 8 years and one cannot live in that area without recognising the energy and power of Ngati Porou but also the particular history the history of economic deprivation through Maori Land Court and land tenure machinations in the past. But in the Ngati Porou Claims Settlement Bill there are some good opportunities and relationships that Ngati Porou will be able to take full advantage of. 
When I worked in the rohe for 8 years I was deeply affected by whanau living landless in broken houses. There was a lack of opportunity for rangatahi and whanau katoa. Members may have seen the movie  
Ngati 
. It tells a story about the previous vibrant economic sovereignty that has been undermined. We need to see the rebuilding of that sovereignty through bills like this particularly for the most poverty-stricken people in the most remote rural communities I saw. As an advocate for the poorest of the poor I am hopeful that this is a start towards those most vulnerable people being the beneficiaries of this mahi. 
Thirdly I turn to Ngati Pahauwera the Mohaka people. It is a terrible history of loss and of the way the Crown acted towards them. Lack of good faith in terms of the Mohaka River people is a story that all New Zealanders need to read. They need to understand what happened to them and what the journey has been to get to this point. Although I lived in Turanga I travelled through their rohe. I will never forget being on the hikoi—the takutai moana hikoi. As we went through Raupunga on the side of the road the kohanga reo stood with a sign towards us—all those little tamariki mokopuna standing there—saying “kia kaha kia kaha”. That was one of the most moving moments for us as part of the takutai moana hikoi: to see the people of Raupunga who actually stand up for what they believe in from the smallest to the kaumatua. So I acknowledge them. 
The Green Party recognises with a heavy heart the histories behind these settlement processes and we reject the concept of full and final even though we are supporting progress for these iwi. How can it be full and final settlement when every claim added together is less than the money used to bail out South Canterbury Finance? The degree of recompense the Crown actually gives compared with the losses needs to be analysed in the context of the instant bail-out provisions for failed financiers who took advantage of the Government guarantee. Is the poverty and loss of all these whanau over more than 150 years worth so little in comparison with the money the Crown is prepared to spend on businesses that have been greedy and at times misleading in their behaviour? And they had to ask only once! Although we celebrate the progress for these iwi we have concerns about the scale of redress. It is not full and it is not final no matter what political spin we place on it. 
I have to be brave and say that we place on record some concerns about other iwi who are impacted by the Crown picking winners during settlement processes. This is causing some pain and distress in Te Tai Rawhiti because the Crown has decided to work with large natural groupings and smaller iwi like Ruawaipu and Te Aitanga-a-Hauiti have been more than vocal in their claim of being marginalised. But the history of the Turanganui iwi and their relationships and boundaries is complex and it is not the Green Party’s business to address the issue of boundaries between tangata whenua. That is not our role in terms of the Treaty relationship in Aotearoa. But we can say that the Crown process can create new grievance as well as make agreement. We can say that dialogue for justice must continue and justice must also be seen to be done. 
We wish the Crown to recognise that history is not fixed. Dialogue and negotiation are a permanent feature of te Tiriti and settlements need to be negotiated with no absolute requirement that the iwi involved be silent in the future. Stories are still emerging about how land and resources were alienated and issues such as the takutai moana sadly have the potential to create new claims. The Government needs to accept that as in all significant relationships everything has to be open for discussion in an honest and realistic manner. The next generation of Ngati Maniapoto Ngati Porou and Ngati Pahauwera will have something to say to the Crown and they should be listened to. That something may be about fairness and justice because they will do the maths and see that South Canterbury Finance gets instant redress while their whanau do not. 
One of the things I would like to see alongside this bill—and I applaud the work of all the people involved—is a budget for Pakeha education. Having lived in the Tai Rawhiti I say that as long as Pakeha think the settlement process is for Maori in many cases they ignore it. We need them on board. We need my culture on board so that we do not undermine the very good work that people are doing to build a successful cultural and economic base for tangata whenua. We really need to get Pakeha educated because they do not attend claims processes and they do not read settlements. I can speak for my culture and say that very few of us embrace the work that people in this House are doing or understand what the Attorney-General is trying to lead. 
Unless we go out there and proactively explain to Pakeha they will be a barrier and racism will be an issue. I can speak on that issue because I lived in Gisborne and I did not hear very many Pakeha embracing the settlement process. We need to be brave enough as Pakeha to talk about that issue alongside the work of tangata whenua. It is our responsibility not that of Maori to educate our own and bring them on board. The Crown has a big role to play in that education because the Crown since 1840 has had a big role in creating the essential necessity for this process. 
Without having much more to say I acknowledge my ignorance about the detail and I acknowledge that I am speaking as a Pakeha but I say that it is vital that we front up to these settlement processes and that we are brave enough to name our concerns. I acknowledge all the people who travelled here today to participate in the process. It is just the first reading and I look forward to hearing more through the select committee process and in the second and third readings which it is likely we will be supporting. But I can never feel a great sense of celebration until everyone in Aotearoa stands up behind this process and acknowledges that it is important and is about all of us. 
We must celebrate the progress made with a level head and a willingness to acknowledge that the marginalised must be heard. It is not as tidy as saying a settlement is full and final. To say that the process is over and done with may be tidy but it is not honest. It is important that we are more truthful and say we are on a journey together in this nation. It is not a tidy journey but without that honesty about our history and about the grievances that we have the potential to create in this very Whare we will not make peace and justice in our time or for tamariki mokopuna. As a grandmother I am responsible for looking ahead as are so many of you to what our mokopuna will have to deal with. It is not full or final but let us absolutely acknowledge the progress made. Kia ora tatou katoa.