Chadwick Steve: Te Arawa Lakes Settlement Bill — Second Reading 
Chadwick Steve: Te Arawa Lakes Settlement Bill — Second Reading 
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STEVE CHADWICK (Labour—Rotorua) 
: 
 I am pleased to be able to take a call at the second reading of this very very significant bill. I also congratulate Te Ururoa Flavell on one thing: he actually got it on record how significant culturally and spiritually these lakes are to the people of Te Arawa and the people of Rotorua. 
I felt incredibly saddened tonight listening to the diatribe about Christianity by the member opposite Chris Finlayson. I was sitting in the gallery earlier tonight and I looked down at the members in the Chamber with huge embarrassment when they trivialised something that this tribe has sought to put right since 1922. We have to ask ourselves where Chris Finlayson was coming from with his deeply bitter diatribe about Christianity. I could see that the member was earning his money tonight when I looked across and saw members of the Exclusive Brethren in the gallery. I do not believe for a minute that the member believed what he said tonight and I felt saddened as a colleague and a member of Parliament that something so deeply spiritual and cultural to Te Arawa has been trivialised for such precious little gain for the Opposition. 
The process of how we seek redress for treaty settlements which are always complex was set up by a member of the National Government Sir Doug Graham. That is the process that was followed in the bill and it is the process that Chris Finlayson criticised so roundly tonight. 
I want the members opposite to know that one of the advisers called in by Don Brash during the last election was Don Stafford. He was an adviser asked to teach the Leader of the Opposition about issues Maori. Don Stafford put on the record the settlement history of the Te Arawa lakes—the story of the layers and layers of redress that the tribe deserves in terms of the lakes. Yet National members have not listened to the very iwi adviser they sought out. He would be deeply offended tonight as would Bishop Manu Bennett who is now deceased but who held deep spiritual beliefs about the value of the lakes to the Te Arawa people. I put on record that he would have been appalled to hear Chris Finlayson in the House tonight. 
I am also sorry to see that there are people at home who have been disaffected during the settlement process. It has been divisive. I acknowledge up to the Gods tonight Anaru Rangiheuea and Roku Mihinui who in spite of some dissatisfaction from some groups in Te Arawa have continued to lead the settlement process. I congratulate them on that leadership. Once this bill is through—and there is no doubt that it will be passed with the support of the sensible members in this House—the leadership on the post-settlement management group will be a huge responsibility. I have every confidence that the old members of Te Arawa Maori Trust Board in this new post-settlement management group will undertake the job of rebuilding with those disaffected who have felt alienated by the process. Treaty settlements are never easy. 
I conclude by reminding the member opposite who has so deeply upset me personally tonight—and I took offence—that in his maiden speech he said of Winnie Laban: “Unlike many politicians she debates the issues but does not get personal.” I commend her example and I hope that Chris Finlayson follows that example himself in the future. I would not want to see him ever given the responsibility of being involved in the treaty settlement process. 
I congratulate Mark Burton on his leadership here. In his quiet and steadfast way he has led the negotiation through his office with the negotiators who have respected this Government’s approach to leading through some very sticky phases of this bill. We are here tonight and I congratulate the Minister. 
I am sure we are going to get there; then we will have the job of rebuilding. I am sure that when we rebuild those who are dissatisfied will come on board and accept that the package would never be enough. How do we quantify the intrinsic value of the lakes in dollar terms? It is quite wrong to have trivialised matters and to have told people that this amount is not enough for Te Arawa to reassert their ownership over the lakes. It is not about the amount. It is about the process the settlement and the apology. There is rebuilding to be done after the debate in the House tonight.