Henare Tau: Te Arawa Lakes Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
Henare Tau: Te Arawa Lakes Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:634;Page:5508] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
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 E Te Arawa tena koutou. E aku rangatira e aku kuia haere mai nei i tenei ra tena koutou a tena koutou tena koutou. Kaua e papouri ki ahau mo ta matou whakahe i tenei pire. No reira e aroha ahau ki a koutou. 
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Greetings to you Te Arawa and my chiefs and elderly ladies who have come here today; greetings to you greetings greetings. Do not be disappointed with us opposing this bill. You have my sympathy. 
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I ask Te Arawa not to criticise National members for what we are about to do. We have the best interests of people at heart and I for one am not ashamed of what I am going to do—that is vote against this bill. I intend to tell not the House but Te Arawa my convictions as to why I should oppose this bill. 
Sometimes when people are forced into things it is not a settlement at all. When one is walked to the aisle with one’s wife spouse or partner with a shotgun at one’s back—knowingly or not—it is not a settlement. In 1922 when this issue was first “settled” it came after some 15 years of Te Arawa wanting to take the Crown to court. It was only because Te Arawa then did not have the money to pursue their court case that the Crown came up with an agreement to provide an annuity of £6000—a fait accompli absolutely. 
I do not blame the Government for the template; I blame the Office of Treaty Settlements. I think the Office of Treaty Settlements has become a power unto itself. It is a law unto itself. The template being used now for the settlement of the Te Arawa lakes claim is exactly the same as the template being foisted on to a whole lot of other people—namely Tainui over the river claim. I have issues with the mandate but there is an old saying: “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.” I congratulate Te Arawa on their job in trying to bring the horse to the water. Unfortunately the powers of Te Arawa are not great enough to make all of them drink from the same trough. 
I also want to have a word about the jurisdiction and liability issues. I am the owner of my quarter acre section in the lovely metropolis of the Te Atatu peninsula. If somebody comes on to my property and has an accident I am liable because I own the property and I have a duty of care to make sure that he or she is safe and sound. I am not sure whether people realise the implications of that in terms of Treaty settlements. Who is setting up whom for a big fall in terms of not putting in mechanisms to protect the ones at the end of the settlement? 
I am not sure about the power of veto that the Te Arawa Lakes Trust has in terms of any new structures or enterprises because that adds another set of bureaucracy on the community. God knows we have bureaucracy coming out of our ears. Whether people want to make a buck to make a living or whether people want just to build a house they have to jump through umpteen-dozen hoops just to get there. This bill adds another layer of bureaucracy and most probably heartache down the road. 
 Is the bill in the best interests of Te Arawa? Only Te Arawa can answer that question. I can pontificate about whether it is in the best interests of Te Arawa but at the end of the day they have signed the deal and I have not. I have some reservations that people simply are at the end of their tether in terms of the Treaty settlement process and are feeling—excuse my language—“Oh bugger it let’s get it over and done with before the whole iwi passes away or we’ll never get anything done.” That is a feeling amongst people. All we need to do is to look at the time that has been spent on this from day one to now. Ten years—at least 10 years. In a 10-year period people will get highly sick and tired of trundling back to the Crown. Even the Crown gets a bit sick and tired of it. 
There must be a better faster way. There must be—and this is in no way a criticism of people in this House—a way that ensures a settlement will last. I say to the Minister in charge of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations that I have my doubts that this settlement will last. Again only time will tell whether in 50 or 100 years somebody from Te Arawa who feels disgruntled about what happened today or what happened in the signing asks the Prime Minister or the Government of that day to have another look at it. 
My colleague boss and deputy leader Gerry Brownlee said he had no problem with the annuity. Well I do. The problem is how the capitalisation was worked out. In the Maori Affairs Committee I wrote down—it is all here in my little book—“How is the process of capitalisation worked out?”. I could never work it out. Even the Office of Treaty Settlements and Te Puni Kokiri could not really tell me what formula was used to come up with the annuity. I have figured out that the Government came up with $10 million and it had to split it up so it decided that $7.3 million was for the annuity and $2.7 million was for cultural redress. That is the only way I can explain it. A tidy sum of $10 million to settle this? Why was it not $10127000? Where are the cents? Where are the other dollars? It is a convenient $10 million. I still cannot work out how the capitalisation came about; whether someone pulled a figure out of the air and said: “These fellas will be happy with this.” or whether it was actually done in terms of a formula. Te Puni Kokiri says there was no formula. 
I am sad that the National Party will not vote in favour of this bill but that must not hold Te Arawa back. I do not think anything will hold Te Arawa back. In the past—and it will certainly be the case in the future—they have never been backward in coming forward. 
I commend Te Arawa for the job they have done. I commend them on a rugged passage. But the people of New Zealand need to take note that this process is soul-destroying. This process is not the best process in the world. One day we may actually get the process right—one that allows a quick decent and everlasting settlement. 
Hoi ano ano te mihi ano te aroha ki a koutou nga rangatira nga tupuna e aku kaumatua e aku kuia; tena koutou tena koutou. Kia ora mai tatou katoa. 
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So my greetings and sympathy once again to you chiefs ancestors my elderly men and womenfolk; greetings greetings and greetings to us all as well. 
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