SpeechHARETE HIPANGO (National): Tēnā koe tēnā koutou. E ngā mana e ngā reo e ngā karanga maha nau mai haere mai ngā uri o Ngāti Rangitihi. [Greetings to you greetings to you all. To the powers to the voices to the many lines of descent welcome welcome the descendants of Ngāti Rangitihi.]Tō koutou pire [your bill] Ngāti Rangitihi Claims Settlement Bill is having its first reading.Madam Speaker and to members in the gallery Ngāti Rangitihi ko au he uri nō Whanganui [I am a descendant of Whanganui]. It is a privilege to return to this house today and particularly a privilege to be able to speak for the first time on my return to those who have gathered here of Ngāti Rangitihi. May I share the last time that I spoke in this House: in fact 11 months ago today I stood and spoke in this House and addressed those who had travelled from Ngāi Tūhourangi and Te Arawa for the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute Vesting Bill third reading. So Madam Speaker and those of us here today it's by sheer good providence serendipity that I happen to be back in the House and I happen to be speaking to the uri of Ngāti Rangitihi to the waka of Te Arawa. Tēnā koutou.I hold in my hand the mere pounamu of my tupuna and in my right hand I hold the Bible both of which I carried into this House today to be sworn in and take the oath. Today at this first reading of this bill holding both of these items of taonga those of us of our Māori ancestry as mana whenua tangata whenua of Aotearoa New Zealand know full well as we held these through the journey of other peoples coming to this land that it was the stroke of the pen it was the legislature and the legislation that was mightier than the sword mightier than the mere mightier than the patu and mightier than the good word. And so it just happens to be that with my colleagues and members in the House today we stand here as agents of the Crown to make amends for the power of that pen mightier than the sword. My call today is brief. I've talked about the good providence of now being a returned member of Parliament standing representative as an agent of the Crown to convey to Ngāti Rangitihi the acknowledgment of the history that your peoples have travelled. You have gathered here today. That history will be captured in the law when it passes into the Act. That apology will also be inscribed into law. And it's important that the members of the public who will be tuning in and listening to not just this first reading—I invite New Zealanders to listen to the second and to the third readings because this is the shared story histories and herstories of Ngāti Rangitihi. These are the mamae stories that have forged Aotearoa New Zealand. We are back in this House for the first reading of this to select committee to hear more kōrero to hear more stories for us to make sure that we put right into the final writing and passage of law at the third reading. The apology which is something should I again have the fortuitous opportunity to address the House and Ngāti Rangitihi upon is significant and when I've had the good fortune again in the past to speak I have referred to the written scribed word of the apology which is so critical and important.Today is a day to whakamana and to whakanui the kaupapa of this first reading as the bill again traverses through the stages to its final passage. I do not know if I will be a member again on the Māori Affairs Committee. What I do know is that I will ask to sit in and to listen and that I will tune in. But in saying that I invite members of the New Zealand public to do so so that we know the depth of the mamae but also the traversing into a future of hope and fulfilling aspiration and possibilities. I commend this bill to the House. Kia ora.