Horan Brendan: Ngati Makino Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Horan Brendan: Ngati Makino Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 25 July 2012. Volume:682;Page:4002. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
BRENDAN HORAN (NZ First) 
: 
 I am seriously concerned that nicotine really is a hallucinogenic! I find myself agreeing with many of the sensible comments that the Hon Tau Henare made but I would add that he was actually very kind in the beginning because I am quite frankly fed up with parliamentarians who come in here and sow poison. They lace it with particles of reason but they sow the seeds of discontent and they have not been on the journey that Ngati Makino has been on. 
Blind Freddie knows that nothing can truly restore what has been taken; nothing can restore that. We all know that—all of us here in New Zealand. Let nobody watching this debate leave here today thinking that the negotiators have not done the utmost the very best that they can do and got the best they can for Ngati Makino—or any tribe in New Zealand for that matter. I look forward to when the Hon Chris Finlayson comes back into the House and I look forward to what he has to say about the Greens’ continued speeches. 
I rise on behalf of New Zealand First in support of the Ngati Makino Claims Settlement Bill. Only two of the original claimants are still with us: Te Ariki Morehu and Te Hirata Sykes. It was my great privilege to meet with Te Hirata this morning at Tauranga Airport and I would like to welcome her here in the gallery. Could we have a round of applause for Te Hirata? [ 
Applause 
] Te Ariki and Te Hirata have been the backbone of this claim. This settlement and most important the apology create a new dawn for the people of Ngati Makino. 
Their claim as Minister Finlayson said is distinctly unique with a very special history but it is also similar to many claims in New Zealand in the atrocities that have happened to Maori all over the land. Yes land was confiscated by the Crown but then the Crown came again in the form of Maori land agents who amalgamated Maori farmers’ lands. Imagine that: one day there you are king of your castle at home and another Maori comes along and says: “Guess what! You don’t own this any more. You are a part-owner of a bigger block of land.” But they could not leverage off it financially and in the end they had hundreds of owners of a block of land. That was the start of many Maori families disintegrating and of Maori having to watch European farmers being able to rent Maori land at peppercorn rates and build empires while Maori slowly but surely were increasingly forced off their land losing contact mana wairua and identity. This apology by the Crown restores that mana to the people of Ngati Makino and I would just like to mention and thank all of those people who have worked so hard in this process. Kia ora. 
I would also like to mention Otamarakau School which has to be one of the most beautiful primary schools in the world. The parents teachers and locals all guard it zealously. They were most concerned when they thought that Ngati Makino was going to take that school and it is my pleasure to put their minds at ease. Ngati Makino have given their reassurance that it will be business as usual at Otamarakau School and they do the business of learning and caring for our most precious taonga our children very very well. To those people who are watching on Parliament TV and those people who are live streaming from the other side of the world you will never find a better fishing competition than the Otamarakau School fishing competition at Matata. I will be there next year and I look forward to seeing many of those of you here in the gallery today; I will see you there as well. 
I just want to also reiterate the comments of the Hon Parekura Horomia and Tau Henare that this is—pardon me Mr Speaker—your settlement. This is yours to do with as you wish to be your future so that you can self-determine where Ngati Makino goes from here. Good luck safe journey kia ora.