Finlayson Christopher; Borrows ChesterTE ATIAWA CLAIMS SETTLEMENT BILLThird ReadingHon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations): I move That the Te Atiawa Claims Settlement Bill be now read a third time. I want to begin by welcoming to this Chamber the people of Te Atiawa. It is a real privilege to be here with you on a day that marks a very important step in that ongoing relationship between Te Atiawa and the Crown. As the Crown acknowledges in this bill recognition of Te Atiawa's historical grievances is long overdue. Many present in the gallery have spent so much of their lives working towards this day and I want to acknowledge their work and determination and the sacrifices that they have made. I also acknowledge those tūpuna of Te Atiawa who carried the flame before the current members but who are no longer with us.As I did in the previous debate I want to acknowledge a few individuals who have been instrumental in making today a reality. I have to mention Te Atiawa negotiators and in particular I want to record my thanks and admiration for Peter Moeahu and for the late Wikitōria Keenan. Peter and Wikitōria carried an enormous responsibility for negotiating the settlement of these historical claims and for leading negotiations from start to finish. I am sure that all of us here today share my sense of admiration for the key role played by Wikitōria in these negotiations my appreciation that she was able to be present from her hospital bed to see the Te Atiawa deed of settlement signed and my sadness that she is not in the gallery today. So my thoughts are very much with Wikitōria and her family.I also want to acknowledge the work of all members of the Te Atiawa Iwi Authority and Te Kotahitanga o Te Atiawa Trust. From here in Wellington we can really see a young leadership emerging in Te Atiawa—and I look up and see Liana Poutu staring down at me. I very much look forward to seeing where you and Hēmi are going to take your iwi in the future. Finally I want to thank my chief Crown negotiator Rick Barker my team at the Office of Treaty Settlements and the staff of other Government organisations who really have contributed to making this settlement a reality. The cooperative nature of these negotiations will continue to be a feature of the relationship between Te Atiawa and the Crown and that I promise you.This is a day of very mixed emotions. To the extent that this bill marks a new beginning in the relationship between Te Atiawa and the Crown it is certainly a moment to celebrate. But when we reflect on the history that makes this bill necessary other emotions inevitably arise: anger sadness and on the part of the Crown a real sense of shame. This is as it should be. We are not here to forget history—I can assure Te Atiawa of that—nor are we here to leave it behind; we are here to acknowledge it and to place it on the permanent record of this House so that all New Zealanders can learn from it both now and in the future.It was in 1839 during a period when many Taranaki Māori were living away from their rohe that Europeans also attracted by that region's rich resources made their first attempt at acquiring land in Taranaki. Once started the pressure to sell land did not abate. When the Te Atiawa rangatira Wīremu Kīngi Te Rangitake expressed his intention to bring his people back to his ancestral lands at Waitara and resist their alienation the Governor himself threatened to have their vessels destroyed. The threat did not work and by the end of the 1840s Te Atiawa were back at Waitara. As new economic opportunities emerged Māori from throughout Taranaki became even less inclined to sell their land. The use of secret payments by Crown agents increased tensions within and between hapū which in 1854 erupted into armed conflict costing a number of Te Atiawa people their lives.For a time purchasing halted but in 1859 the Crown attempted to purchase the Pekapeka Block. When Wīremu Kīngi's people prevented the survey of Pekapeka in early 1860 the Crown declared this to be an act of rebellion and commenced hostilities against him and against his people plunging Taranaki into war. Te Atiawa received support from other Taranaki iwi and after a year of fighting the Crown negotiated a peace agreement. In April 1863 the Governor decided to renounce the Waitara purchase. However before this decision was announced war erupted again and fighting continued into 1864 during which many Te Atiawa people lost their property their homes and their cultivations. Many also lost their lives. Then in 1865 they lost their land. In response to the so-called rebellion the Crown proclaimed 1.2 million acres of Taranaki land confiscated including every acre—every acre—of the Te Atiawa rohe.Te Atiawa of course know this story but it is so very important to record it here in the permanent record of this House. As you know it is perhaps impossible to overestimate the devastating effect that raupatu had on Te Atiawa individuals on whānau on the welfare economy culture and social development of Te Atiawa as an iwi ever since. It is also difficult to imagine a worse breach of the Treaty that the Crown had signed only 25 years before. The Crown then compounded this injustice with other failures and further breaches. When a small amount of land was finally returned in the 1880s virtually all of it came under non-customary individualised title. In a further insult the land was not returned to Te Atiawa people outright but placed under the administration of the Public Trustee who then either sold the land or placed much of it under a regime of perpetual leases that remains in place to this day.It is important to acknowledge and record that Te Atiawa were never passive victims. Time and again Te Atiawa men and women actively opposed land sales prevented surveys resisted Crown military force and refused to accept the return of land under individualised title. Te Atiawa also played a prominent role in the establishment of Parihaka and the movement for peace and independence that developed there. The form of resistance that emerged from Parihaka was anything but passive. Between 1879 and 1880 under the leadership of Te Atiawa rangatira Te Whiti o Rongomai and his co-leader Tohu Kākahi Te Atiawa people were among the many who participated in campaigns of peaceful resistance against Crown injustices but they were arrested and exiled to South Island prisons detained in harsh conditions without trial. Although some Te Atiawa people were among the very few protesters who did receive trials the Crown then detained them beyond the terms of their Crown-imposed sentences. Some died while in prison. In November 1881 Te Atiawa people were among those displaced from Parihaka after more than 1500 Crown troops invaded and systematically dismantled the settlement.So this is a very difficult story. The settlement package that the bill delivers to Te Atiawa cannot compensate them for the losses and the anguish they have suffered for generations but it is a testament to the vision and generosity of Te Atiawa that they were willing to negotiate with the Crown on these issues and to negotiate a settlement—a settlement that does not compensate for their losses but hopefully will enable them to resume their place as a major economic force in their rohe to rejuvenate their social their cultural their political life and once again imagine a future with them in control.To that end this settlement will provide Te Atiawa with resources to help them develop their economic and social well-being. It includes $87 million of financial and commercial redress the option to purchase a number of Crown properties sale and leaseback over two Crown properties and a right of first refusal over a range of properties. Cultural redress includes the vesting of a key site the Taumata property in Te Atiawa and a range of redress mechanisms that highlight the significant relationship of Te Atiawa to the land.I acknowledge as indeed I must that one of the emotions being felt by some Te Atiawa today will be frustration around the issue of the Waitara endowment lands. I hope this will be a generation that reaches some resolution over this land. Waitara remains one of the most complex issues we have ever dealt with in a Treaty settlement and although the outcome may be less than what many Te Atiawa would have wanted it is a testament to their negotiators' persistence and their pragmatism that every possible opportunity was explored both with central and local government.It is a great pleasure to be here as the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations speaking as the first speaker in this third reading. I know that I always seem to have notes because I want to read very carefully into the record of the House what happened and it is important to record it accurately. But I want to conclude without notes by saying to Te Atiawa that it has been a great journey with you. I always recall Ōwae Marae and Māui Pōmare Day in 2009 when I was invited to speak. I said: Why don't we start negotiating again?". When I went back to the Office of Treaty Settlements on the Monday morning to tell them that I was lining up Te Atiawa to negotiate there were a few coronaries that morning because it was not in their scheme of things but I had to remind them that I am the Minister.So on 17 March 2010 we signed the terms of negotiation again at Ōwae Marae and it has been a fantastic journey with wonderful people. There is nothing better than walking up to the top of Mount Kaukau in Wellington on a clear day—and we do have those in Wellington—and looking out to see in the far distance the majestic Taranaki. So to have been part of this journey is indeed a great honour. There is a bit more for us to do and I will say more about that in the Taranaki debate but for now I commend this bill to the House.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Members the question is that the motion be agreed to and I remind them that we should not take a leaf out of the Minister's book and speak for 5 minutes and 30 seconds over their allotted time."