Henare Tau: Ngati Manuhiri Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Henare Tau: Ngati Manuhiri Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 14 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6666. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 Te mea tuatahi anei taku mihimihi ki a koutou katoa e aku rangatira e aku tuakana. No reira nga mihi. He honore maku e tu ana au ki te tautoko i tenei pire i mua i a koutou. No reira tena koutou tena koutou tena koutou katoa. 
[ 
In the first instance here is my tribute to you all my leaders and elder siblings. It is an honour for me to stand before you to endorse this bill. And so salutations acknowledgments and congratulations to you all. 
] 
Can I start at the end where Metiria Turei left off. I happen to agree with her that it is not a rubber-stamping issue. I do not think the Maori Affairs Committee takes it as such as a rubber-stamping issue. We certainly in every case try to weed out the issues that are controversial and see whether we can assist on the way. I think that even in this settlement bill the Ngati Manuhiri Claims Settlement Bill we did that. We recommended that there be a change to take note of some of the concerns that submitters had. I am happy to say that the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations and Ngati Manuhiri found a way that they could reflect the committee’s desire to have one part of the bill changed. I think that was a good thing. 
I have also got to say that we can stand here and say “Oh one side was bullied; one side was coerced.” but at the end of the day this is an agreement between the Crown and somebody else—an iwi. And at the end of the day it is their right to say yes and their right to say no. They could have easily said “Nah I’m not going to buy into this. This is a horrible deal. Let’s wait for another 150 years. We might get another $9 million in 150 years.” It is that sort of issue. Either you—not you Mr Speaker but the generic use of the word “you”—wait or you deal with it now so you can get on with the business. I think that Maori have shown a hell of a lot of patience over the years with the process. I think what we are seeing now is people deciding “We are not going to wait any more; we are going to take what has been offered and we will try to make the best position for our people.” I congratulate Ngati Manuhiri on that. 
Earlier this morning in the Gaza Strip the Israelis took the opportunity to clean out one of the military commanders of the Palestinian Hamas people. This is not the same as up in Ngati Manuhiri but what I am trying to say is that if we continue to harbour ill feeling for thousands of years then we are not going to get anywhere and the only thing we are going to get is death and destruction. So I say not only to Ngati Manuhiri but to those to come and those who have been before that it is a good day when we are able to sit down agree and move on to the next step. I see these settlements as being not only the honourable thing to do but the next step on the country’s journey. 
I think people will be pleasantly surprised by the Maori Affairs Committee’s report on the well-being of Maori children because that is what we are looking at. We are looking at the future and what the future may hold for Maori children and for Maori as a part of this country. This is what the Treaty settlements are. They are a movement to the next level to the next step. 
Congratulations must go to the folk at home to the Ministers and to the team at the Office of Treaty Settlements as a I suppose working model. I have said it in the House before. We should as a nation be very proud of the reconciliation process that we have come up with—very proud of it. In fact we should export it to a number of other countries. I know that it might sound arrogant but we do have a history of being able to sit down without bashing each other on the head to try to figure out a deal that is good for everybody. 
 Everybody who speaks in this House and who has spoken in this House has said that it is not the best deal ever. We are never ever going to get that. The acceptance that there is a stage that you move to to the next level for the benefit of your own people is I think paramount in all of these settlements. So again hats off to the negotiating team and I must say hats off to the Maori Affairs Committee. It is one of the committees that I personally have enjoyed most being on while being here. We ask the hard questions we do try to drill deep into some of these settlements especially the “interesting” ones and we do get results. I have to congratulate our committee on being a committee that does not hold back in terms of its questions and in terms of where it wants to go. 
So all in all this is a very very good day for Ngati Manuhiri and a very very good day for the Government. Another Treaty settlement is done and dusted by our erstwhile Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations. He can clock it up. He can put another notch in his belt and I think it is well deserved. I think that praise for this Government about one the number of Treaty settlements and two the speed with which these settlements have been settled and put to bed has been absolutely outstanding. I think it is a good day for Ngati Manuhiri a good day for the Government and a good day for the nation. Kia ora.