Tirikatene RinoRINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare. Ngāti Hinerangi tēnā koutou tēnā koutou ngā uri o te tupuna Koperu. Nau mai nau mai whakatau mai. Whakatau mai ki Te Whare Pāremata e takatū nei. Tēnā koutou i ō tātou mate maha. Ngā mate huhua o te wā. Haere haere haere koutou e okioki. Hoki mai ki a tātou te kanohi ora. Tēnā koutou. Nō koutou tēnei rā nui whakahirahira. He hōnore nui tēnei māku ki te tū ki te tautoko tēnei pire i tana pānuitanga tuatahi. Nō reira tēnā koutou ōku rangatira. Huri rauna ngā rangatira o tō tātou Whare tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.[Greetings Madam Speaker. Ngāti Hinerangi greetings to you all. Greetings to the descendants of the ancestor Koperu. Welcome welcome be welcome. Welcome to Parliament that stands before me.I acknowledge those who have passed on. To the many who have passed on in recent times rest rest rest in peace.Returning to us the living greetings. This is a most important day your important day. It is an honour for me to stand in support of this bill and its first reading. Therefore greetings my distinguished masses throughout our House. Greetings greetings greetings.]It's a wonderful day today—a wonderful day for Ngāti Hinerangi. I want to acknowledge our manuhiri that have travelled—I would imagine many from the Bay of Plenty Matamata around the beautiful Kaimai Range Tauranga Moana—and all that have travelled to celebrate this wonderful occasion. As we've heard in previous speeches this is a day of blossoming. It's a day of the re-emergence of an iwi reclaiming identity and restoration of mana. All of those things are embodied in this bill and the deed of settlement which was signed and I am truly honoured to be able to speak in support of this bill. Can I acknowledge in addition to Ngāti Hinerangi the work on the part of the Crown and Minister Little and his officials and everyone that has been involved with this Treaty settlement.At times like this I'm looking over to the plaque that we unveiled just last week the plaque to commemorate the New Zealand Wars and Ngāti Hinerangi were right in the midst of those wars—right in the midst of them. And it's very appropriate that we acknowledge through the presentation of that plaque all of the losses that were sustained in those New Zealand Wars and in particular for Ngāti Hinerangi as we've heard in previous speeches—and I'd like to acknowledge the Hon Nicky Wagner. It was a tremendous decade the 1860s for our country. It certainly was a very dark time. Wars were raging and the chiefs of the tribes were left with very hard decisions that they had to make. There was an insatiable appetite from the settler colonial Government of the time for land and obviously with the conflict that erupted from that Ngāti Hinerangi were right in the midst of this—right in the midst.I want to acknowledge their chiefs and their tūpuna who bravely made the decisions firstly to sign the Treaty of Waitangi and then also when those New Zealand Wars broke out to lead gallantly their people into those conflicts that we've heard of—famous names which I'm sure will be taught up and down the country in our schools very shortly like Pukehinahina Gate Pā and Te Ranga and many other battles that took place in Tauranga where Ngāti Hinerangi and their tūpuna fought bravely and gallantly and made a huge sacrifice and that sacrifice was felt very severely through the confiscations of lands that took place under the passage of legislation passed in this very House. Ngāti Hinerangi suffered greatly suffered greatly the loss of lands the loss of identity the loss of those connections. This wonderful iwi had to disperse in a way. They intermarried with a lot of their cuzzies neighbours neighbouring iwi and they were unable to have that hub that base to be centred on their ancestral lands because those lands were all gone; they were all confiscated. Barely fragments remained and so it's very significant that we are passing this bill that recognises the hurt the loss and the historical record which is contained in the deed and the bill.I'm only giving just a very quick summary but indeed there has been a tremendous loss which has been passed on to these people of Ngāti Hinerangi. I'm so pleased that we as a country have the Treaty settlement process. It's very important—some 30-plus years now of Treaty settlements. I'm very proud that it was instigated by a Labour Government through the original Waitangi Tribunal and then the jurisdiction of that the inquiry into the historical grievances and then a mechanism by which those could be settled. So many years have passed and it's really important that we as a nation not only confront these issues but record them in these deeds and provide some means of recapitalisation for the loss that has been sustained by the iwi. Also we want to promote harmonious relations into the future between the Crown and iwi. So this is a very significant occasion for Ngāti Hinerangi. I'm very proud as the chair of the Māori Affairs Committee. I'm looking forward hopefully for us as a committee travelling up to the heart of Te Rohe o Koperu. We will go right up there wherever that may be. We are looking forward to travelling up to Matamata or right into the heart of the Bay of Plenty to hear from the whānau to hear the submitters on this very bill. So this is a historic occasion. Can I just pay tribute to a distinguished kaumātua Matuakore Mac" Koperu—what a fantastic name that Koperu is. It's what we would say is a heavy metal name. There's plenty of mana in that name Koperu. So Matua Mac Koperu knew as a child that he was Ngāti Hinerangi and he maintained his identity his connection his whakapapa. He knew all of that and he ensured that he was able to pass that on to the whānau to continue the detailed work that was required to ensure that Ngāti Hinerangi was indeed recognised and can re-emerge as an iwi. And I know that Matua Mac Koperu is highly regarded—this day in particular. So I want to acknowledge Matua Mac. I want to acknowledge all of the Ngāti Hinerangi who have waited a long time and I want to congratulate them on the work that has been done because Treaty settlements are not easy. It takes years and years of hard work of meticulous research of negotiations of huis of so many different phases that every iwi has to basically jump through all the hoops to ultimately achieve a signed deed and then likewise follow through with a passage of legislation through the House. So there's a tremendous amount of work that's gone on and I want to acknowledge Ngāti Hinerangi for their courage and fortitude in pushing this through and ensuring that we can honour Matua Mac and all of the tūpuna who dreamt of this day. It certainly is a privilege to be here to tautoko and to mihi to Ngāti Hinerangi. I wholeheartedly support this bill. Nō reira rau rangatira mā tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.[Therefore to the distinguished masses thank you thank you thank you one and all.]"