Tirikatene Rino: Ngāti Rangiteaorere Claims Settlement Bill Ngāti Rangiwewehi Claims Settlement Bill Tapuika Claims Settlement Bill — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTirikatene Rino: Ngāti Rangiteaorere Claims Settlement Bill Ngāti Rangiwewehi Claims Settlement Bill Tapuika Claims Settlement Bill — Third Readings[Sitting date: 09 April 2014. Volume:697;Page:17152. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga):Ā tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Te Arawa waka Ngāti Rangiwewehi Ngāti Rangiteaorere Tapuika Ngā Puna Wai o Te Tokotoru tēnā koutou tēnā koutou. Nau mai hara mai ki te Whare Paremata e takatū nei. Harikoa ahau ki te tū ki te kōrero i te wā whakamutunga o tēnei pire. Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou. E rau rangatira mā huri rauna i te Whare tēnā koutou katoa.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. To the canoe of Te Arawa Ngāti Rangiwewehi Ngāti Rangiteaorere Tapuika and Ngā Puna Wai o Te Tokotoru greetings and acknowledgments to you collectively. Welcome welcome to Parliament House standing here in readiness. I am pleased to stand and address this closing stage of the bill. Therefore well done and congratulations. To the leaders of a hundredfold throughout the House I acknowledge you all.]It gives me great pleasure to speak to the final reading of the former Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru Claims Settlement Bill. Today is a historic day. It is a historic day in the lives of three proud iwi of the Te Arawa confederation. After so many years and so many Governments the tribes Rangiwewehi Rangiteaorere and Tapuika can start to look towards a new future for their people and for their whānau and it is wonderful to see so many of them who have travelled from afar to be here to celebrate this historic day.For over 20 years these tribes have been more than patient and it sort of concerns me that after such a lot of mahi has gone on we get only 10 minutes to devote to three iwi in these speeches. But such are the procedures of Parliament that we have to adhere to. It does not give us much time. Nevertheless I will do my best to reflect something of the tragic circumstance that befell these three iwi that have led us here today. The three iwi to use an Office of Treaty Settlements term are a “large natural grouping”. In Māori terms they are whanaunga—or cuzzies to use a more colloquial term. Rangiteaorere and Rangiwewehi descend from Tamatekapua while Tapuika descend from Tia. Both are of the Te Arawa canoe which came to Aotearoa from the Pacific.It goes without saying what a terrible impact the New Zealand Wars had upon these three and many other iwi as shown in various other settlement bills we have put through this House. I like to say in my speeches that to understand the whakapapa is to understand Māori history. That has been a consistent theme that I use throughout. From Polynesia to the Bay of Plenty and inland to Rotorua the tribes of Rangiwewehi Rangiteaorere and Tapuika certainly have had that close relationship. They are part of what is known as the eight beating hearts of Te Arawa which play such an important part in tribal life.I will attempt to make mention of at least one grievance of each of these tribes that they have had to carry bearing in mind though that there are hundreds. Firstly let us acknowledge all three iwi. They were drawn into the Kīngitanga dispute with the Crown. Whether on principle or because of a genealogical relationship all played a part on all the sides of the wars. Truly it became for some whānau against whānau and hapū against hapū. Heoi ano—such were the divisive ways of the Governor and his war machine. It was about divide and conquer. That was the standard modus operandi of the day: take from them what they value most and you will deprive them economically and spiritually.So that is what the Pākehā did. It took them 25 years to come up with two wars and the Native Lands Act of 1865 to subjugate the natives and to engineer as I call it the greatest legal land-grabbing machine in the history of this country the Native Land Court. Auē taukiri e! It is at the forefront of every claim that ever came before the tribunal and it is the tino taniwha in the history of the Treaty of Waitangi and nearly every claim that has been made and it certainly is with this bill. So much mamae is shared between these three tribes but such are the travails of interrelated hapū—the taking of the good with the bad.Let us look at the economic benefits that these tribes have missed out on. Ngāti Rangiwewehi and Rangiteaorere were owners of significant geothermal areas. Who amongst us here does not enjoy the therapeutic and healing waters a waiariki offers? Never mind the cultural benefits the tribes have missed out on; what about all that geothermal capacity? Have these tribes like all indigenous tribes the world over not really missed out on sharing the wealth from the natural resources of their own estate?Whether it is gold or ore or oil or geothermal energy the tangata whenua always seem to be missing out. As fossil fuels dwindle across the world new and alternative methods of realising our future energy sources are needed. To my way of thinking Rangiwewehi and Rangiteaorere have not only had their warm healing waters taken away from them but also the chance to benefit economically from that geothermal capacity. I know that when it comes to those natural resources such as minerals and oil and gas the Crown has first dibs. Crown Minerals has the mana. That is the law but surely it is time for that law to be rethought to let the hapū and iwi share in the profits.The Tapuika iwi have had an interest in the Maketū area since their arrival on the Te Arawa waka many many years ago. They have had more than their fair share of mamae over land loss and loss of mana. They have had their economic opportunities seriously curtailed. I would like to highlight two points. They suffered the indignity of losing tribal estate and challenging to have that estate returned only to have the Crown acknowledge the wrongdoing and then try to right that wrong by making the hapū beneficiaries in a block of land they had no cultural connections to. We have come across that in various other settlements whether it is Mangakino or we could talk about SILNA in Te Wai Pounamu as well. This appears to have been quite the done thing back in the day in the 1890s and 1900s. Is there any greater ignominy to Māori than being placed in lands far away that you have no connection to? I also think of the Palmerston North Square for Te Ātiawa to just highlight another one of those actions that were taken in those days.There have been many missed economic development opportunities for these iwi and if anyone needs a reminder of another missed opportunity for Tapuika one needs only to look at the takutai and the change of tides that it brings over a 24-hour period. Every tide brings in its precious—precious—resource known as sand the same sand that road makers and builders the country over need to help construct the roads and pathways that lead to our big cities. And yet the only ones making any money off this resource are the big corporate players who have only to whip over the railway lines and dig up truckloads of ordinary sand and turn it into a multimillion-dollar business. Well why can a tribe like Tapuika not be a part of that industry? Why should the natural resources from their tribal estates go offshore to make other people rich?I have tried to use my time allocated to highlight just a few things of these three proud iwi. Ngā Punawai o te Tokotorutapu—not Tokotorutapu; sorry my Rātana-ness is coming out of me—Ngā Punawai o te Tokotoru. It happens—the wairua. I have highlighted those three examples of missed opportunities but the great thing is that these settlements provide a new chapter for these iwi. They provide an opportunity for them to actually harness these opportunities now.I am delighted to be able to speak here and to mihi to all gathered here today. We know that the Crown apologies have been offered and accepted. Cultural and commercial redress has been offered and accepted as well as financial redress. Now it is time for the descendants of Tamatekapua and Tia and Kahumatamomoe and Rangitihi to finally start a new and exciting voyage like their ancestors of long ago. All those years ago back in Hawaiki Te Arawahad little choice but to leave but now the mana has been given back to Ngāti Rangiwewehi Ngāti Rangiteaorere and Tapuika to decide their own future and I wish them all the very best. No reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou kia ora mai tātou katoa.