Little Andrew: Taranaki Iwi Claims Settlement Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLittle Andrew: Taranaki Iwi Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 15 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:9760. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Tēnā koutou e Te Whare. Can I begin by acknowledging all those who have travelled from Taranaki to be part of this very important morning as we process the Te Atiawa Claims Settlement Bill and the Taranaki Iwi Claims Settlement Bill through the House.I take the opportunity to speak on this the Taranaki Iwi Claims Settlement Bill knowing that this morning we are talking about those settlements that have pervaded across Taranaki. Can I acknowledge the negotiators of this settlement Jamie Tuuta Mahara Okeroa Wayne Mulligan and Toka Walden. Can I also acknowledge the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Chris Finlayson and his team for concluding a settlement the significance of which I think is almost impossible to comprehend.As someone who grew up in Taranaki—perhaps I should just pause for a moment and also acknowledge someone whom I will mention very shortly His Worship the Mayor of New Plymouth Andrew Judd. As someone who grew up in New Plymouth and had my formative years there you know I learnt nothing of the Māori history of Taranaki which is of course not just the Māori history of Taranaki; it is the Pākehā history as well. We see in this settlement in the acknowledgment of the historical events that are the cause of the grievance and the apology that has been recorded actions and events that would have seen the end of a people in a different age and that would have suppressed a spirit and destroyed a community.When I read the history of it what calls out for attention and celebration and acknowledgment is that a spirit of peace and of justice has prevailed against some of the worst atrocities that humanity can cast upon itself. When I look at the mass confiscation the raupatu; when I look at the brutal treatment of those who stood up against an unjust Crown and unjust colonial forces not just being incarcerated but being incarcerated hundreds of miles from their people and from their rohe; and when I look at the treatment of Te Whiti o Rongomai who preached and lived and lived by a creed of peace and peaceful action—for him to be brutalised in the way he was treated—it is a matter of awesome wonder that the spirit that he represented and the sense of justice that has been pursued has brought us to this place. Those who have been imbued with it know it and understand it have not resorted to the kind of violence that was visited upon Taranaki Māori. Instead it has led to a dialogue a negotiation an accounting of the history and at least some form of settlement.As my colleagues have already asked—Adrian Rurawhe and Nanaia Mahuta on the previous bill the Te Atiawa Claims Settlement Bill—how do you compensate how do you genuinely atone for the actions that are recorded in these settlements? I think one of the encouraging aspects of the settlement—both settlements—is the representation on one of the committees of the Taranaki Regional Council because if there is one thing that the denial of the rights of Māori to their land and their taonga means it is the loss of that right of decision making of determination over it. It is one small gesture. It is one small step that restores that right to have a say. I think it is fair to say it probably barely goes far enough—in fact it is unlikely to have gone far enough and I say that because I know that even in the last 2 or 3 years there has been a debate in Taranaki about the representation of the Māori voice on public bodies on the local government up there. It has not been a particularly instructive debate. It has not been a particularly pleasant debate observing it both from here and when I have been in the region.So where I get to with both bills—with this bill too—is that although here we celebrate the settlement the sense of peace that can now be brought over these grievances and to that extent a closure I hope that it is also a beginning: a beginning of Pākehā in Taranaki understanding and acknowledging the history that our ancestors were part of. It is not about being shamed by it or being embarrassed by it or feeling hōhā about it. It is about understanding as the beginning of that respect that we must have for each other that those who have a claim to the land have been brutally treated. If this settlement does anything constructive for all inhabitants of Taranaki Māori and Pākehā let it be the beginning of that understanding and perhaps the beginning of a process to accept that each must have a role in all the institutions across the communities of Taranaki—the public bodies and those organisations that make up and contribute to the life of the region.I take the opportunity to welcome the folks from Taranaki to be part of the celebration of this legislation and this settlement and to hope that it heralds a beginning for Pākehā too as we come to terms with and understand a history that I think for far too long we have preferred to ignore. Now we have the chance for understanding and the chance for a genuine peace and genuine justice that will serve all of us well. Kia ora.