Sharples Pita: Te Tau Ihu Claims Settlement Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSharples Pita: Te Tau Ihu Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 05 June 2013. Volume:690;Page:10799. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Dr PITA SHARPLES (Minister of Māori Affairs)on behalf of theMinister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations: I moveThat the Te Tau Ihu Claims Settlement Bill be now read a first time. Tuatahi kei te mihi au ki a koutou kua hara mai nei ki tēnei Whare o tātou i tēnei rangi. He rā nui tēnei kia tīmata ai tēnei wāhanga kia haere ngā kōrero i roto i te Whare Pāremata mō ngā wā e toru. Nā reira nau mai hara mai rā. Hara mai rā me ngā tini mate kua pā ki a tātou anā ko Tino Moana tētahi i hinga mai nā i te pō te tama a Thomas Moana. Tana tama a Tino. Nā reira ngā mate kua pā ki a koutou otirā ki a tātou takoto haere ki ngā tīpuna mātua hei whāriki mā mātou. Ehara mā mātou e whakaroa te kōrero ki a koutou ēngari ko te mea pai ki ahau kia haere tika ai koutou ki reira ā ki mua o Te Kaihanga. Nā reira rātou ki a rātou tātou ki a tātou tēnā tātou. Nā reira nau mai hara mai. He rā nui tēnei mō koutou. Kei a tātou nei i roto i te Whare ētahi kōrero e tautoko ana te huarahi e pai ana mō koutou kua whakatakotoria e koutou. Nā reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou ngā iwi katoa o Te Tau Ihu nau mai hara mai rā.[Firstly I greet you collectively who have arrived here in this House of ours today. This is an important day which allows this session to commence so that the debates in Parliament can proceed throughout the three readings. Therefore welcome come hither. Come forth with the many deaths that have touched us such as that of Tino Moana son of Thomas Moana—his son Tino—who died last night. And so to the deaths that have touched you and indeed all of us collectively lie there in state and go forth to the ancestral forefathers as a mat for us. We will not prolong the tributes to you but the nicest gesture from me is for you to go directly there to be before the Creator. And so they the dead remain there among themselves and we the living to ourselves. Salutations to us welcome welcome. This is a great day for you collectively. We in this House have statements to make that support the best way forward for you in respect to what you have placed before us. So congratulations and well done to you all the tribes of the Prow of the Canoe. Welcome and indeed welcome.]At the appropriate time I intend to move that Te Tau Ihu Claims Settlement Bill be considered by the Māori Affairs Committee. Today we turn south from Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara. We look across Raukawa Moana past the resting place of Te Wheke-a-Muturangi to the lands of Te Tau Ihu o Te Waka Māui the prow of the great canoe of Māui Tikitiki-a-Taranga. It is my honour to welcome to the House the sons and daughters of Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō Ngāti Kuia Rangitāne o Wairau Ngāti Kōata Ngāti Rārua Ngāti Tama ki Te Tau Ihu Te Ātiawa o Te Waka-a-Māui and Ngati Toa Rangatira.All eight iwi of Te Tau Ihu had valid customary rights that should have been protected honoured and guaranteed by the Treaty of Waitangi when it was signed in 1840. But within years of the Treaty being signed the Crown illicitly acquired millions of hectares of Te Tau Ihu lands and resources. The Crown failed to obtain the full and free consent of the rightful landowners. These massive land acquisitions were invalid in both British and Māori law. They were clear breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.We are here today because the Crown failed to protect honour and guarantee the rights of Te Tau Ihu iwi Te Tau Ihu whānau. For us in 2013 to even try to comprehend what this loss meant all those years ago and what it means today we need tounderstand how Te Tau Ihu whānau were living at that time. In the mid-1800s the waters around Nelson Golden Bay Marlborough Sounds and Kāpiti were the equivalent of our modern-day motorways. They were expressways for trade and the merchant ships cutters and vessels plying the waters of Raukawa Moana were owned by tangata whenua iwi of Te Tau Ihu. The flax pigs tobacco meat potatoes timber and maize on board those ships were grown on Te Tau Ihu lands and cultivated harvested and processed by Te Tau Ihu people. They owned the lands the storehouses and the ships that carried their produce throughout New Zealand and abroad.Even before Europeans arrived on these shores the people of Te Tau Ihu were trading across Aotearoa. When you take millions of acres from people who have only ever known a life of enterprise and self-determination you are not just taking away land; you devastate an entire way of life. You are taking away an identity; you are taking away a birthright.The Crown governors and officials acted ruthlessly sidelining the Treaty and deliberately giving new settlers advantages over Māori. As a result the Crown’s purchases left Te Tau Ihu Māori in poverty. Today the Crown stands before the families of Te Tau Ihu and acknowledges the social economic and cultural devastation carried by generations of families. But through it all the peoples of Te Tau Ihu remained steadfast they remained at the helm of Te Waka-a-Māui and they did not leave. Their identity was intact but never destroyed; their way of life devastated but never wiped out.In the face of incredible injustices generations of Te Tau Ihu people have made an incredible contribution to Aotearoa New Zealand; they always have.Ngā mihi ki a koutou. Archaeological evidence from this rohe proves that our ancestors’ epic voyages were planned purposeful and often were return journeys. Hemi Matenga of Whakapuaka literally connected New Zealand to the world in 1876 swimming out in dangerous conditions and dragging to the shore our first undersea telecommunications cable. Te Tau Ihu has produced countless Olympic champions sports stars and All Black greats. Māori businesses in this region are industry leaders across a range of sectors including wine hospitality and tourism. And who can forget that Te Tau Ihu leaders were at the forefront of the historic foreshore and seabed battle—an iconic moment for Māori who marched in our thousands to this Parliament on a freezing cold day in 2004.Te Tau Ihu people have always punched well above their weight and when it comes to our country’s political cultural historical economic and sporting history today is another of those milestones. Many of the things these people have lost due to the actions of the Crown can never be totally replaced yet the people of Te Tau Ihu still wish to settle their grievances with honour and with mana. Although only one settlement bill is being considered by Parliament today the Te Tau Ihu Claims Settlement Bill gives effect to eight deeds of settlement. This is an amazing milestone and a testament to the determination and leadership shown by the eight Te Tau Ihu iwi who have managed to overcome their differences to get to thispoint. Tēnā koutou.The Te Tau Ihu Claims Settlement Bill will provide redress to three Kurahaupō iwi—Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō Ngāti Kuia and Rangitāne o Wairau. These three iwi signed their deeds of settlement in 2010 and for them today has been a long time coming. I acknowledge their patience and their pragmatism. In a region with extremely overlapped iwi interests and where Crown redress was becoming increasingly scarce the three Kurahaupō iwi have shown great leadership by foregoing their claims to forestry interests in exchange for other commercial redress. This extremely bold decision unlocked the regional stalemate and enabled negotiations of other Te Tau Ihu groups to progress.The Te Tau Ihu Claims Settlement Bill will also provide redress to four Tainui Taranaki ki te Tonga iwi—Ngāti Kōata Ngāti Rārua Ngāti Tama ki Te Tau Ihu and Te Ātiawa o Te Waka-a-Māui. I also commend the patience and resilience of the Tainui Taranaki iwi whose negotiations were put on hold while the Crown addressed other issues raised in Te Tau Ihu.Last but certainly not least Te Tau Ihu Claims Settlement Bill will settle the claims of Ngati Toa Rangatira. In many respects the Ngati Toa negotiations presented new challenges to the Crown in particular because of the geographical spread of the rohe of Ngati Toa straddling both sides of Te Moana o te Raukawakawa includingcultural redress of extreme significance to the iwi and in New Zealand in general. Redress over the maritime interests of Kāpiti island and Ngati Toa as well as the Haka Ka Mate Attribution Bill which recognises “Ka Mate” as the taonga of Ngati Toa are extremely innovative forms of redress and I acknowledge the determination of Ngati Toa in getting to this point.The Te Tau Ihu Claims Settlement Bill is the culmination of years of hard work and tough decisions not only for the Crown but also between yourselves. You should all be proud of what you have achieved. The journey to get to this day has not been easy or brief. We remember the many who have passed on but whose determination has led this legislation to this House.Mā whero mā pango ka oti te mahi.[By chiefs and commoners the work is done.]There are many whakataukī about Māori working together—countless proverbs all about putting differences aside for the greater good. Today we witness the wisdom of our tīpuna who coined these whakataukī and we see those words into action. Today we witness a milestone in a journey that is not just about the wonderful idea of Māori working together but will be a transformative step for the people of Te Tau Ihu. Today we see this taking place before our eyes as we introduce legislation to resolve the historic grievances of eight iwi. I support this bill. Māku e tū nei i roto i tēnei Whare ki te whakamana ki te tautoko i ngā iwi o Te Tau Ihu o Te Waka-a-Māui me ō rātou hiahia kia whakaoti pai tēnei kaupapa. Ka nui ngā mihi ki a koutou.[I stand in this House to empower and support the tribes of the Prow of Maui’s Canoe plus their wishes for this matter to be completed well. My acknowledgments to you collectively are huge.]I consider that the bill should proceed without delay to the Māori Affairs Committee. I commend this bill to the House. Tēnā koe.