Turei Metiria: Ngaa Rauru Kiitahi Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading 
Turei Metiria: Ngaa Rauru Kiitahi Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:623;Page:18400] 
METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
: 
 E te manuhiri tuarangi nga kaumatua nga rangatira nga tungane nga tuakana koutou o Nga Rauru Kitahi kua tae mai ki te tautoko i tenei ahiahi nau mai haere mai whakatau mai. 
[ 
To the visitors from afar to the elders chiefs brothers elder sisters and brother and to you especially of Nga Rauru Kitahi who have arrived here this afternoon in support welcome welcome alight here 
.] 
The Green Party congratulates Nga Rauru Kitahi on its settlement. Nga Rauru is one of the eight Taranaki iwi as we have heard whose lives and lands were shattered by the vicious attacks of the New Zealand settler Government which out of greed unlawfully confiscated their lands and imprisoned their people. The Waitangi Tribunal in its interim Taranaki report upheld the two platforms of that iwi’s claim: those of land deprivation and disempowerment. By disempowerment the tribunal referred to the denigration and destruction of Maori autonomy or self-government. We are very pleased that Nga Rauru is to receive some financial compensation however poor in comparison with the resources that were wrongly taken. 
We are also pleased to see in this bill the opportunities for the protection of ukaipo and topuni. The Greens are strongly in favour of co-management options whereby the arrangements recognise the kaitiakitanga of the iwi or hapu and whereby the Government agencies are actively responsible for protecting those values. We do not doubt that there will still be some issues to work through and we look forward to exploring the effectiveness of those mechanisms in the select committee. We are also very supportive of the paepae rangatira which operates as a forum for leaders to deal with treaty matters. The Greens strongly urge the Government to engage in that process to make an active commitment to ensure that the process is effective and to explore similar forums with other iwi and hapu. 
The treaty settlements provide the Government of New Zealand with a ready-made opportunity to engage in a community dialogue with New Zealanders about our collective history as a nation. The Greens have long advocated for such a dialogue. In our view the settlements provide an accessible localised history that can be of enormous benefit to our communities. New Zealanders are crying out for information about our collective history. In a television poll held just last week race relations was the second most important issue for those polled. Our education system does not provide enough information and too many people in our community have missed out on learning about our nation’s history. We urge the Government through the Office of Treaty Settlements to hold community meetings in areas where settlements occur. 
The Nga Rauru Kitahi settlement is a good opportunity to do that—to provide the community not just with information about the history of the area but with the opportunity for people to ask questions and to hear the histories of Maori and Pakeha. That is one mechanism to undo the 19th century racist scaremongering and false representation of special treatment for Maori that are continually advocated by the radical revisionist right. Although most people will agree that actions such as the sacking of Parihaka were unjust many will still deny that it was racist and that the purpose of those sackings and thefts was to destroy the Maori culture. One need only read the  
Hansard 
 of the time to know that that is the truth. New Zealanders must look their history clearly in the face and learn from their mistakes. Knowing their history is a first critical step. All people in this country will benefit from the settlement not just Nga Rauru Kitahi. Every effort to redress the wrongs of the past and remedy the breaches of the treaty is a good thing. 
But the Treaty of Waitangi is not just about property rights. It is about the ongoing relationship between iwi hapu and the Government. That relationship is continually abused by the Government in its operations—not just in its legislation as we saw last year but in its policies and resourcing decisions. It is generally assumed that the treaty settlement process is an attempt to resolve the injustices of the past and represents a genuine effort on the part of the Government to bridge the divide between Maori and Pakeha but it is not. The Waitangi Tribunal although it has achieved a great deal through its meticulous report writing and its ability to operate on the proverbial smell of an oily rag is a creature of statute. Yet it is literally starved of resources and its recommendations reached after considerable work are continually ignored by the Government. In negotiating settlements such as this one claimants are routinely presented with a “take it or leave it” bottom line from the Office of Treaty Settlements with the Government prepared to negotiate only on the minor matters. 
We must remember that Maori are extremely generous in accepting these settlements. Nga Rauru Kitahi has agreed as part of its settlement to forgo full redress for all the loss and prejudice it has suffered and to take the settlement described as “fair in the circumstances” rather than its actual rightful entitlement. Nga Rauru Kitahi has agreed to operate within a Government process that does not recognise tikanga Maori but requires Nga Rauru to operate within a Pakeha—not a Maori—framework. That is why these settlements cannot be full and final—not until the Government commits not just to the financial redress but to the implementation of te tiriti. The primary problem with the settlement process is that it is the Government that dictates the way in which things should be done in the tangata whenua domain. It is the wronged party that is expected to submit to terms imposed by the wrongdoer. That method of dealing with the injustices of the past cannot possibly hope to achieve a real resolution. The same thinking chooses to ignore the benefits to all communities reaped from addressing those injustices of the past while arguing that the on average 1 percent compensation that is paid in treaty settlements and other initiatives that are designed to bring Maori on a par with Pakeha is considered to be too generous. An unfair process for the resolution of wrongs does not have any durability. Our own history proves that and it is about time that the Government learnt from those mistakes. Had the reaffirmation of Maori authority and the second article of Te Tiriti o Waitangi been adhered to in the past the relationship between Maori and Pakeha would have resulted in a far healthier relationship than the one we currently have. That relationship continues to be abused. 
This is a time when our constitutional make-up is to be examined by this Parliament through the select committee and when the role of Te Tiriti o Waitangi is to be discussed in our communities. Therefore we eagerly welcome the establishment of the Nga Rauru - Government paepae rangatira. 
We very much look forward to seeing how it will work and how it may be a model for future Maori-Government relations—if that is what Maori choose. It is a forum that is very important to the treaty relationship. Any discussions about the nature and implementation of te tiriti must not be about the relevance of the treaty because that is not the question. The question is and always will be how we work with it how we implement it in our daily lives and how we address those issues. The paepae rangatira that is recommended and suggested in this bill has been talked about for quite some time now as far back as the Hirangi hui in the 1990s. It has taken 10 years for this model to come to fruition and we congratulate Nga Rauru on their pursuit of it and on the achievement of it in this bill. 
We look forward to hearing the concerns and views of Nga Rauru and of those involved in the settlement during the select committee process. We again congratulate Nga Rauru Kitahi on its perseverance and commitment to achieving a settlement for the benefit of its people. We recognise the hardship the iwi has endured in doing so and the cost to it and to its people in the past and in the future of obtaining a settlement that does not fully address the issues and wrongs that were committed against it. However we will be voting for this bill because we believe that it is better than nothing and we want to support Nga Rauru in its achievements.