Roche Denise: Ngati Porou Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
Roche Denise: Ngati Porou Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:678;Page:1536] 
DENISE ROCHE (Green) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Speaker. Ki nga tangata whenua o Ngati Porou te ra tena koutou tena koutou tena koutou katoa.  
[ 
Thank you Mr Speaker. To the local people of Ngati Porou fond greetings acknowledgments and salutations indeed to all of you. 
] 
The Green Party recognises that this is an extremely important moment in your long and vibrant history within Te Tai Rawhiti and Aotearoa. We recognise the sense of achievement that must accompany what is a significant settlement for this iwi. Like our colleagues across the House we wish to acknowledge the people who have worked on this settlement the people from Ngati Porou the people from the Crown and the Waitangi Tribunal and all those who for generations have contributed time and effort and their stories and their lives to creating this bill the Ngati Porou Claims Settlement Bill today.  
We know the redress that is needed in the rohe and that Ngati Porou have many plans and dreams that are coming closer to fruition. We have to place on record our concerns about the cross-claimants who have spoken to us of their marginalisation from this claim process. We cannot ignore them and we have stood in this House to support this settlement. We have also stood in this House to support their right to challenge and to be heard. It is the Crown processes that divide and manipulate but there is no escaping the contradictions. So hard as it is we think it is important to acknowledge the issues and not pretend that the processes the Crown dictates have advantaged the smaller natural groups of self-determining hapu.  
However having said that I need to return to the reasons for this claim. It may not be the same story as the raupatu in Taranaki or the theft that occurred in Waikato which is where I come from but each claim tells its own extraordinary story of the mechanics and the strategies of the mutating virus of colonisation in achieving access to land and resources from nga tangata whenua o Aotearoa. The Crown compulsorily acquired land from Ngati Porou on more than 2000 occasions. That is a simple statement really but actually it is about 2000 incidents of outrage dispossession and damage. That is what is being recognised today and that is what is being addressed in part.  
My colleague Catherine Delahunty who could not be here today explained in her speech in the first reading of this bill that she saw at first hand that damage that continues when she was a beneficiary advocate at Ruatoria. She explained that on one of the trips to Ruatoria they were invited to stay the night at Waiomatatini by descendants of your great ancestor Sir Apirana Ngata. She described sleeping in the corner of the room of that remarkable house from that remarkable whanau and looking out over the river flats and imagining the leader coming home from Parliament tired from the battle for the best interests of his own people. And so it has continued. So you have continued.  
The settlement is worth $110 million and 6000 hectares plus cultural redress and recognition across Ngati Porou rohe. It is the second-largest single deal in the history of Treaty settlements and I agree with what my esteemed colleague Nanaia Mahuta has just said about the importance of the historical strategic alliances that have been built up over the many decades. There are many ideas and plans to use this wisely in support of the people. We look forward to those benefits being available at last to the people in the broken houses in Tokomaru and the people who are jobless beneficiaries without transport credit or opportunities in the back country between Te Puia and the cape. My colleague Catherine Delahunty met many of these people as an advocate and they are still rich in culture and rich in te reo language and history. But they did not have the same material privilege that many of us and in fact many of us here in this House take for granted. They did not have their young people who were mainly away working the elders and the very young. They want their community back and they want it to be a shared well-being. My best wishes and our best wishes go to them all.  
Ngati Porou is a magnificent country and we acknowledge that some signed the Treaty and some felt no need but my wish is that this somewhat controversial but very hard-won agreement will enhance the whenua protect the moana and restore the wairua of the people. We congratulate you. We wish you well and we will be supporting this bill. No reira tena koutou tena koutou tena koutou katoa.