Rurawhe AdrianHon NANAIA MAHUTA (Associate Minister for Māori Development): Tuia te rangi e tū iho nei. Tuia te papa e takoto nei. Tuia te here tangata. Ka rongo te pō. Ka rongo te ao. E mihi ana ki a koutou Ngāti Maniapoto i tae ā-tinana mai hei whakakanohi rātou kua wehe atu arā ngā mahuetanga iho. Nō reira tēnei e mihi ana ki a koutou katoa. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.[Fasten the sky above us. Bind the earth below us. Unify the strand of man. Darkness is borne. Daylight is encountered. I acknowledge you Ngāti Maniapoto who are present today to represent those who have passed on you are their legacy. I acknowledge you all. Greetings to you all.]It gives me great pleasure to be able to make a contribution in the second reading. I want to thank members of the Māori Affairs Committee on the Government side who ceded their time so that I could take this opportunity to offer a few thoughts. I want to also make some acknowledgments because over the period of time since the agreement in principle signing to now we've lost a number of whānau within Ngāti Maniapoto who made a strong contribution to not only the settlement but actually the right context for the conversations to take place to ensure that the spirit of those tūpuna the original negotiators of the settlement could be carried through to this day. So I want to recognise them. I also want to recognise the most current negotiators of the settlement Glenn Tootill and Keith Ikin for stewarding through many of the much-needed conversations to materialise what we are debating here in the House and also the Crown negotiator David Tapsell and his team because it has not been without effort in terms of making sure that the clarity of purpose has been absolutely consistent again from the beginning of this process and right up until the third reading. So thank you all very much.I also want to acknowledge the rangatira who are here in the House. I tried to I guess characterise the long journey of negotiation that has taken place and I had to go back to the 1883 petition—Wahanui's petition—that he brought to this House. I want to just take a brief moment to read some of that because in order to understand the long journey of negotiation of Ngāti Maniapoto to get to this point you really have to go back to the historical record that has been captured in the deed and in the legislation. With that I also acknowledge Paul Meredith—who's here—because he sacrificed his PhD so that we could have a good historical record. If this is going to be your PhD and your legacy Paul the clarity of the apology and the historical record will put Ngāti Maniapoto in good stead to teach history in our schools so that they know who they are and who they were destined to be and it will be through this historical record.But when I went back to the petition and read some of it which I will share with you in the House it went something like this—and I just plead with you for a little—We have carefully watched the tendency of the laws which you have enacted from the beginning up to the present day. They all tend to deprive us of the privileges secured to us by the second and third articles of the Treaty of Waitangi which confined to us the exclusive and undisturbed possession of our lands. We do not see any good in any of the laws which you have enacted affecting our lands when they are brought into operation in adjudicating upon lands before the Native Land Court at Cambridge and other places. All the practices carried on at the Land Courts have become a source of anxiety to us and a burden upon us. Through our ignorance of those laws we have been induced by speculators (land swallowers) and their agents to allow some of our lands to be adjudicated upon so that our lands might be secured to us. But having allowed some of our lands to be adjudicated upon who is it that became possessed of them? It is true that after the investigations the natives received a certificate of title showing their right to the lands but through the superior knowledge of the Europeans we accepted foolishly what the lawyers recommended to us by the speculators (land swallowers) thinking that they were to act in our interest but in reality they were intended to prolong their investigations thereby increasing the expenses to so great an extent that the natives were unable to defray them so that they (the speculators) might seize the land". And so it goes. Now I read that little excerpt from the petition because it goes on to say that Maniapoto were doubly impacted during the time that the Native Land Court was established and you will see in pictorial form that there was quick succession of the loss of land to Maniapoto when the Native Land Court was established. But more than that when the Land Wars occurred not only did Ngāti Maniapoto look after themselves; they looked after people who were made dispossessed in the north from Waikato and in the south from Taranaki. So there was a doubling of the impact on Ngāti Maniapoto during two successive impacts on many Māori within that part of the region. It's all set out in the historical record but to understand the intricacies of the deed I think you do have to go back to the historical record.There are three aspects of the settlement that I want to speak to. First there was the matter raised by the member Joseph Mooney in relation to clarification of the interests in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ). Again the historical context goes back to those early conversations about the domain that Ngāti Maniapoto had explicitly referenced and expressed. But if the legislation—and from what I hear the select committee has considered this—clarifies the purpose and the interests of Ngāti Maniapoto in the EEZ it will be a very useful thing because what it will mean is that it is very clear and express how Ngāti Maniapoto can reference their interests in this area when it comes to marine biodiversity protection when it comes to other issues that happen in that area and if for nothing else it enables Ngāti Maniapoto to assert the values which they will consistently assert on land and in the sea. So I think it has been a useful exercise for the select committee to go down that pathway.There are a couple of other aspects that I think make clear Ngāti Maniapoto's intent going forward. Nga Wai o Maniapoto—many of the select committees may or may not have heard that the Nga Wai o Waipa had been settled earlier. The thinking behind Nga Wai o Maniapoto and the natural resource aspects in relation to water have been carried forward into this settlement. I see that as fantastic progression especially given the challenges in relation to the fresh-water and general water environment now.Thirdly I go back to the matter that Harete Hipango referred to and that is in relation to Whanganui. I just go back to the relationship element of it. The headwaters running into the Whanganui River come off the Pureora which is clearly in the Ngāti Maniapoto area. But if I go back to the rangatira agreement that was at the time I understand agreed to in relation to the late Archie Taiaroa and Tiwha Bell effectively the conversation went something like this—and forgive me because I'm paraphrasing it. Between these two rangatira they both agreed that "I'll look after your interests in my rohe and you look after my interests in your rohe." At the end of the day relationships will underpin the successful implementation of the intent of our tūpuna but also the intent of Ngāti Maniapoto to ensure that at the headwaters we have got great care and custodianship of the waters that feed into Whanganui. So I hope that in terms of taonga tuku iho and kōrero tuku iho the leaders within our respective iwi we continue to maintain the relationship because it's kōrero like that that will ensure that the relationship and a way of working together will actually give essence to the intent of the settlement. As for Rereahu I may spend more time on that in the third reading but it's very clear in the settlement that the intention was always to be for the unified purpose of everybody Rereahu included. So if there is any I guess thought from any member in this House that that would be an exclusion of interest in so far as the Ngāti Maniapoto settlement goes that is misplaced. Every part of the way these kaumātua and those before them maintained that the benefit of any resolution of outcome for Ngāti Maniapoto would solidify and build the unity of purpose of all of Ngāti Maniapoto including Rereahu. The proof of the pudding will be in the practice but again that will always come down to relationships. I'm so proud that Minister Little has been able to steward this legislation through to its conclusion in a way that Ngāti Maniapoto will feel the historical issues have been addressed and we can move forward into the future. Tēnā koutou.DEPUTY SPEAKER: This is a split call. I call Simon O'Connor—five minutes."