Reti ShaneDr SHANE RETI (National): E rau rangatira mā e ngā iwi kia ora mai tātou. Ko tēnei te mihi e tuku ana ki a koutou. Nau mai haere mai ki tēnei Whare te Whare Pāremata mō tēnei mahi hirahira nō reira kia ora mai tātou.[To all the chiefly authorities and the tribes greetings one and all. This is my acknowledgment to you. Welcome to the House of Parliament for this important work therefore be well one and all.]National will be supporting this bill at its third and final reading the third reading of the Ngāti Kahungunu settlement bill known as the Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua Claims Settlement Bill. This bill has taken a long time to reach this point and I want to thank the claimants the negotiators the Office of Treaty Settlements and the Māori Affairs Committee for their work. This bill has had a complicated path one that over the past week became more complicated with various announcements. The Government has a majority and has the ability to vote out other views regardless of what we may think and the Government's vote of support here today while welcome is clearly with the consent of their Labour Māori caucus. We too have sought a collective view from our caucus from the National Party caucus and presented to them a balance of views—the best balance that we possibly could.We note that the passage of this bill will extinguish the claims of Wairarapa Moana. We have a great sadness with that. And our team had a range of views on this very issue. We note our colleagues' proposal for a Supplementary Order Paper that would allow further debate of the Wai 85 Wairarapa Moana claim and explore its extraction and putting aside. This is not possible with the committee of the whole House not sitting. What may have happened may have been that we would have had a more thorough debate and possibly we would have reached a conclusion but that is now past this point.National is supporting this bill which we believe on balance provides a pathway forward. On balance was a balance of many things—that initially Wairarapa Moana was determined not to be the correct claim holder; that Ngāti Kahungunu removed the contested Pouākani claim from its settlement to facilitate progress; that in this format the settlement is supported by local iwi Ngāti Raukawa and Ngāti Tūwharetoa. The recent court case raised issues that could change all of these stated positions. It was determined that it was not moot that Wairarapa Moana was not an appropriate claim holder. It was determined that the description of mana whenua was not nuanced enough and that Ngāti Kahungunu may further explore mana whenua status over the claim. If these were to be pursued support from Ngāti Raukawa and Ngāti Tūwharetoa could also be compromised. The pathway to resolution would seem to be back to the Waitangi Tribunal a pathway that would likely take many years and further hold back this settlement. These are some of the many things that National has spent much time on and much anguish and much deliberation and we have done our very best to balance these matters.It is not as if recent decisions have made determinative judgments and recommended an appropriate claim holder or recommended who might have mana whenua status. What has been determined then is what things are not and not what they may be and in our view further deliberation seems to point to a prolonged return to the Waitangi Tribunal. Ngāti Raukawa stated to us We're obviously disappointed that the Supreme Court decision hasn't brought any finality to this issue. Instead it has breathed life back into it without significantly changing the position of the parties at all." On balance we believe that a return to the Waitangi Tribunal would be unnecessarily and unreasonably onerous. We understand that there are harms with either path that we take today and we have done our very best to weigh these up. We support the Ngāti Kahungunu settlement bill. We note Ngāti Kahungunu writing to us "If this bill was not to proceed we would be irretrievably prejudiced and consigned to a deeply uncertain future if the Crown now does not pass our settlement legislation. You would be putting us in the worst possible position—no settlement and no viable litigation option. You would have made us give up that litigation option for a promised settlement that you then did not give us. That would perpetuate yet further Te Tiriti breaches on Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua compounding the historic breaches from which we already suffer." We support wholly the integrity of Ngāti Kahungunu—that they too have balanced up many things to be here today and that going forward as a settled iwi they will continue to seek a path forward that best accommodates as many of these competing interests as possible.In conclusion we are privileged here today to advance the legislative process that enables a settlement an enablement that apologises an enablement that acknowledges an enablement that advances the hopes and aspirations of Ngāti Kahungunu and the National Party wishes them well. Kia ora mai tātou."