Whaitiri Meka: Te Urewera-Tūhoe Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWhaitiri Meka: Te Urewera-Tūhoe Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 22 October 2013. Volume:694;Page:14143. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MEKA WHAITIRI (Labour—Ikaroa-Rāwhiti): Ā tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Tēnā koe e te Whare e tū mai nei tēnā tātou katoa. Tūhoe mana Tūhoe reo Tūhoe tangata karanga mai karanga mai karanga mai. Karanga mai ngā tini aituā kua wehe atu ki te pō haere haere haere atu rā. Ōku rau rangatira mā e kui mā e koro mā kua tae mai nei nau mai nau mai haere mai. Haere mai ki tēnei Whare i runga i te kaupapa tino whakahirahira. Nō reira e te iwi Ngāi Tūhoe tēnā koutou tēnā koutou ā tēnā koutou katoa.[And thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. Greetings to you the House standing here and salutations to you all. Tūhoe authority Tūhoe voice Tūhoe person call shout and summon. Beckon the innumerable deaths that have departed to the void. Go journey on and farewell. To my many chiefs my elderly women and menfolk who have arrived here welcome welcome welcome. Welcome to this House in regards to this matter of great significance. And so to you the people of the Tūhoe tribe acknowledgments salutations and congratulations to you all.]I join with my colleagues on this side of the House to support the first reading of the Te Urewera-Tūhoe Bill. Before I go through the bill itself in detail could I make some acknowledgments to the people of Tūhoe to thank them for their patience thank them for their tolerance and thank them for their sacrifice in what today is the beginning of the end of settling your historical grievances. As a former mandated negotiator for Rongowhataata I can only share the celebration and also the mamae of those kaumātua who are no longer with us who began this process. So to you all I mihi. Tēnā tātou katoa.The purpose of this bill the Te Urewera-Tūhoe Bill is to give effect to the deed of settlement signed on 4 June 2013 in which the Crown and Tūhoe agreed to the final settlement of the historical Treaty of Waitangi claims for Tūhoe. The deed of settlement sets out in full the redress provided to Tūhoe in settlement of all of their historical claims. In settling these claims the Crown acknowledges past wrongs and its intentions to put in place the foundations for a constructive future relationship with Tūhoe.It is intended that this bill be divided at the Committee of the whole House into two parts. Parts 1 to 4 will be known as the Tūhoe Claims Settlement Bill. I acknowledge the Minister Chris Finlayson for bringing this bill to the House and his special acknowledgment of the social agreement of building capacity for Tūhoe people and also providing better Government services. Parts 5 to 7 will be known as the Te Urewera Bill. Tūhoe is New Zealand’s sixth-largest iwi with a population of over 32000 at the 2006 census. The traditional lands of Tūhoe centred on Te Urewera but over time Tūhoe influence extended to Waikaremoana and Pukeuri in the south and from Kaingaroa in the west to Ngātapa in the east. Can I just acknowledge my tīpuna from Rongowhakaata who were killed and thrown off the cliff at Ngātapa and our close relationships with the Tūhoe people. In the north Tūhoe and other iwi used the resources of Ōhiwa Harbour.The claims of Tūhoe against the Crown are wide ranging. They relate to confiscation—raupatu—during the 1860s; Crown military operations in Te Urewera during the 1860s and 1870s that resulted in widespread destruction and loss of life; the impact of the native land laws from the 1870s; the failure to properly implement the Te Urewera District Native Reserve Act 1896; Crown purchasing some of which was illegal; and further loss of land through Crown-instigated consolidation schemes.As previous speakers have said in 1954 the Crown established Te Urewera National Park which included most of the Tūhoe traditional lands. The Crown did not consult Tūhoe about this and did not recognise Tūhoe as having any special interest in Te Urewera National Park or its management.Labour supports a reconciliation process for historical breaches by the Crown to Māori. The Waitangi Tribunal and the Treaty settlement process are an important part of that process. We acknowledge the commitment and leadership required for iwi to reach an agreement with the Crown and we understand that it must be a durable settlement. Each settlement is unique in its redress components which attempt to restore what has been taken and what can be preserved and developed for future generations. Treaty settlements are an important part of our modern identity and we hope that iwi the Crown and our communities will better understand the conflict of our past the commitment to resolve outstanding grievances and the hope of a shared future.I will turn to some of the detail now. I am looking forward to working with my colleagues on the Māori Affairs Committee and we also commit to our chair Mr Tau Henare that we will do all in our possible grasp to ensure that this bill gets through in a speedy fashion and in a timely way. In terms of this settlement package I would like to draw the House’s attention to Part 1 which contains a summary of the historic account from the deed of settlement the acknowledgments and apology given by the Crown to Tūhoe and the acceptance by Tūhoe of that apology. That is important to acknowledge. In writing our own historical account in our Rongowhakaata settlement claims it was let me say an arduous task getting our historical account right. So I want to acknowledge the work that has been put in from Tūhoe and the Crown to ensure that we have got an acknowledgment and an apology that are acceptable to both parties.Part 2 of the bill sets out the cultural redress provided to Tūhoe including the vesting of five cultural redress properties the provision of two protocols and the appointment of the trustees of Tūhoe Te Uru Taumatua as a fisheries advisory committee as well aschanges to a small number of geographical names that also includes Tūhoe as a member of the Rangitāiki River Forum.Part 3 of the bill includes some of the commercial redress that will enable Tūhoe to establish an economic base including the opportunity to purchase five Crown-owned properties within the deferred selection period subject to their lease back to the Crown and an exclusive right of first refusal over Crown-owned properties within a specified area for 172 years from settlement date.Part 4 of the bill will assist Tūhoe to consolidate and improve the efficiency of their governance entities as well as instituting a tikanga-based process for selecting trustees to their mandated iwi organisation. It provides for dissolution of the Tūhoe-Waikaremoana Maori Trust Board and the vesting of its assets; a merging of the Tūhoe charitable entities the Tūhoe-Waikaremoana Maori Trust Board Charitable Trust and the Tūhoe Fisheries Charitable Trust into the Tūhoe Charitable Trust; recognition of the Tūhoe Charitable Trust as the mandated iwi organisation of Tūhoe; and an exemption from the requirement in the Maori Fisheries Act 2004 that individual iwi members must have a vote in the election of trustees.In reading this bill to the House I am attracted to the innovation that comes back at me. I want to acknowledge both Minister Finlayson and the people of Tūhoe particularly around Te Urewera for giving that important taonga its own wairua and essence in terms of its own legislation but also for the mana motuhake part of this bill. I say in my closing summary that I too join with this House to acknowledge the work that has gone ahead. I look forward to this bill coming through the Māori Affairs Committee and again I stand to support and celebrate this historic day for Ngāi Tūhoe. Nō reira Mr Assistant Speaker tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.