Paraone Pita: Te Atiawa Claims Settlement Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParaone Pita: Te Atiawa Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 15 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:9744. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PITA PARAONE (NZ First):Ā tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Tēnā tātou e Te Whare ā ki te korero: “Tuia Te Rangi i runga tuia Te Papa ki raro tuituia i te herenga tangata ka puta ki te wheiao ki te ao mārama.” Ā i te mea tuatahi e tika ana kia tautoko ngā mihi i mihingia e aku hoa i roto i Te Whare nei ki te ‘hakatau i a koutou i haere mai tawhiti ki te tautoko me te mātakitaki i te urunga mai o tēnei pire kia ‘hakatau tā koutou wawata ahakoa i roto o te ‘hakaaro o ētahi atu ē ka nui te aroha o Te Karauna ki a koutou ēngari e mōhio nei i a tātou i roto i ngā mamaetanga ngā kōrero ngā hītori hoki ā he āhua iti noa iho tēnei; ka aha tia?Ēngari i mua i te haere tonu o tēnei tū e tika ana kia mihi kau ana ki tēnā o ngā mate kei waenganui i a koutou me ērā atu e kore rātou i waenganui i a tātou i tīmata mai tēnei kaupapa kia mau mai kei waenganui i a tātou i te rā nei nā reira haere mai! Hara mai Taranaki ki tēnei ō tō tātou Whare! Ēhara nō mātou e noho nei i raro i a koutou i te rā nei nō tātou tēnei Whare; nā reira hara mai! Pīkautia mai ngā tini aituā kei waenganui i a koutou kei te tū honohono ki tēnā o ngā mate kei waenganui i a tātou. Nā reira ahakoa ka nui rawa atu ngā mihi mā rātou kāre rātou kia hoki mai! Nā reira e ngā mate haere haere hoki atu!Kua ea te wāhi mā rātou kua hoki mai ki a tātou te hunga ora nā reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou! E mihi kau ana ki a koe e te hoa Mahara! Mahara ana i te wā e noho ana koe i roto i Te Whare he Minita! Ko koe anahe i nui mai te aroha ki a au i tō kitenga mai ki a au e noho ana i te taha o te huarahi ka hara mai i runga i tō waka Minita. Ko koe anahe i pātai mai ki a au “e Pita haere mai ki runga!” Nā reira ka nui ngā mihi ki a koe.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. Greetings to us the House and so to the aphorism that says: “As a consequence of the connection of Sky Father above to Mother Earth below mankind emerged into the natural and enlightened world.” In the first instance it is only right that I endorse and add my congratulatory sentiments to those expressed by my colleagues in welcoming you Te Atiawa. Welcome to you who have come from afar to support and witness the arrival of this bill that will settle your aspirations. Although some might think that the Crown is being hugely generous to you we all know that in terms of the hurtful experiences the commentaries and histories this is quite minimal—so what?Before I continue any further it is only right that I acknowledge the deaths amongst you with those who were here at the beginning of this bill but are no longer here today. So welcome draw hither Taranaki to this one of our Houses. Welcome to our House. It does not belong to us sitting here below but rather to you and us to all of us;therefore welcome. Bring forth the myriads of misfortunes from within you and add to that one amongst us. So regardless how much we extol them they will never come back to us. Consequently to you the dead I bid you depart farewell.Now that the part to those dead has been accounted for I come back to us the living and extend my acknowledgments commendations and congratulations to you collectively. Fellow colleague Mahara a particular one for you. I recall a moment when you were a Minister in this House. You were the only Minister who displayed any empathy towards me and a huge one at that. When you saw me alone on the side of road you came along in your ministerial car pulled up then called out: “Jump aboard Pita!”. You were the only Minister who did that. Therefore my utmost thanks to you.]I think it is important that although previous speakers have spoken about the settlement and acknowledged the Minister—and I join with them in acknowledging the Minister—we do articulate a little bit the history that has brought this issue to the House today. I want to do so. Previous speakers—particularly Mr Davis from Tai Tokerau—alluded to the fact that there are members within our wider society who do not necessarily support these settlements and in fact argue that perhaps Māori are continuing to put their hands out. I want to articulate the reasons why we have these claims.I want to say that from 1840 Te Atiawa came under significant pressure to sell their land. This was the year that the Treaty of Waitangi was signed and so I just want to remind those who may be listening to this debate this morning. In the 1840s and 1850s Crown agents sought to purchase Te Atiawa land despite being aware of disagreement amongst the people themselves. By the mid-1850s Crown purchasing had contributed to enmity and fighting within Te Atiawa resulting in the loss of life of some of them.In 1860 the Crown deemed resistance to the survey of the Pekapeka Blockat Waitara led by Te Atiawa rangatira Wīremu Kīngi Te Rangitake to be an act of rebellion and commenced hostilities against him and his followers. A peace agreement was negotiated after 1 year of fighting but unsurprisingly conflict resumed 2 years later and over the following 2 years a number of engagements were fought in Te Atiawa rohe resulting in the destruction of property and loss of life. In 1865 the Crown proclaimed 1.2 million acres of Taranaki land confiscated including all of Te Atiawa rohe. The confiscations were indiscriminate in that they deprived both loyal and “rebel” Māori of the ownership and use of their lands.In 1866 the Compensation Court began the process to return confiscated land to Māori. However most of the readily usable land was already occupied by European settlers. By 1880 most of the Compensation Court’s awards to Te Atiawa individuals had not been implemented. The compensation process created uncertainty and distress amongst the people of Te Atiawa about where they were to live and whether they had security of title.Later in the century most of the Te Atiawa people were supporting Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kākahi and the movement for Māori peace and independence that they had established at Parihaka. Between 1879 and 1880 many Te Atiawa people participating in campaigns of peaceful resistance which were initiated at Parihaka were exiled to the South Island where they were detained in harsh conditions without trial. I want to just reiterate the point that they were exiled to the South Island and given the climatic changes that they would have had to endure any compensation that we talk about today would certainly not alleviate the pain of that process.Between 1879 and 1880 people participating in campaigns of peaceful resistance continued to be arrested. Some Te Atiawa people who were arrested did receive trials but were then detained beyond the terms of their court imposition. One can only imagine if that sort of activity happened today what the reaction would be.In the early 1880s the West Coast Royal Commission investigated Māori grievances including the failure to implement compensation awards and returned a limited amount of land to Te Atiawa. However virtually all of the land granted to Te Atiawa was under uncustomary individualised title and much of it was rough or inaccessible. In addition the reserves were not returned to Te Atiawa outright but were placed under the control of the public trustee—and we heard Mr Davis make reference to that in his presentation. The public trustee then sold or leased in perpetuity large areas to European farmers and in 1963 the titles of all remaining Taranaki reserves were amalgamated leaving owners without specific interests in customary land. Today less than 5 percent of the area that was reserved for Māori is in Māori freehold ownership.During the 20th century Crown efforts to address Taranaki Māori grievances failed. Some were limited in their scope and others provided for compensation payments that were not discussed with either Te Atiawa or other Taranaki Māori. The Taranaki Maori Claims Settlement Act 1944 stated that the sums were a full settlement of claims relating to the confiscations and Parihaka.I recall in an earlier term in this House that when a particular settlement bill was discussed a member of this House made reference to that particular matter. What he failed to say was that there was no evidence that Te Atiawa or other iwi had agreed to that process. Even now there is some doubt as to whether or not they received anything as a result.Te Atiawa has also experienced significant distress at the degradation of their environment including the loss of indigenous plants and animals and the pollution of waterways and important offshore fishing reefs. This settlement bill is aimed at addressing many of those issues. However as was alluded to by the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations there can never be full compensation. We therefore need to recognise the generosity of Te Atiawa in accepting this settlement.I commend this bill to the House and hope that it is in fact referred to the Māori Affairs Committee because I know like all other settlements that although they are well intended there will be members of the affected tribe who will not have any sense of agreement to this settlement and I would like through that process the opportunity to hear their views.Nā reira e tātou mā ahakoa e āhua moata tēnei wā ka whakaaro anō au mēnā he kaupapa Pākehā ā tukuna atu tēnei wāhanga ki te ahiahi nei ēngari he kaupapa Māori koina te take āhua moata tō mātou tū i te rā nei. Nā reira tēnā koe tēnā koutou kia ora mai anō tātou.[Consequently to all of us colleagues and iwi this moment being somewhat early I thought to myself now if this was a non-Māori matter well this part would have been left for this afternoon but because this is a Māori matter that is why we got up a bit earlier today. Therefore greetings and acknowledgments to us all.]