Jones Shane: Ngati Pahauwera Treaty Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
Jones Shane: Ngati Pahauwera Treaty Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:678;Page:1518] 
Hon SHANE JONES (Labour) 
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 A kati e te Kaihautu o te Whare tena koe. Huri rawa atu ki enei o o tatau manuhiri kua tatu mai ki Te Upoko o Te Ika kua tomo mai ki te ana o te raiona kua tae mai ki te matakitaki i o koutou huanga nga kanohi Maori nga kaitorangapu Maori e whakawerawera nei me pehea ranei ka kitea he rongoa e murua ai nga nawe i tukua mai ki a tatau mai i te taenga mai o nga Pakeha me o ratau pakanga ki o tatau matua Maori. I tenei rangi ko koutou kua tatu mai ki te tuku i nga whakaaro i taimaha ai tatau te Maori kia rere kia uru mai ai tetahi whakaaro hou e hou tonu ai ki roto i te hinengaro te ngakau me te wairua o o tatau tamariki a tona wa. Hei a ratau nga taonga e korerongia ake nei e tatau ahakoa kei te kapu o te ringa kaumatua i tenei ra a tona wa ma ratau e whakatinana. Na reira nau mai piki mai kake mai. Tena koutou katoa. 
[ 
Well then Mr Speaker of the House thank you. I turn now to these of our visitors who have arrived here in Wellington into the lion’s den to watch their relations Maori representatives and politicians sweating over how indeed solutions will be found to take away grievances handed down to us since the arrival of Pakehas and their wars inflicted upon our Maori parents. Today you are the ones who have landed here to give us your thoughts as to why we as Maori have been weighed down and in doing that allow it to fly away and let in fresh ideas that will become entrenched in the mind hearts and spirits of our children who will in the future take over resources that we are talking about but are in the hands of the old people today. They will implement these when they take over in the future. Therefore welcome clamber aboard mount up. Greetings to you all. 
] 
As I have said in Maori I acknowledge the presence of the members of Ngati Pahauwera and their leaders. I am taking a slightly different tack from the one I took in my speech in dealing with Ngati Maniapoto because as I predicted I mentioned two men and no women so I suffered a very severe censuring outside. So I welcome them in their uniform strength and I welcome them as someone who comes from an area in New Zealand that has yet to experience the full range of emotions that one goes through from having a long protracted settlement exercise and finally getting to this point—that is consummation with the passage of the legislation the Ngati Pahauwera Treaty Claims Settlement Bill. We from the north look forward to that experience.  
I want to remind those of us who are in the House how far we have come. It is important that we recite some of the names of the people related to this whanau today. Indeed I remember in the late 1970s attending Maori Council meetings in the esteemed old Maori affairs select committee room and seeing such people as Charles Mohi Timi Kara Turi Kara Te Huata and a host of other whanau from this part. They have gone on and oh but that they were here today to witness this Parliament providing an opportunity for the expression of culture providing an opportunity for an apology to be made and passing a special piece of legislation that moves on from the old paternalistic trust board model that afflicted a lot of the Maori tribes.  
During the Second World War attempts were made to resolve land grievances. There was the Myers Commission in my area and we see here in an earlier time a reference to the Stout and Ngata exercise. In fairness to the people of that time without having to pay too much or do too much they were trying to get away with a lot but that was the spirit of that time. And as the Attorney-General and Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations has said this current generation of taxpayers can never fully meet the burden if it was to be fully monetarily tabulated of this bout of alienation etc.  
But what we do here today is pass legislation strengthening the status of this group of tangata whenua and also endowing back into their ownership either in actual asset title or other interests such as reflected in statutory instruments so that the management of catchment the management of rivers and the improvement of the environment do not take place in spite of their existence but because of who they are and the contributions credible at an economic social and cultural level of this group of New Zealanders the tangata whenua of Mohaka—Ngati Pahauwera. That is something to celebrate. There may have been elements in the last Parliament that were not too keen on it. Suffice to say they now have new jobs.  
I would like to remind everyone that there are challenges in these settlements because they are often happening in parts of Aotearoa where the economy is not strong. Many of their relations are at the moment it has been reported to us by Parekura Horomia having a hang of a time at that Wairoa freezing works. For those of you who come from Te Wahanga Whare Patu Miti from that particular background in the freezing works etc. as Parekura has no doubt reported to you and as we report back to you we stand alongside with you. We do not want to see in those parts of New Zealand our people made increasingly irrelevant so the only option they have is to disappear to Australia and our maraes get lonely and our mokopuna grow up as Aussies or “Mozzies” not New Zealand - based Maori.  
That actually increases the difficulty of the task of turning these settlements into a permanent legacy that generates wealth and income certainly if it is a part of Aotearoa where there are big economic challenges. I can say this without a sliver of doubt because I come from such an area in the very far north so all power to the stewards to the governors and to the supporters. There will always be differences of opinion. There will always be the challenges etc. but unfortunately that defines us at a very deep level as to who we are as Maori.  
The other thing I have said in earlier speeches is about the centrality of rivers because rivers remind us about the difficulty of environmental management and they remind us that as we go forward and try to grow the size of our economy we are going to rely more and more on water. As we rely on water that is going to throw up a new debate as to how can we manage water in such a way that people who are not as judicious in their use of water suffer a penalty and those who are clever in their use of water suffer a benefit.  
It may come to pass that a future Government wants to introduce a raft of rights to do with water. Well I say in this House today that the moment that happens we will see a new bout of Maori negotiations because Maori business where it is to do with natural resources is never over. Treaty business where it is to do with natural resources—that bottle has been uncorked—is never over but it can be dealt with if it is dealt with very openly in goodwill on both sides. After all rain falls from God in equal distribution upon saint and sinner. I see that when I think of rivers as a new challenge coming for tira—groups—such as this one and other Maori groups etc.  
It may not be in the time of a number of us as parliamentarians but unfortunately once scarcity meets industry—and water is the resource that people pursue—rest assured an allocation debate will take place. Maori will be involved in that allocation debate. The final shape and form that the Maori presence takes in a water allocation debate that is for the future but do not for a moment think that it is going to be written out of the script like as I said some angry farmer on a regional council wanting to dismiss the local Maoris. Unfortunately for him his grandchildren could be marrying one.  
We stand and support the sitting member Parekura Horomia; support Dr Sharples who is closely related to this group; and support the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations and we and think of the people who have made their own contributions to these groups. After all it was only in 1975 that we had the passage of the Treaty of Waitangi legislation and it drifted for a while but over the last 5 years it has certainly gathered a great deal of pace. No one on this side of the House wants to see that pace slow. I am disappointed the Greens have a different view. Fortunately the influence of their view is proportionately related to the size of their numbers in this House.  
We wish them well and we wish well those who have taken a responsibility to steer the waka forward. Tena koutou. Kia ora tatou katoa.