Paraone PitaPITA PARAONE (NZ First): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker tēnā hoki tātau e noho nei i roto Te Whare. Tiwhatiwha Te Pō kakarauri Te Pō ki a au i Te Pō tiwhatiwha haratuatia takawiritia ngā marae a Māui ka puta te ira tangata ki Te Whei Ao ki Te Ao Mārama tihei wā mauri ora!" E tātau mā he tū wāhi poto tēnei ki te tautoko i ngā mihi a taku tuakana a Peeni ki te whakatau i a koutou ngā iwi o Taranaki nā reira nau mai haere mai! Kia mōhio mai koutou ko tēnei he karere. Ko au te karere mō Te Rōpū Aotearoa Tuatahi. Nā reira karekau i hakahēngia ngā kōrero o ngā kaikōrero i tū ake i mua i a au nā te mea e tika ana kua tae kē tēnei pire ki te whakatau i tā koutou kerēme. E tika ana hoki ahakoa me pēhea te kaha o Te Karauna i whakapāhā ki a koutou ēngari korekau kē i tae ki te whakautu i ngā mamaetanga i taka mai i runga i a koutou i tērā atu rautau. Nā reira kia mōhio mai koutou koinā te whakaaro o Aotearoa Tuatahi. Ēngari ā koinā te mea nui ko te ari kē! Ēngari i mua i te haere tonu o tōku kōrero e tika ana kia mea atu ki a tātau i te āhuatanga i puta mai i tēnei pire he wā tino taumahatanga i roto i te hītoria o ēnei motu.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker and acknowledgments also to us seated here in the House. "The void is gloomy the void is dusky while I am in the gloomy void I slash at the unbalanced and cross-grained marae of Māui and so emerges the human element into the glimmer of dawn and the world of enlightenment behold the breath of life!" To us the assembled this is a short call to endorse the tributes of my elder relative Peeni when welcoming you the tribes of Taranaki so welcome welcome! You collectively must understand that this one is a messenger in that I am the envoy for the New Zealand First Party. Therefore I did not oppose the contributions of the speakers who got up before me and quite rightly as well because this bill has already reached the point where your claim has been settled. It is fitting too regardless how hard the Crown apologises to you collectively. But it did not get there to respond to the pains that fell upon you collectively in the last century. And so you collectively must understand that is the view of New Zealand First. But that is the main thing it is clear! But before I go on with my address it is fitting that I inform us about the situation that came out of this bill. It was a period of great difficulty in the history of these islands.]I just want to say that I stand in support of the welcome extended by my older brother Peeni Henare to our visitors to their House today. I also stand to acknowledge all those who have passed and to acknowledge those also who have been responsible for bringing this claim this settlement to this point in time. Although we have heard in previous settlements that the Crown can never apologise enough or recompense the iwi enough to meet the full breach that the Crown imposed at the time on iwi Māori I want to take this opportunity of supporting that acknowledgment and in so doing I hope that the people of New Zealand will also accept that very point. As the previous speakers have pointed out in 1860 Ngāruahine had their own independence. They were economically sustained by their own efforts and yet 5 years later all the asset base on which they relied for that same sustainability for that same rangatiratanga that we talk about was gone. They moved as a consequence of that and in 1881 they were again dismantled. Some were taken off to prison without any formal charges being laid. This bill is all about compensation for those breaches.Some speakers have talked about a particular clause in the bill and I want to base my contribution to this debate around that. I am referring to clause 86 "Iwi representation on Council committee". I appreciate that this was what was asked for by those who represented the iwi but I want to just remind this House that a little over 2 months ago we had a series of local body elections. A number of Māori were elected on to councils. They got there without the need to have special legislation. It has often been said that one of the reasons Māori are not as represented as they should be on local body councils is that people do not vote. I know that those who have been responsible for bringing this bill to this House today know that they need to focus on their young people. I am talking about those who have reached the age when they are allowed to vote through to say 35 because it is that group of people who do not vote. If we are not going to have people voting to get our people on to councils then we will have the situation that this clause tries to address.I want to also remind the House that in 2001 the then-Labour Government introduced a bill that established two seats dedicated for Māori on the Bay of Plenty Regional Council. At the time that council had six members who claimed Māori descent. Subsequent to the passing of that piece of legislation that council has had no more than two Māori representatives on council. What I am suggesting is that this clause within the bill will limit Māori representation to just that committee unless our people get out and vote. If they do not do that then councils will be bereft of that representation. I also want to make the point about particular interest groups like Federated Farmers. We oppose that as well. This is just to make this House aware that we oppose that. That is in spite of Taranaki area having a number of Māori farmers who probably are represented by Federated Farmers. I just want to make that point. With the time that is left for me I just want to wish Ngāruahine the best as they go forward. If they think that the task of getting this to this stage has been one of hard work can I suggest that the future will be even harder. While I am on my feet I just want to ask whether or not some of their negotiators might want to join my relatives in the north and help us get our settlement. Then again that is something for the north. Nā reira e tātau mā kia tau te rangimārie ki runga i a koutou i te wā i anga mua i a koutou nā reira tēnā koutou kia ora mai anō tātau.[Therefore to us assembled allow the peace to settle upon you collectively in the time ahead of you so congratulations and my appreciation once again to us all.]"