Henare Tau: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHenare Tau: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 30 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:12094. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon TAU HENARE (Chairperson of the Māori Affairs Committee):I want to be placed on record as saying that never before in this House—Hon Annette King: In the history of mankind.Hon TAU HENARE: No. You see the sort of rubbish that comes out of them. You try to make a nice speech you do not want to get too political but what comes even before the first sentence is out of my mouth? They get stuck in. They get stuck in.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: We’ve heard it before.Hon TAU HENARE: Oh they have heard it before. Oh they have heard it before says the man who might want another seat in Christchurch. But look before I was rudely interrupted I was saying that never before in this House have we seen such a Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations who has been around this country trying to sort out the Treaty deals the Treaty grievances that face this country. In 9 years of the Labour Government—9 years of the Labour Government—how many Ministers of Treaty negotiations did it go through? Three four? I cannot remember because therewere so many. We have had one—we have had one—and that is all we are going to have because he will see the job done.This cannot be some sort of issue that is swept under the carpet. This is an issue about New Zealand’s identity. As we move forward what we are seeing is I suppose the fixing of the grievances that have happened and that is a good thing. That actually not only gives the recipient iwi the opportunities that have been denied them for a very very long time but we have seen in most cases in nine out of 10 cases that the iwi that have got their Treaty settlements have put themselves and their iwi on the right track: the big ones Tainui and Ngāi Tahu and the small ones—the very small ones. I can tell you that the thing about a small settlement is that it brings a hell of a lot of pride to that small group of people. It brings the community together and the community see that the local iwi the local hapū are getting on with the job.I want to say to the Minister that he has done a fine job. He has done a marvellous job so has the Office of Treaty Settlements and so have the people who have been employed by the Minister and the Office of Treaty Settlements. I hazard to mention one: the Hon Paul Swain. He has played a huge part in getting these Treaty settlements together. A good Labour MP. A pity there are not a lot of them around now but hey you cannot have everything. You cannot have everything. He retired too soon—he retired too soon.But like I said this is an important part. We think that a lot of the time it is getting the economy back on track as we have done. We think a lot of the time that the most important thing is to make sure that the education system is working like I heard my colleague Mr Hipkins say. But there are other things that are important to this nation and one of them is trying to heal the wrongs of so many years ago. I think and I know that the Labour Party and other parties in the House want to pat the Minister and the Government on the back because they have done a pretty good job of getting these deals done and it has not been easy. It has not been easy and I think that the Māori Affairs Committee deserves a bit of a slap on the back as well—all of them every member.Hon Hekia Parata: Including the chair.Hon TAU HENARE: Yeah well the chair is just one of them. The chair is just one of them. I have certainly enjoyed the job that our Minister and our Government have done on the Treaty settlements and I think it goes towards a good future for this country.