Mahuta Nanaia: Nga Wai o Maniapoto (Waipa River) Bill Ngati Porou Claims Settlement Bill Ngati Pahauwera Treaty Claims Settlement Bill 
Mahuta Nanaia: Nga Wai o Maniapoto (Waipa River) Bill Ngati Porou Claims Settlement Bill Ngati Pahauwera Treaty Claims Settlement Bill 
[Volume:672;Page:18717] 
Hon NANAIA MAHUTA (Labour—Hauraki-Waikato) 
: 
 A tena tatou katoa. Tenei e tapiri atu aku nei mihi ki nga iwi e toru i tae a-tinana mai hei arahi i a ratou kereme ki tenei wahanga kia whakaturengia a ratou wawata i roto i enei kereme. No reira Ngati Pahauwera Ngati Porou Ngati Maniapoto hoki mai ki te kainga tena koutou. 
[ 
Greetings to us all. I add my acknowledgments to those expressed before me to the three tribes who have arrived here in person to guide their claims through this part of the process that will enshrine their aspirations in these claims into law. So welcome home Ngati Pahauwera Ngati Porou and Ngati Maniapoto and congratulations. 
] 
I too want to confirm my and Labour’s support for each of the individual settlement bills—the Nga Wai o Manaipoto (Waipa River) Bill the Ngati Pahauwera Treaty Claims Settlement Bill and the Ngati Porou Claims Settlement Bill which have been brought to the House today. Some comment has been raised with regard to the recent innovation of clustering bills together and bringing them to the House. Although in some respects I acknowledge that this process enables a speedy progress and passage through the House I am unsure whether the innovation in the long term is a positive mechanism in the Treaty settlement process because as the Waitangi Tribunal is an important forum to have histories heard so too is this House of Parliament in terms of putting on the record the context within which Treaty settlements have occurred. It is only through the  
Hansard 
 debate and the debate of parliamentarians in this House that people will understand in retrospect what the particular policy of the day was and why things were done in a certain way. 
Those of us from iwi all know that many Treaty settlements have fallen far short of expectations out there amongst our iwi. I put that on the record for the single purpose of noting that although in a process-orientated manner we want to ensure that those Treaty settlements that are currently sitting before the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations receive full support to go through this House I certainly do not want to lose sight of some of the tensions out there amongst iwi when they observe this process. So with the forbearance of Ngati Pahauwera and Ngati Porou rather than skim over their two claims once lightly I will restrict my comments particularly to the Nga Wai o Maniapoto (Waipa River) Bill with the view in mind of putting on the record some peculiarities that have emerged as a result of the political landscape and I think that the bill and the way in which the settlement has been approached will gain some clarity from my contribution. 
Some comment was made previously by members about the Waikato-Tainui settlement and the agreements reached there. People need to remember that the settlement initialled in August 2008 was somewhat different from the settlement re-initialled later with the National Government. I draw the attention of the House to that point only in so far as the statutory management framework over the Waikato River changed. Initially it was envisaged that there would be a number of statutory boards to manage the Waikato River but with the onset of the National Government’s wanting to streamline processes it basically truncated the statutory management regime. Waikato-Tainui certainly agreed to it but it will I think in the review process present some issues that may need to be considered some time down the track because this is how it affects Ngati Maniapoto. 
The bill that has been presented to the House proposes to put the same statutory regime that covers Waikato and the lower Waipa over the upper Waipa catchment. There is some fertile ground for members through the select committee process to question how that in effect will impact on decision making between the upper catchment and peculiarities around that with regard to the lower catchment. I certainly will focus my efforts on practical questions about the statutory management of the whole of the Waipa and the interests there. 
In setting up the Waikato River Authority Maniapoto is represented there and it is important to ensure that those iwi who are along the whole of the Waikato River have a say. Certainly there is agreement too that Maniapoto’s interests as reflected in the Waipa are very important because one cannot have a clean Waikato River with a dirty Waipa. So it is absolutely fundamental in terms of the contribution to the larger efforts within the Waikato River that Waipa is a significant significant factor that can aid or impede this process if all the issues are not dealt with methodically and systematically. I say “impede” because I draw the attention of the House to the issue of the upper catchment and the need to address quite seriously a clean-up fund in that area. That is a matter that I am sure the Minister and Maniapoto’s negotiators will continue to bring up but if we do not address the upper catchment and the issues around how we maintain a clean Waipa throughout the whole of the river system then we are not actually giving this our full attention and the attention it deserves. So that is probably the first issue. 
The second issue I want to raise is in regard to some of the practical aspects of co-management agreements. Parekura Horomia pointed to joint management agreements with relevant local authorities. We know that territorial authorities and regional councils are resourced to be able to put together joint management agreements to be able to draw on technical advice and to be able to give effect to their part of the picture. But when we are looking at a co-management co-governance opportunity not all iwi who want to go down this path are resourced to the same effect even in terms of human resource to be able to meet the same time frames as local authorities and things like that. In a very practical sense again this is an area where it may be worth the select committee asking further questions to ensure that what we think is being achieved certainly from the Government’s position and the Crown’s position is being effected. I think that is one area where we can see some of the difficulties. 
Also in terms of giving effect to the Waiwaia accord we know that the Government is proposing to merge some of the ministries. The assurance I will be seeking through the select committee process relates to whether it will affect some of those protocols between the Minister his ministry and the practical implementation. What we need to ensure if we are to give full effect to the Waiwaia accord is that those high-level agreements are reflected at the regional level with the regional managers of each of those ministries. Those are some of the questions that I will be looking to ask at the select committee to again affirm the commitment of the Crown with regard to this bill. 
There are a number of other aspects of the Nga Wai o Maniapoto (Waipa River) Bill that I believe it is important to express in the House. Although we from a resource management point of view are quite happy to talk about integrated catchment management and ensuring that that can be given effect to actually for people who live along the Waipa River this waterway this river means so much more. It is really important in terms of capturing the essence of what this river means that we are able to achieve that in some small way in contributions of debate in the House. I hope that in the third reading my contribution might do better on that front. I want to acknowledge the Maniapoto Maori Trust Board the Nga Wai o Maniapoto (Waipa River) Bill team and the negotiators the staff their advisers and kaumatua who have all been a part of this lengthy process. As observers looking in we tend to hear the frustrations with Government processes and certainly with ministries but what I can clearly say and commit to is that this bill sits alongside the greater aim and that I say to the Minister is to ensure that the broader range of Maniapoto claims hopefully can at least be commenced before the election. What we know is that if the true potential of Maori and Maniapoto are to be reached as was referred to by the honourable member Georgina te Heuheu then it is absolutely important that the comprehensive claims in Maniapoto are looked at are sat down with and negotiated with to ensure that Maniapoto too can make its contribution to this nation to the economy and to the well-being of the people—certainly within the region and for this country. No reira kia koutou katoa tena koutou.