Young JonathanJONATHAN YOUNG (National—New Plymouth): E ngā mana e ngā reo e ngā rangatira mā tēnā koutou. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa. Before I start I would like to acknowledge Toka Walden Jamie Tuuta and Puna Wano-Bryant. I would like to acknowledge you here today and of course all the tremendous support that you have around you for this very very important occasion. I would like to also acknowledge Te Miringa Hohaia and the memory of Te Miringa and all the work that he has done in supporting where we are today. I would also like to just acknowledge my colleagues the Taranaki MPs—of course Chester Borrows here Adrian Rurawhe and Barbara Kuriger who is here as well. Barbara was involved with the Local Government and Environment Committee in bringing through the urgent legislation around the Kaikōura earthquake and so she was delayed there. I have acknowledged these people and I want to say that these and other members of Te Atiawa and Taranaki and Ngāruahine are people whom I very much admire. I admire their resilience their tenacity their incredible patience and their goodwill. I would like to acknowledge Ruakurī and I would also like to acknowledge David MacLeod as the Chairman of the Taranaki Regional Council who is here today as well. Because of who these people are I know that as they go forward from this day onwards they will go forward with great strength and I know that they will take the Taranaki region forward as well in that. When I think of the words of Te Whiti o Rongomai he said this: Though the lions rage still I am for peace … Though I be killed I yet shall live; though dead I shall live in peace which will be the accomplishment of my aim. The future is mine and little children when asked hereafter as to the author of peace shall say 'Te Whiti' and I will bless them." What great words. And such is the mana of that great leader and the legacy in which Taranaki iwi—in fact iwi all around Taranaki—walk today. When surrounded by greater odds and greater numbers and against cannon horse musket and sabre they resisted passively peacefully when they said—as perhaps the Fitzroy Pole says—this is where it needs to stop. When you read all of this what you see is a people who against all odds maintained strength of spirit and resiliency purpose and mana and who never lost who they are even though they lost much. And that is why Taranaki iwi are going to continue to prosper. In fact out of what this settlement brings to you being a platform of a stronger future you will succeed because of who you are. Because of all that you have had to withstand you have maintained your integrity and your mana and more than anything else I think that puts the complete region and Aotearoa New Zealand in a very good space. I want to also acknowledge the Taranaki Regional Council and I want to thank the regional council for its agreement and its willingness and its embracing of this legislation which enables Taranaki iwi representatives to be members of standing committees. In essence Taranaki iwi representatives are being offered what Wīremu Kīngi offered the European settlers which is to have a part in the decision making. So I do not see it as something that is worthy of objecting to but I think it needs to be something that is comfortably accepted and embraced because what is good for iwi is good for everyone. They care for our environment they care for whānau and they care for their community and I believe that we have nothing to be afraid of. So with those few short words I would like to commend this bill to the House. Nō reira tēnā tātou katoa."