Mahuta Nanaia: Te Atiawa Claims Settlement Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMahuta Nanaia: Te Atiawa Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 15 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:9747. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon NANAIA MAHUTA (Labour—Hauraki-Waikato):Tēnā tātou katoa. “He hōnore he korōria he maungārongo ki te mata o te whenua he whakaaro pai ki ngā tāngata katoa.” Tēnei ka tāpiri atu i taku mihi maioha ki taku rangatira a Adrian e whakatau ana i a koutou katoa. Ahakoa ngā whakahaeretanga ki mua i te aroaro o Te Pāremata ka tika ka mihi atu rā ki a koutou Te Atiawa Taranaki Iwi tēnei te mihi atu!Tēnei te mihi atu me te hoki mahara hoki mahara ki aua wā o tōku tūpuna a Tāwhiao i te wā i haere ia ki te tiki i tērā taonga i waenganui i a koutou hei noho whakaruruhau hei ārahi i a mātou i ngā wā o ngā toimahatanga. Ko taua taonga anō te taonga e whakatakoto ki te taki o Taupiri Maunga. He taonga i waihotia i ngā wā o ngā toimahatanga. Ko te take raupatu tērā taua toimahatanga ki waenganui i a mātou. Nā Te Pūea anō hei whakaora ai tērā o ngā karakia “Te Pai Mārire” hei noho whakaruruhau hei ārahi i ngā whakatupuranga kia taea e tātou te noho piri i raro i ngā tūmanako o ngā mātua tūpuna arā te whakahoki mai i aua whenua i raupatutia e Te Karauna. Nō reira i raro i ērā o ngā maharatanga tēnei te mihi atu ki a koutou katoa.[Greetings everyone. “Honour glory peace upon earth and goodwill to all people.” I add my affectionate greetings to those of my esteemed colleague Adrian when he welcomed you all. Notwithstanding proceedings before Parliament it is fitting that you are acknowledged Te Atiawa and the tribe of Taranaki and I do so accordingly.In greeting you I am reminded of an occasion when my ancestor Tāwhiao went to fetch that heirloom that peace from amongst you as a means of shielding and guiding us in times of hardship. That heirloom was indeed placed at the base of Mount Taupiri. It is an invaluable treasure left for times of hardship that being confiscation. It was Te Puea also who revived that ritual “Pai Mārire” as a means of protecting and leading the generations that would enable us to remain unified under the aspirations of our forefathers and others in terms of bringing those lands back that the Crown confiscated. And so under those recollections I congratulate you all.]I rise to take a very short call on this bill. I want to recognise Minister Finlayson—you did what Labour could not. Indeed I remember when I was just a young member in the House of Parliament when the Waitangi Tribunal report called the Taranaki Report was released in 1996. It was a preliminary report that gave quite a lot of impetus for any Government of the time to commence negotiations with Taranaki. If I recall correctly when Margaret Wilson was the Minister around about the late 1990s going into the 2000s she did try to start negotiations with the iwi of Taranaki but did not succeed—there were too many issues. So Minister you deserve the accolades that have been given to you in the House. This is indeed a significant time to recognise your efforts on the Treaty settlement front.But how do you encapsulate the significance of the historical events that happened in Taranaki in such a brief moment? You simply cannot so I will not attempt to. But what I will acknowledge is that the people sitting in this gallery Minister are the representation of generations and generations of tūpuna who have carried the burden and the flame of the impact of raupatu on successive generations and are seeking resolution.Today is another step forward in New Zealand’s story. It is a necessary step because we are all trying to put some context around how it is that resilience can survive out of such a harsh and harmful history; how it is that resilience can survive at a time when even now when the Mayor of New Plymouth is arguing for representation on a council the people are judged so harshly; and how it is that resilience can remain there as a symbol of fortitude for the rest of New Zealand to say we have got to reconcile the hurts of the past in order to move forward. It is possible because generations and generations like those represented in the gallery remember the efforts of their parents their grandparents their forefathers and their foremothers—those who have again carried the burden of raupatu. So I want to recognise that today.I want to also recognise that in our role as the Māori Affairs Committee things that we cannot arbitrate over are some of the most hurtful things. For example a number of Wai claims are encapsulated in the Te Atiawa settlement and time and time again this creates a lot of challenge for us because we do have Wai claimants coming to say their views were not taken into account and things like that. I am not predetermining that that will be the type of debate that will come to the select committee but I simply illustrate that these are the types of things we consider during the hearing of a bill. We will listen to those concerns; we will be diligent about ensuring that the deed of settlement that your people signed Te Atiawa is reflected well in the legislation and is implemented because a lot of the instruments here in your settlement require diligence on behalf of the Crown to ensure that what you want to happen will happen. No matter if institutional memory on the Crown side on the Government side is lost—the memory within the iwi will remain and people will uphold the deed and its legislation to ensure that what was agreed to will be for the benefit of the next generation and the generation after them. That is our role in the select committee and we intend to carry out that function.I do want to say briefly that when the Local Government Act was last passed—and this directly resulted out of things that were happening in New Plymouth when the council at the time tried to sell Bell Block—one of the issues that came up before the Local Government and Environment Committee was to strengthen the legislation I think it was sections 138 and 140 to ensure that councils could not just sell off endowment land. That directly resulted from some of the events that were happening in Taranaki that were wrong and you were not at a point where claims were proceeding. So I just called on some of my memory to give some insight that there are people in this House who even though a settlement had not been reached were trying to be diligent in observing the interests of you Te Atiawa going forward. With that said—I have not got a long call; I have got two fingers signalling me to hurry up.Kei te mihi atu ki a koutou katoa—[In congratulating you all—]Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: In the nicest possible way—Hon NANAIA MAHUTA: To hurry up.Tēnei he whakarāpopoto kōrero hei tuitui ki te maha o ngā korero tēnā koutou katoa.[I curtail this address which is woven into the very many sentiments expressed; well done.]