Tirikatene Rino: Mokomoko (Restoration of Character Mana and Reputation) Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTirikatene Rino: Mokomoko (Restoration of Character Mana and Reputation) Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 22 October 2013. Volume:694;Page:14168. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): Tēnā koe Mr Deputy Speaker. Ā te whānau Mokomoko tēnā koutou nau mai haere mai. Haere mai ki te Whare Pāremata Te Ana o Ngā Raiona. E rau rangatira mā tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.[Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker. And to the Mokomoko whānau greetings to you welcome welcome. Welcome to Parliament House the lions’ lair. Greetings to you leaders of a hundred fold acknowledgments and salutations to you all.]I am very pleased to stand in support of this bill the Mokomoko (Restoration of Character Mana and Reputation) Bill at its second reading. As a very hard-working member of the Māori Affairs Committee I unfortunately did not get to the hearing on this bill up in the Bay of Plenty—Hon Tau Henare: Missed a good day bro.RINO TIRIKATENE: I did. I was somewhere down deep in Te Wai Pounamu as I recall. But I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the committee on this bill. Can Iparticularly acknowledge our chair Tau Henare for his work. We had to give the officials a bit of a hurry-up on a couple of occasions but I would like to thank Minister Finlayson also for what is a historic bill at its second reading. It is all because of the perseverance of te whānau Mokomoko—their perseverance and their tono. They wanted this bill in Te Reo Māori. This is very much a historic first for our Parliament and for our country. It is a wonderful occasion.I am going to keep my contribution quite brief this morning but I think what I would want to say is that this bill is a salutary lesson in how important it is for Governments to properly negotiate with whānau hapū and iwi over their mamae or their claims that come before this House. We know that there was an apology given back in 1992 which related to some other tūpuna from Ngāti Awa but it did not fully restore the mana of Mokomoko. I am sure this is a lesson for our Parliament that we want to get things right and we want to get things right the first time. Having said that I am pleased that we have been able to go through this process. I actually think we have achieved a better outcome. We have achieved a better outcome because not only have we brought things on a par for Mokomoko but I think we have taken them to another level by having this special bill which has been completely put in Te Reo Māori.I would like to talk just a bit about the nature of the man Mokomoko and mana and reputation which are what this bill is about. There is a quote from Abraham Lincoln. He was the President of the United States back in the day as we know from 1861 to his untimely death in 1865. He said when he was talking about what we call mana that “Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” What President Lincoln was telling us is that the reputation of a man is what someone says it is. As we kōrero more about a person their reputation grows but it is only the thought what someone else thinks of us that makes our reputation. The true estimation of a person is their character. In the case of the quote it is the metaphorical tree so what has more substance is the tree. That represents the person’s character. Like the character of the person it is the real thing that you or I or society should not lose focus of. The tree is real; the shadow is reputation. Character is defined as the mental and moral abilities of an individual.I just wanted to leave that quote because we must not forget the lesson as we progress this bill. We want to not lose focus of the tree of Mokomoko the man. With that in mind I just want to repeat that quote again: “Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.” The shadow that was cast over Mokomoko was due to some misinformation and some trickery. It was an angle. It was some trickery that created a false shadow. But the shadow that was cast by the big tree Mokomoko’s tree is from a tree of strength character and mana. I commend this bill to the House.