Roche Denise: Ngāti Koroki Kahukura Claims Settlement Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRoche Denise: Ngāti Koroki Kahukura Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 09 December 2014. Volume:702;Page:1289. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENISE ROCHE (Green):Tēnā koe Mr Speaker tēnā koutou katoa. E ngā mate haere haere hoki atu rā ki te pō. E ngā mana e ngā reo rau rangatira mā tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa.[Thank you Mr Speaker and greetings to you all. Farewell to you the dead; journey on depart and return to the void. Acknowledgments to the authorities voices esteemed leaders of a hundred fold accolades and congratulations to you all.]When I stand in this House to speak on the final reading of a Treaty bill I am always very aware that with the passage of the bill history is being made. Today is the culmination of years and years of work. That work includes the fight for recognition as an iwi so that Ngāti Koroki Kahukura could negotiate with the Crown; the setting-up of various settlement trusts and post-settlement trusts; the engagement with and the voting of the iwi members themselves; and then of course more recently the renegotiations with the Crown around some of the public unease about the settlement deed itself. That process was pre-dated by decades and decades of pressure from subsequent generations dating back to the first Native Land Court cases in the mid-1860s and the iwi’s attempt to oppose the alienation from their land. I want to acknowledge all that work. I want to acknowledge the incredible persistence that has been needed to continue the fight against the injustices of the past and seek redress for the wrongs done by the Crown when at times it must have felt quite hopeless.It is clear from even a cursory reading of the settlement bill that grave wrongs were perpetuated against this iwi starting with the land-grabs in the 1850s and leading on to the confiscation after the Waikato Land Wars in 1863 and 1864 even though Ngāti Koroki Kahukura’s rangatira Tīoriori worked with the Crown for peace. The actions of the Crown in the 1860s and onwards into the early 20th century broke the collective ownership of Ngāti Koroki Kahukura’s land into smaller parcels which enabled the people to be alienated from the land. We all know that divide and conquer is a sure-fire method to break down the strength of the collective.The acknowledgment of the past in the bill outlines the process of that alienation in detail. At the start of the summary of the historical account in the bill in clause 8(1) it says: “During the 1840s and 1850s Ngāti Koroki Kahukura were a prosperous and flourishing people. Among other things they successfully traded with Europeans. However by the late 1850s there was rising tension over land alienations.” Later in the same clause in subclause (4) it says: “The combined impact of confiscation and the alienation of land for which the Native Land Court had awarded titles to individuals resulted in Ngāti Koroki Kahukura becoming virtually landless by the end of the twentieth century.” Then that impact is also outlined further on in the deed of settlement and in clause 8(8) of the bill where it says: “By 1950 many Ngāti Koroki Kahukura were migrating from their traditional rohe in search of better economic prospects. This disconnected many from their communities and local culture. Ngāti Koroki Kahukura consider that landlessness and social deprivation have contributed to the Crown not recognising them as an iwi in their own right.”This Treaty settlement bill offers financial and commercial redress of around $3 million and cultural redress amounting to around $3.23 million. Ngāti Koroki Kahukura went from having their own resources and land—having their own economic base—to virtual landlessness. Along the way they suffered the loss of their landscape their language and their wāhi tapu. They suffered the flooding of some of their sacred places for hydroelectric dams and 100 years ago at the start of World War I some of their people were arrested for resisting going to fight in that war. Their relationship with their awa Te Waikato and with their sacred maunga Maungatautari has been damaged and they have had difficulty accessing those sacred places.This bill addresses just a tiny fraction of what Ngāti Koroki Kahukura have endured and yet there are some New Zealanders who have no understanding of the history and who will declare this Treaty settlement and all Treaty settlements a gravy train. My response to that is to remind those people that in 2010 this Government bailed out South Canterbury Finance to the tune of $1.7 billion. This settlement is a drop in the bucket—and those people did not lose their land.Among those who have little understanding about the history of this nation is the Prime Minister. In his statement quite recently he said New Zealand was colonised peacefully and that Māori are grateful for the capital that the settlers brought to New Zealand. Ignorance is not bliss. Ignorance in these cases compounds the injuries that iwi have suffered over generations. The rosy 1950s myth of New Zealand as a leader in race relations is completely unfounded and needs to be debunked. Having the leader of our country perpetuate that rubbish is insulting in the extreme. There is no way that any iwi—and certainly not this iwi—would affirm that colonisation was a peaceful process. I ask the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations to take his leader in hand and show him a Treaty bill.I recognise though that today is a day for Ngāti Koroki Kahukura to celebrate. Having said that I am compelled to state for the record the Greens’ position. We will be supporting this bill but we need to state that we do not believe that these are full and final settlements. We remain deeply uneasy that the Crown picks the winners and losers. It can pit Māori against Māori iwi against iwi and hapū against hapū and we fear that in doing so it will create more Treaty breaches. The Greens do not believe that it is full compensation and we must acknowledge the generosity of this iwi who will accept this settlement. They will work alongside other iwi the community and the councils to safeguard and protect their sacred places—Waikato and Maungatautari—and all the people of New Zealand benefit from that generosity.Nor do we believe that it is a final settlement. These are historical claims. That suggests that the past is done with but it is not. We cannot know what impact the past actions will have on future generations. We do understand that this settlement gives Ngāti Koroki Kahukura a start—an economic base that you can use to secure better opportunities for your people; a solid place to step forward into the future. I want to acknowledge the Treaty negotiation teams of both the iwi and the Crown for the work that they have done to bring the settlement to the House today.I want to finish with the last paragraph in the apology that is contained in the deed of settlement and in the bill itself. It says: “Ngāti Koroki Kahukura have a long tradition of seeking a positive relationship with the Crown and the Crown looks forward to renewing that tradition and building an enduring association of mutual trust and co-operation with Ngāti Koroki Kahukura that is based on respect for Te Tiriti o Waitangi and its principles.” We too have hope for a New Zealand where the Crown abides by the Treaty of Waitangi. The children and grandchildren of Ngāti Koroki Kahukura depend on that respect as do all our children. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa.