SpeechHon MEKA WHAITIRI (Minister of Customs): E te Māngai o te Whare tēnā koe otirā ngā mema katoa o te Whare nei tēnā tātou katoa.[Mr Speaker greetings and to all members in the House greetings to you all.]Mr Assistant Speaker McKelvie can I add my warm congratulations to your appointment. It is lovely to have your wisdom and expertise from the House so congratulations. I look forward to much more of your guidance in this House.To our Ngāti Rangitihi e te iwi e haramai nei e whakarongo mai nei anei ngā mihi maioha ki a koutou katoa i runga i tō kaupapa whakahirahira i te ahi nei. Nō rēira ōku rau rangatira mā e kui mā e koro mā tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa. [To the tribe coming here and listening these are my affectionate greetings to you all as you present important issue here this afternoon. Therefore my chiefs to my elders greetings greetings greetings to you all.]I'm pleased to stand in support of the second reading of the Ngāti Rangitihi Claims Settlement Bill. It's important to contextualise the second reading in a process that generally takes years if not decades for iwi particularly waiting to hear their particular claims. So at the second reading it is a time to reflect on what the public consultation on this bill transpired—and I'll touch briefly on that.The previous speaker Joseph Mooney who is a member of the Māori Affairs Committee—and I want to congratulate Mr Mooney and all the members of the Māori Affairs Committee who heard this bill and have reported that with very few changes to this House. But essentially all Treaty settlements generally have three parts: they have the apology; they have the cultural redress; and of course they have the commercial financial redress as a way to acknowledge the breaches of the Crown or the acts of omission of the Crown in respect of the Ngāti Rangitihi people.And just to help—because some of my colleagues have asked Where exactly is Ngāti Rangitihi?" So it's the Rotorua-Kaingaroa-Matatā area. It's not part of my estate of Ikaroa-Rāwhiti but not far. It is part of the Waiariki Māori electorate and I'm like I said really pleased and honoured to have a short call on this significant piece of legislation.The point that I wanted to just take some time to explore—and the previous member did address that—was around the Waimangu Volcanic Valley. I think I want to underscore what the settlement actually does because in general when we have disagreeing areas of interest between two neighbouring iwi or in the past Treaty settlements where the ownership of the return or gifting of some properties are gifted to iwi then gifted back to generally the Crown. But in this example that Mr Mooney alluded to we are actually gifting land to Ngāti Rangitihi who will then give it back to Tūhourangi. That is the area that Mr Mooney highlighted in his contribution.It's unusual that an iwi who is at the heart of a settlement receives property and then gives it to another iwi. That's why I wanted to underscore it because it would have been an enormous generosity of Ngāti Rangitihi to accept those conditions of receiving a piece of property and then handing it to Tūhourangi as a means of acknowledging the shared interests they have in that particular property. Not only is this settlement enabling that to happen but they will jointly have a governance structure as I understand it over the particular property that's been mentioned in this House.I just think when we're in a time of—[Assistant Speaker knocks microphone]—kindness and generosity—are you all right Mr Speaker? In this time of kindness and generosity I think the iwi through this particular settlement of Ngāti Rangitihi I think cannot be underscored enough. So I just wanted to mention that as a unique quality within the Ngāti Rangitihi Claims Settlement Bill that we are debating this afternoon and again want to acknowledge the Ngāti Rangitihi negotiators their steering committee and their people for that generosity but for their perseverance in this full and final settlement of which the second reading is a critical part.The $11.3 million in financial and commercial redress is made up of two parts. Ngāti Rangitihi is a recipient of the Crown forest land of the Central North Island (CNI) Iwi Collective which if you recall was negotiated many many years ago. So it's important that that mechanism to ring-fence Crown forest land for Ngāti Rangitihi is being realised through this particular settlement and that's about $7.3 million. Then of course $4 million in straight financial redress making a total of about $11.3 million that has been offered to Ngāti Rangitihi. Of course it's never ever going to be enough but I wanted to acknowledge and highlight the origin of that commercial make-up the fact that Ngāti Rangitihi has an interest in the largest CNI Crown forest which is in the central North Island. I'm sure as we get to the third reading the plans to unlock not just the economic but the social and the cultural and environmental aspirations of Ngāti Rangitihi this settlement package will lean quite a lot into ensuring that they receive that.Can I just add my appreciation to the Treaty Ministers—Ministers plural—who have had a hand in this particular settlement. Can I also acknowledge the hard-working Māori Affairs Committee that did receive 20 submissions—I think they heard seven submitters in general. But the way in which the Māori Affairs Committee has reported unanimously back to this House shows that there's goodwill across this House when it comes to Treaty settlements. So with those few words can I again extend my appreciation to Ngāti Rangitihi. I too hope that in the third reading that we have some of them here in the House. It is a momentous occasion when you have your third and final reading of your Treaty bill. I commend the bill to the House."