te Heuheu Georgina: Te Roroa Claims Settlement Bill — In Committee 
te Heuheu Georgina: Te Roroa Claims Settlement Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:649;Page:18353] 
Hon GEORGINA TE HEUHEU (National) 
: 
 I thank the Minister in the chair the Hon Mita Ririnui. Obviously we had the information but it is good to get confirmation from him. It is also good that the decision was made to make improvements to this settlement in a way that did not delay the settlement through having to have a change in the legislation. We find that a great improvement from where we found ourselves some months ago having to write a minority report on this settlement. We are very pleased that on the advice and affirmation of the claimants and now the official indication from the Minister we are able to say without any demur that we support the settlement. 
My colleague made a comment about the apology. Of course the apology is hugely important to Te Roroa. We have now seen these apologies in the House over a number of years. The apology here follows the apology that has been part of previous settlements. The few words in clause 8 state: “The Crown profoundly regrets its breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles as detailed above and seeks to atone for those breaches.” I have always been fascinated by the way in which those few words mean so much to claimants. For me they have always underpinned the burden of injustice that claimants have carried for nearly 160 years—the burden of loss not only in physical terms but also in human terms. While all of this has dragged on over generations and into the current generation our old people have passed on without seeing any redress or any indication from the Crown represented by whatever Government of the day that wrongs were done and wrongs needed to be atoned for. So the apology in its preciseness is important to claimants. 
The apology is also important to us because it indicates that in a sense the Crown is endeavouring to restore some of its own honour. Of course by the actions of the Crown and of successive Governments from the 1840s onwards the Crown has not only been in breach but has also been without honour. It has been in a place without honour and that is not a good place to be. All of us here now in this Parliament in our collective passing of laws represent the Crown on behalf of New Zealand. So to be without honour in the way we have behaved and acted towards a group a tribe—whanau hapu iwi—or any New Zealander for that matter and in this respect in relation to the particular settlement of Te Roroa is not a good thing. So the apology is important to them but it is also important for us as representatives of the Crown in this House that the apology is made that it is acknowledged and that it is meant. Then we can put behind us a part of our history that none of us here today were responsible for. No New Zealander today was responsible for the hurt but all New Zealanders want to feel that if the honour on their behalf has been lost or crushed then that honour is restored. Today we move on behalf of the Crown to have our own honour restored and to help to restore the honour of Te Roroa as well. That is very very important.