Finlayson ChristopherHon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National): National strongly supports the third reading of the Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki Claims Settlement Bill. I was at Maraetai on 7 November 2015 to sign the deed of settlement. The Ngāi Tai marae is an absolutely beautiful place by the shore. I don't know whether it's the most beautiful marae in the country; it probably is. I always think of Ngāti Mākino's marae. I don't know about Ngāti Apa but certainly Ngāti Manuhiri has a beautiful marae. But the marae at Maraetai is a very special place. It was a wonderful November day and I was really pleased to be there.There are three points I want to make. First of all I acknowledge the very gracious speech of the Minister Andrew Little. I'm not going to repeat the historical matters that he canvassed because I think he did it very well and I don't want to repeat it myself. The second point I want to make is that there's a little bit of ill feeling here about the lapse of time between the signing of the deed of settlement and getting the legislation to the House. In that regard I want to acknowledge the great efforts of the Parliamentary Counsel Office (PCO) who had to extract from the Hauraki legislation the relevant parts of the Ngāi Tai settlement so that we could get the legislation into the House and into the Māori Affairs Committee last year. It was a very complex exercise but PCO needed to do that.We had hoped it would be possible to have an omnibus bill to deal with all the settlements for Hauraki and Ngāi Tai. It didn't come to pass but there was no delay on the part of the Crown even if there was a lapse of time. That is why it was important to get some of the settlement pūtea to Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki. The bill since it's been introduced has gone to the select committee and is now back in the House and I am sure it's going to be signed into law by the Governor-General in the very very near future.The second point I want to make—and it picks up on what the Minister has said—deals with the issue of cultural redress. Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki are already involved in a very important aspect of cultural redress and Treaty settlements and that deals with the maunga in Tāmaki. The Ngā Mana Whenua o Tāmaki Makaurau Collective Redress Act was passed in 2014 and that established the Maunga Authority. Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki are very important players in administering those maunga together with Auckland Council. They will be aware that this is very much new territory and there's a bit of tension out there and it's very important to work with other people in the community so that the Maunga Authority doesn't get offside with the general public. There's a lot of goodwill out there towards that particular aspect of cultural relief but that goodwill will evaporate and there will be strife if the Maunga Authority doesn't go out of its way to communicate its decisions to people and the rationale for those decisions. I'm sure that the good people of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki understand that and are going to be working very closely and hard within the Maunga Authority to ensure that the general community understand why certain things are being done or why certain things are not being done.Part 2 of this legislation deals with cultural redress. I want to acknowledge the support of the Department of Conservation (DOC) in getting to this stage. I think the Department of Conservation has come a long way in the last decade. In the closing stages of the Clark administration the approach to cultural redress tended to be that small and discrete parcels of land would be made available for Treaty settlements and DOC had a very proprietorial approach to all its property and didn't want to part with any of it. It used to be a very difficult and protracted exercise to persuade them that land should be made available for iwi as cultural redress.I remember very very well for example in the early stages of my stewardship of this portfolio that Fran Wilde was my chief Crown negotiator with Ngāti Pāhauwera in the northern Hawke's Bay. She rang me and said The Department of Conservation is determined that certain lands are not to be made available as cultural redress." and she said "They're supposed to be pristine lands." The only problem with these pristine lands that the iwi wanted was that they were covered in gorse and had goats on them. It was a former Lands and Survey farm that had come to the Department of Conservation in 1987. I said I'd pay a visit. By the time I paid the visit the goats had all been killed and the gorse had been removed but the land eventually was made available to be handed over.I tell that story because the Department of Conservation tended I think to adopt a somewhat selfish approach to dealing with the issue of cultural redress. Under their current director-general they have come a long way and they recognise that the principle of "small and discrete" doesn't work and that iwi—who I think are the best managers of so much land for conservation purposes—should be entitled to the return of cultural lands that reflect their needs their history and their aspirations.So it is here that there are a number of parcels of land that have been returned. Some of that land has been Department of Conservation land and the fact that the fee simple estate now vests in the trustees and it ceases to be a conservation area under the Conservation Act 1987 shouldn't upset anyone at all because—and I come back to my original point—iwi understand the importance of conservation; iwi can be relied on to look after these lands and where there is a guarantee of continued public access ensure that that continues; and these lands need not always be held by the Crown. I hope and I'm sure under the leadership of this Minister we won't go back to that very short-sighted and self-defeating approach of "small and discrete". We should be able to transfer to iwi cultural redress which befits the particular settlement based on the history and that's why Part 2 deals with important issues of cultural redress.In my experience there are several parts of a settlement that some people sometimes overlook. People always get fixated on the commercial relief but that's only part of it. The history and the apology are extremely important in a Treaty settlement and—as this Minister will see as he signs deeds of settlement over the next little period—people want to know what the history was they want the general public to know what the history was and they want an adequate apology. But the second part that's incredibly important as well is the return of cultural land and that's where the Department of Conservation has such a huge role to play. And that is why Part 2 of this legislation is so very important.They're the only points I want to make. I want to congratulate Ngāi Tai and wish them all the very best for the future. I very much enjoyed working with them. They have an important role to play in Tāmaki with the Maunga Authority to ensure that the Maunga Authority continues to work with the general public for the benefit of the maunga. They've got important work to do in and around the Maraetai area and I'm sure in the years to come they're going to discharge their responsibilities very effectively. My thanks to Laurie Beamish and other members of the team for all that they've done. On behalf of the National Party I wish them all the very best for the future and commend the bill to the House."