Coffey Tamati; Mallard TrevorTAMATI COFFEY (Labour—Waiariki): Thank you Mr Speaker. He hōnore he kororia ki Te Atua he maungārongo ki runga i te mata o te whenua he whakaaro pai ki ngā tāngata katoa. Āmine.Tuatahi ka huri ngā whakaaro ki ngā mate o te motu tae noa ki te koroua o Ngāti Tarāwhai o Te Arawa whānui ko Te Poroa Malcolm. E koro e moe e moe e oki. Ka tangihia a Te Arawa e ngā mate o Mataatua ka tangihia a Mataatua e ngā mate o Te Arawa. Nō reira Mataatua anei a Te Arawa e mihi atu nei. E aku rangatira. Ngā tamariki o te kohu. A Tūhoe moumou kai moumou taonga moumou tāngata ki te pō. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā huihui mai tātou katoa.[Honour glory and peace on the land. May good thoughts come to all men. Amen.Firstly I turn my thoughts to those who have passed on from throughout the country all the way to the elder of Ngāti Tarawhai and wider Te Arawa Te Poroa Malcolm. Rest in peace. Te Arawa is mourned by Mataatua's dead; Mataatua is mourned by Te Arawa's dead. Therefore Mataatua Te Arawa acknowledges you. To the distinguished. The children of the mist. Tūhoe wasteful of food wasteful of treasures wasteful of people to the night. Greetings greetings welcome together one and all.]Firstly I pay respects to our Ngāti Tarawhai koroua who we lost this week and we had at Waikōhatu marae at Ruato. He will be missed by us his iwi. Secondly I stand to greet our manuhiri from the Mātaatua canoe who have travelled to be here today. I acknowledge our tears for their dead and their tears for our dead. Today is a very special day that has been a long time coming. I want to acknowledge that the start of this journey happened under the previous Government and under the Minister for Māori Development and also the previous member for the Waiariki the Hon Te Ururoa Flavell. Tēnā koe Matua Te Ururoa. It was a very wet day in September 2017 when I travelled for the first time to Maungapōhatu to witness the signing of the agreement between the Crown and Ngā Toenga o Ngā Tamariki a Iharaira me Ngā Uri o Maungapōhatu. I remember that the roads were pretty gnarly and that the torrential rain was coming down and it made one part of the road to Maungapōhatu kind of like a rollercoaster ride. I can remember the brother Nika standing there telling me Ah bro just plant your foot down and go!" Thankfully I made it up the hill and was there to witness what a significant event actually unfolded. As a newcomer it was enlightening to be there to feel the wairua of Maungapōhatu to experience the ruggedness of the Urewera and to get lost in the famous maiden of the mist Hine-pūkohu-rangi. What you couldn't physically see though was the hurt and the pain of the people of the land over the assault and the humiliation at Maungapōhatu in 1916 when police rolled into town and with an excessive force of 70 armed men killed two with one of them being Rua Kēnana's son. Some were wounded 31 were arrested and Rua Kēnana himself was taken off for trial ending up in Mt Eden prison for 18 months for morally resisting arrest. Cut to modern day: the Waitangi Tribunal who concluded in its Te Urewera inquiry that the police used excessive force against the Maungapōhatu community that day. They also found that the arrest of Rua Kēnana was unlawful being effected on a Sunday. The Maungapōhatu community it noted went into decline after those events and has never quite recovered. Ngā Toenga o Ngā Tamariki a Iharaira the Maungapōhatu community and the descendants of Rua Kēnana have carried the deep hurt the shame and the stigma of that invasion and its resulting economic and social and spiritual impacts. It's obviously their aspiration to restore their character their mana and the reputation of their tīpuna and also of themselves. The tragic situation behind that story is well documented in the bill and I actually encourage everybody in this House to read it. Many have worked hard these past two years with humility grace and wisdom but it's still a sad and very harrowing story of the colonial Government and the people of that land. "Kotahi Te Ture Mo Nga Iwi e Rua": let there be one law for two peoples. Can I say that it has been acted on today as we speak. The multiple meanings of that statement on the famous flag represents the rising up of the people to seek equality in our society and today his descendants rise to put to rest the balance of justice with the ability to highlight what is not just. But it's by no means an end but a continuation of a movement that started a very long time ago for Ngā Toenga a Iharaira and the rising up of Rua through his thousand-plus descendants today. Let this document the bill be a resource for all of those New Zealand children—those tamariki—in our kura to learn from the mistakes of the past including the mistakes of this Government and the way that it treats its citizens. Serendipitously this coincides with the decision today to ensure that New Zealand history is in fact taught in our schools—the good the bad and the really ugly. Hopefully they will also learn about the other prophets who've been part of our history: Mere Rikiriki nō Taihape; Paora Te Pōtangaroa me Aperahama Taonu nō te Nōta; Te Whatahoro nō Kahungunu ki Wairarapa; Te Kooti; Rātana; Pauro Mareikura me ērā atu poropiti [and those other prophets].Maybe the children will also learn about the Tohunga Suppression Act. Maybe they'll also learn about the Suppression of Rebellion Act and the impact that those Acts had on our prophets and all of the other laws that the Government enacted asserting the colonial domination over Māori here in New Zealand. Wai ka tohu wai ka hua?[Who can know? Who can say?]This bill is an apology but the words on the page aren't as sweet as words to the ear. So Ngā Toenga o Ngā Tamariki a Iharaira me Ngā Uri o Maungapōhatu here is your apology and I'm going to do it nice and slow for you. From the Crown: "The Crown acknowledges that—(a) the arrest detention conviction and sentence of Rua Kēnana have caused lasting damage to his character mana and reputation and to the character mana and reputation of Ngā Toenga o Ngā Tamariki a Iharaira: [you and all] descendants of Rua Kēnana have suffered deep hurt shame and stigma as a result of the Maungapōhatu invasion. … The Crown unreservedly apologises to [you] the descendants … for—(a) the lasting damage to the character mana and reputation of Rua Kēnana his uri and Ngā Toenga o Ngā Tamariki o Iharaira: (b) the deep hurt shame and stigma suffered by them as a result of the invasion of Maungapōhatu. … This pardon is provided to Rua Kēnana for the conviction [that] he sustained for moral resistance to arrest. The restoration of the character [the] mana and [the] reputation of [the man] … his uri and Ngā Toenga o Ngā Tamariki o Iharaira Faith is declared."But it's not the end. This is an apology—let's face it—and an apology doesn't cost a lot. So we've got some work to do in terms of working with you to find out what else we can do—because an apology is nice but it's just a first step. So I look forward to working closely with you a lot as we decide what it is that we can add to this bill add to the future of our relationship. I've got one minute and 30 seconds left on the clock Mr Speaker and I think about all of those uri that aren't here that are sitting there watching maybe in Maungapōhatu maybe in Waimana maybe in Whakatāne Rotorua or Auckland—wherever they are around the world—and I figured now's a really good time to sing his song because it's famous and if we were ever going to do it in the House the first reading of his bill is the time to do it. So can I call on my colleagues to join me for exactly one minute in this song? Rua Kēnana Tūhoe prophet from the UreweraO Rua Rua KēnanaRua Kēnana Tūhoe prophet from the UreweraO Rua Rua KēnanaHe told his people not to go to warLet the white man fight the white man's warO Rua Rua Kēnana.Kia ora. I commend this bill to the House. Bill read a first time. Bill referred to the Māori Affairs Committee.SPEAKER: I think there's a request from down here for another song.WaiataHaka"