Turei Metiria: Ngaa Rauru Kiitahi Claims Settlement Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Turei Metiria: Ngaa Rauru Kiitahi Claims Settlement Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:627;Page:21929] 
METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
: 
 E te manuhiri tuarangi nga kaumatua nga rangatira koutou Nga Rauru Kitahi kua tae mai ki te tautoko i tenei ahiahi nau mai whakatau mai haere mai. 
[ 
To the visitors from afar to the elders chiefs and those of Nga Rauru Kitahi who have arrived here in support this afternoon welcome alight here welcome. 
] 
The Green Party congratulates Nga Rauru Kitahi on its settlement. Many years and many dollars from pockets that can ill afford it have gone into the pursuit of this settlement and that work will be rewarded at the end of today. We are very pleased to see the return of moneys and land to the iwi who lost so much in the wars and in the past. We are particularly interested and pleased to see that Nga Rauru Kitahi has put forward the proposal of the paepae rangatira which has developed a new way for iwi and the Government to deal with issues between them. It is very innovative and exciting and the Greens look forward to seeing it succeed. This settlement will provide Nga Rauru Kitahi with enormous opportunities. 
Much has been made during the discussion on the bill about schedule 12 and the iwi’s decision to include in the schedule a statement of association of values over an area of land. The Greens are fully committed to the iwi’s entitlement to have its legislation its settlement bill reflect its views in its own words. The complaints from various political parties in this Parliament have been immature and pathetic and show just how desperate politicians can be to keep iwi Maori in their place—faceless and voiceless. 
During the second reading of the bill the Associate Minister in charge of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations asked why the Greens treated this bill as if it were a black day for Nga Rauru Kitahi. The Greens do not consider that this is a black day for the iwi. The Greens are prepared to face the hard truths about settlements and to be honest about the real costs of settlements both to the claimant groups and to those hapu marae and whanau for whom these settlements are not a resolution. We want to make sure that all the voices of the iwi and hapu are heard not just those that the Government and the Office of Treaty Settlements have picked as today’s winners. We have to be honest about the real and full costs of settlements; otherwise we will not continue to pursue the best the most just and the most equitable means to resolve the crimes of the past. If we cannot expose the difficulties and the inconsistencies in the direct negotiation process then we are certainly committing further wrongs. Iwi and hapu have worked too hard lost too much and come too far to be left treading water replacing one wrong for another. 
Once this bill is passed this Government and this Parliament will have no further control over the way that Nga Rauru Kitahi manages its affairs. At last the State will have to butt out and leave the iwi and hapu to get on with the job of managing their own resources and responsibilities answering to their own people and not to this Government. This is not about getting out of grievance mode. It is not about moving forward. Those are platitudes and they mean nothing. Iwi and hapu must by now be sick of hearing these statements made by politicians that are designed to sound profound but are based fundamentally on ignorance. Iwi are not living in the past. Iwi and hapu have never been in grievance mode. They have struggled for years and years for a modicum of justice in an inherently unjust system. Iwi and hapu do not have to move forward; they have never stopped moving. They have never surrendered their struggle. It is the Government it is politics politicians and political parties in this House that are in grievance mode. It is the Government and the State that now have to move forward and leave these people alone to exercise their own rangatiratanga. 
This is a very short contribution because the Greens want to see this bill passed swiftly. The Green Party acknowledges the gift that Nga Rauru Kitahi has made to the country in accepting this settlement. We wish it the very best for its future.