Fox MaramaMARAMA FOX (Co-Leader—Māori Party): Kia ora e Te Mana Whakawā anō nā ka mihi ki a koutou e whakarongo mai nei i tēnei wā.[Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker and acknowledgments to you collectively there once again who are listening at this moment.]I used to teach in a wharekura o Wairarapa. Every now and then I had one of my favourite students go: Whaea Marama ooh-sa—just chill." I am going to take that on board at the moment but I will be very interested to hear what the objections are in regard to this bill. I want to echo the words of Te Whiti again: forbearance patience and stout-heartedness—that of the Taranaki people. I acknowledge Jamie Tuuta Matua Mahara Okeroa Toka Walden Wayne Mulligan Te Miringa Hohaia who passed in 2011 and Peter Charleton who passed earlier this year. Their efforts have brought us to this point in hard-fought hard-won negotiations. As long as we are here we will have your back. As long as we continue to stand up and speak we will voice your concerns as all of us in the House endeavour to do. I acknowledge all of the members of the Māori Affairs Committee and all of the members who have taken the time to consider the issues that have been brought before us.You know they are right. This is not the embarrassment of one group that we do not see it all the way to the end. It is the embarrassment of the whole House. I take that on board. Our people have been mucked around by the Crown. That is why we are here. That is why the grievance exists. And we have been mucked around again. We all need to accept that that is our issue to bear. So I apologise on behalf of the House that we could not see this all the way through tomorrow. In The Taranaki Report released in 1996 the Waitangi Tribunal said: "If war is the absence of peace the war has never ended in Taranaki because that essential prerequisite for peace among peoples that each should be able to live with dignity on their own lands is still absent and the protest over land rights continues to be made."The Crown breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi in Taranaki included warfare and they involved loss of life the scorched earth tactics imprisonment raupatu disempowerment and the Crown's unprecedented actions at Parihaka. Given that just the other day was the day that we remember the suffragette movement—and if you see the flowers around the House that is the acknowledgment of women's right to vote—I want to take this whakataukī this proverb this expression straight from Parihaka: "E tū tamawahine i te wā o te kore".["Stand up young women at a time of nothingness".]That reference was made and it encouraged the women of Parihaka to stand and speak because all of the men had been taken away to prison without trial under the 1880 Maori Prisoners Act. And another is: "Piki mai i Pungarehu ka tangi mai te piukara he tohu reo ngā ngonga e rere te manu nawa."["Ascend at Pungarehu the bugle sounds the voice of the crushed is a signal the bird in the distance flees."]This verse is from the waiata that refers to the bugle call at the army camp at Pungarehu. It signals the final stage in the process of loss for the people. You can almost feel and hear that bugle call now as we sit in this House. We are at the final stage. We are at the last hour. We are at the moment when finally we can have the opportunity to take back and move ahead. Although that happens in law we fully recognise that in Taranaki you have never stopped that fight. The whānau who are here have never stopped that fight.I want to acknowledge those members in the House who represent that area and the efforts that you yourself have taken Mr Deputy Speaker and they have taken to bring yourselves to the knowledge of what happened in Taranaki at Parihaka. It is not taught. It is not known widely. You can go and visit towns anywhere in the region and talk to the local people. They know nothing about what happened there. So I want to acknowledge the efforts that you and your colleagues have made to engage yourselves with the information to educate yourselves in this process and to support the voice and the call of the people—because it is their bill. Parihaka has become a symbol not just of peace but of the future with the Kawe Tutaki which is being headed and chaired by the Hon Dame Tariana Turia and all of those others who are involved there. The excitement the possibility of maybe a Parihaka Day a Land Wars Day and all of these things—you can hear the bugle call coming to this point. So I honour their resilience the strength the determination to hold on to the rope. I recognise that this settlement is an opportunity to restore the dignity and the mana and create a true semblance of peace.The Māori Affairs Committee has examined the bill and unanimously recommends minor and technical amendments. The bill was sponsored by the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations the Hon Chris Finlayson. He has led the process for the Crown and has done an exemplary job. We want to mihi to him. But I want to mihi to the people of Taranaki for their fight their commitment their determination and their forbearance as in the kōrero of their tūpuna. I am honoured I am humbled to be here as part of the Māori Affairs Committee and the Māori Party to say that we support you.Finally in my first speech in this House I talked about the place where they passed those laws—the Maori Prisoners Act the Tohunga Suppression Act the Native Schools Act the Suppression of Rebellion Act. When I first came to this House I went to look for that place where they stood and debated them. I wanted to see the seats they sat in the House they stood in and how dare they. How dare they talk about exterminating the natives—how dare they—and I could not find it because it had been burnt down. "Good job."—that is what I thought. But the record of the speech of the kōrero remains because it is the record of the words that are uttered in this House. So we read into the Hansard as the Minister did the raupatu—the confiscation—the grievances and the issues so that they would never be lost; though the House burns down the words remain.And so the words of Te Whiti of Tohu Kākahi and of all our tupuna ahakoa kua ngaro atu ki Te Pō ko tātou te hunga ora i tutuki i ō rātou nā wawata i ō tātou nei wawata ngā wawata mō ō tātou tamariki tamariki mokopuna mō āpōpō mō tēnei rangi mō ngā tau kai te heke mai toitū te whenua! Ko tātou i whakapau werawera i tēnei wā mō te aha? Mō āpōpō! Mō te aha? Mō ngā mokopuna! Ahakoa ka mate atu ahakoa ka ngaro atu ahakoa ka ahi ka wera Te Whare ahakoa ka ngaro atu a Pāremata pea kai reira tonu te kupu o ō tātou tūpuna. Ka tū mō ake ake tonu i roto i te ngākau o te tangata. Kai roto i te ture mō tēnei wā nā reira kai te mihi atu ki a koutou me ō koutou kāwai rangatira kai runga i a koutou; kai konei kai konei tēnā koutou katoa.[Even though they may have disappeared into the void we the living have fulfilled their desires our own aspirations and the yearnings of our children and grandchildren for tomorrow today and the years to come; the land is permanent. For those of us who expended sweat at this moment what did we do it for? For tomorrow! Who for? The grandchildren! Even if I die and disappear the House ignites burns even if Parliament vanishes maybe the word of our ancestors will remain there. It will stand forever in the heart of the individual. At this moment it is embedded in law and so I acknowledge you and your noble kinship ties that are upon you; they are here yes they are present salutations to you all.]"