Korako NukNUK KORAKO (National): Tēnā koe e Te Mana Whakawā e huri noa i Te Whare nei e mihi atu ki a koutou katoa e ngā uri o Tōrerenui-ā-Rua. Nō reirā e Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki tēnā koutou tēnā koutou. E mihi atu ana ki a koutou katoa. Mauria mai he whakaako ki te kaupapa nunui. Nō reira e koutou rā e mihi atu ki a koutou katoa.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker and salutations to you all throughout this House the relatives of Tōrerenui-ā-Rua. Therefore acknowledgments and accolades to you collectively Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki. I acknowledge you all. Bring forth a teaching to the matter of huge significance. So I salute you all indeed.]It is indeed my pleasure as the chair of the Māori Affairs Committee to speak on the Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki Claims Settlement Bill in its first reading. I want to acknowledge Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki and its rakatira who are here today along with the members of the iwi. This is a milestone of a journey that has actually been a long time coming. Today marks the beginning of that final stage towards settlement with the Crown—a journey that started in the 19th century.It is important to note that this is an iwi with interests in both Waikato and Tāmaki-makau-rau. As a Waikato iwi Ngāi Tai's claims in the Waikato region were settled through the Waikato raupatu settlement. This bill addresses the claims of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki in relation to Tāmaki-makau-rau.In 2007 the Waitangi Tribunal held an urgent inquiry into the Crown process for offering redress in Tāmaki-makau-rau. The Crown responded with a settlement proposal in 2009 which Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki accepted and the Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki Tribal Trust was mandated to negotiate on behalf of the iwi. This in itself was an important step for Ngāi Tai. The actions of the Crown which I will touch on shortly for the record in this House on the first reading led to the marginalisation and the invisibility actually of Ngāi Tai in their own tribal rohe. The Crown's acceptance of their status through this settlement is indeed of great importance.Ngāi Tai was an iwi that enjoyed the benefits of early interaction with settlers and who welcomed the arrival of the Crown. Two Ngāi Tai rakatira are believed to have signed the Treaty of Waitangi. Prior to the signing of the Treaty Ngāi Tai had entered into a land sale with a missionary who had provided that one-third of the block would remain with the iwi for their personal use forever. However when the Crown got involved it granted a small parcel of land to the missionary and kept the rest as surplus land. Following the protest by Māori in Tāmaki-makau-rau the Crown paid some compensation to other iwi for the lands that had already been taken from them.In February 1854 the Crown paid Ngāi Tai £500 to relinquish their claims to any land within Tāmaki. This included the land that the missionary had recorded as being reserved for Māori. As part of that agreement the Crown promised a reserve for Māori and granted the Umupuia Reserve to Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki. This reserve was a fraction of the size of the original block and much less than the reserve land that Ngāi Tai was actually expecting. In subsequent land transactions that were allowed by the Crown the Crown retained approximately 3000 acres of the Ngāi Tai land made no assessment of the adequacy of the iwi's remaining land and reneged on its promises to reserve a tenth from each transaction for the benefit of Māori. A royal commission of inquiry in 1927 ruled that by spending money on medical and school services for Māori in Auckland the Crown was fulfilling its tenths obligation despite not reserving one-tenth of each pre-emption waiver of that land sale. Regardless of the way this differs from what the Crown had agreed Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki assert that subsequent generations have derived very very little benefit if any at all from this.Around this time Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki's shared customary interests in Tiritiri Mātangi Island were also extinguished. On the basis that Ngāi Tai had allowed Europeans to occupy Tiritiri Mātangi Island the Native Land Court awarded ownership of the island to the Crown. Motutapu an island of great significance to Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki was alienated through the awarding of individualised title to the children of a settler who had purchased the island and his Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki wife. The interests of the children who were deceased at the time were never properly investigated and Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki remained unsatisfied with the outcome for many many years.During the New Zealand Wars the majority of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki expressed loyalty to the Crown—they expressed loyalty to the Crown—while a small number of individuals joined other iwi in fighting against the land confiscations.When Parliament enabled the Crown to confiscate the lands of those iwi deemed to be rebellious Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki was not included on the list. However its land in the Waikato was still affected by that confiscation. Subsequent petitions to Parliament hearings of the compensation court and the Sim Commission did not result in any satisfactory outcome for those affected by this confiscation.Alienation of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki continued well into the 20th century. Just one example: in 1946 the Crown purchased a 225 acre block to be used for a land settlement scheme for Māori returned servicemen. It also assured the iwi that it would be used for the rehabilitation of only one serviceman and possibly one other. What actually happened was that the Department of Māori Affairs ran a dairy farm on the land which employed that serviceman but it never permanently settled him there and in 1956 the Crown sold the land to a private purchaser.Over the many years of alienation and landlessness Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki suffered a loss of its tribal structure its culture its traditions and its identity. This story that is now in Hansard that is now on the record is the story of another iwi that deserves through legislation compensation and it also deserves—the fact is that this is the first reading and the journey that the bill will take through this House is to the second reading the Committee of the whole House and the third and final reading when it has the Royal assent and is elevated into legislation and into law.As chair of the Māori Affairs Committee I say that we look forward to those submissions now. Let us begin the final part of the journey. Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki kia kaha kia māia kia manawanui. Nō reira e koutou rā tēnā koutou tēnā koutou e mihi atu ki a koutou katoa. [Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki be resolute bold and stout of heart. And so to you collectively acknowledgments and accolades I congratulate you all.]I commend this bill to the House. Kia ora.Debate interrupted.