Roche Denise: Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō Ngāti Kuia and Rangitāne o Wairau Claims Settlement Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRoche Denise: Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō Ngāti Kuia and Rangitāne o Wairau Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 16 April 2014. Volume:698;Page:17415. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENISE ROCHE (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. E ngā mana e ngā reo e ngā rangatira mā tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa. It is my pleasure to take a call for the Greens on this the final reading of the Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō Ngāti Kuia and Rangitāne o Wairau Claims Settlement Bill. I am mindful that this is ahistoric day and I feel absolutely privileged to be speaking on this occasion on the bill while the people whom this affects are in the gallery.Before I start I also want to acknowledge the very many people who have worked on these claims over generations. I salute their tenacity and strength in persisting in bringing these injustices to light. Many who have started this journey have not lived to see the day and I am mindful that they are not with us. We should be acknowledging them too. I recognise that these settlements are part of a healing of the past for the iwi and that they are also proposed in order for iwi to create a better future. So for those who started this process I acknowledge their faith and their foresight.There have been many attempts by the three iwi in this bill to seek reparation. That goes as far back as straight after the Treaty of Waitangi was signed but it is only now that they have some acknowledgment. It is difficult to do justice to each iwi named in the legislation. Each has a distinct unique history although they are linked by whakapapa. I am pleased that in the deeds of settlement for each of these iwi those histories are told so that their uniqueness cannot be overlooked. Ngāti Kuia signed their deed of settlement on 23 October 2010 Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō signed theirs on 20 October 2010 and Rangitāne o Wairau signed theirs on 4 December 2010. So it has taken a few years to get to this final part. Having looked at the deeds of settlement and the historical accounts it is clear that these iwi are not grouped just because of their whakapapa but also because of the common injustices that they endured.Essentially the alienation of these three iwi from their land and resources started when they were caught up in the dodgy land acquisition conducted by the New Zealand Company in 1839 when the company purported to have bought the entire top of the South Island with little or no regard to the iwi residing there. When the Treaty of Waitangi was signed a year later land sales that pre-dated the Treaty were deemed to be unlawful and the Crown set up the Land Claims Commission to investigate the purchases. However as we have heard and as we have read in the historical accounts only one Māori person was ever interviewed by the commissioner. He did not consult iwi and after only 2 days the commissioner suspended the proceedings when the company asked for an arbitration process that had been used in other areas. As a result of that arbitration an additional payment was made by the company to different iwi and the commissioner subsequently recommended an award to the company of 151000 acres. This was the start of the alienation.That alienation was continued by both the New Zealand Company and subsequently the Crown. Their tactics for alienating iwi from the land included pitting Māori against Māori so as to break the collective ownership of the land. By the early 1900s iwi resources in that area had dwindled to almost nothing. That was from the Ngāti Kuia deed of settlement—the acknowledged history. By 1900 Ngāti Kuia were landless. Ngāti Kuia petitioned the Government for additional land and described themselves as the poorest tribe under the heavens. The Crown attempted to alleviate their position through the provision of Landless Natives Reserves and we have heard how little that meant as well. But to continue—the reserves however were in isolated locations of poor quality and were generally unable to be developed for effective economic use. Ngāti Kuia were also allocated land on Stewart Island but the Crown never granted them title to the land. Ultimately these reserves did little to alleviate the landless position of Ngāti Kuia in Te Tau Ihu.It was a similar situation for Rangitāne o Wairau and Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō. With few resources the people suffered and the iwi have been carrying this hurt for generations. The deed of settlement also contains the apologies that the Crown has offered to the iwi which have been accepted. That is now in the legislation as well. It is obvious with the acknowledgments by the Crown and the apologies for its actions andomissions where the Crown breached the Treaty of Waitangi that it is sincere. But it is an act of generosity by iwi to accept that. Here is an example of one of the apologies: “The Crown profoundly regrets its long-standing failure to appropriately acknowledge the mana and rangatiratanga of Rangitāne. The Crown did not recognise Rangitāne when it purchased the Wairau district in 1847 and recognition of Rangitane mana in the Te Waipounamu purchase was belated. The Crown is deeply sorry that its acts and omissions quickly left Rangitāne landless and this has had a devastating impact on the economic social and cultural well-being and development of Rangitane.” I think it is important that these words are on the record.In the context of the losses the compensation packages are quite small. In financial redress Ngāti Apa ki te Rā Tō has a package that totals $28.3 million Ngāti Kuia’s financial and commercial redress package comes to $24.8 million and for Rangitāne o Wairau the financial redress package is $24.3 million. I make the point here that even when you add that up it is only a fraction of what a southern finance company got quite recently—and it did not lose its land.Cultural redress includes small parcels of land and includes some symbolic vesting of significant land to iwi. Then continuing that generosity the iwi gift them back to the people of New Zealand. The alpine tarns and lakes Rotoiti and Rotoroa and the Nelson Lakes National Park will be vested in Ngāti Apa and then gifted back to the Crown. The cultural redress also includes enshrining the rights of iwi to some of their food resources. I had not seen this before so I thought it was really interesting. So for example Ngāti Apa can apply to the Minister of Conservation to take eels from the Nelson Lakes National Park and Rangitāne for judicious hunting of tītī. This is the cultural redress as well. The purpose of it is to enshrine the status of iwi as kaitiaki in their rohe.No Treaty settlement is without controversy but I have not dwelt on that here. However I do wish to state that the Greens do not ever ever see these settlements as full and final—not while the Crown determines who is in and who is out and not when we cannot know the impact that these sad histories may have on those not yet born. Of course it is not full compensation anyway. But having said that I recognise that there is a delicacy and a balance that these settlements represent and the Treaty settlement negotiators from the iwi should really be acknowledged and recognised for that. I also recognise that this is a day to celebrate for the iwi that are here. Without a doubt you will be on a better economic footing than you have been for 106 years. Your future is far more secure than your past has ever been so we wish you well. Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa.