Rurawhe Adrian: Te Hiku Claims Settlement Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRurawhe Adrian: Te Hiku Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 04 November 2014. Volume:694;Page:591. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ADRIAN RURAWHE (Labour—Te Tai Hauāuru):Ā tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Otirā tēnei ahau e tuku mi’i atu ki a koutou ngā iwi o Te Hiku o Te Ika ki a Ngāti Kuri NgāiTakoto Te Rarawa Te Aupouri. Anei ahau he uri o Ngāpuhi o Ngāti Kahu anō hoki e tuku mihi atu ki a koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou. Otirā e mi’i atu a au ki a koutou ngā kaikōrero katoa e tuku atu ō koutou kōrero kei rō Te Whare nei.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker but at the same time I acknowledge you collectivelythe tribes of the Tail of the Fish Ngāti Kuri NgāiTakoto Te Rarawa and Te Aupouri. Here I am a relative of Ngāpuhi and of Ngāti Kahu as well extending a greeting to you collectively. Acknowledgments accolades and salutations. Indeed I acknowledge you all the speakers.]I just want to start off by first acknowledging all of the iwi in the House today who were involved in this bill. I want to echo the words of the previous speaker matua Pita Paraone about the extension of the hand in this case. I remember that when I was part of my iwi Ngāti Apa’s claim the then Minister in charge of Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Mark Burton said these words: “Every iwi that settles their claim performs an act of generosity to New Zealand.” In support of what the member Pita Paraone has just said I would like to repeat those words and apply them to the iwi involved in this bill—ngā iwi o Te Hiku.Today I also think it is important to recognise the considerable effort that has gone into this major bill which involves many parts. I understand that it is one of the biggest bills to ever come to the House. I think that acknowledgement of the Crown and of all the iwi negotiators for bringing this settlement together needs to be made and I do that today. I also acknowledge all of us who have whakapapa from Tai Tokerau. So far I am the fifth speaker in this debate of around 10 speeches with whakapapa from Tai Tokerau and maybe there is one more coming; I am not sure. If so then the majority of the speakers today have been from Tai Tokerau.I think that is something to be celebrated because one of the frustrating things about sitting in the gallery and I have been there when a settlement bill has gone through the House is that you do not get to reply. I know that quite often there will be some people sitting in the gallery who would love to reply—notwithstanding the former member the Hon Shane Jones I am sure. From this bill—which will be split into five different bills I understand—each one of the iwi will have their own settlement bill and then their own settlement legislation.I want to turn my attention to two features of this bill—namely the cultural redress and the collective redress elements. The collective redress elements surely must have taken a lot of discussion for four iwi. I know what it is like to get one iwi to agree on something at home in my hapū and iwi but this gets four iwi to agree on collective redress elements such as the Crown forestry licensed land and the arrangements that are in this bill which will set out quite clearly the arrangements for its future management and the benefits derived from that Crown forest land.Also I want to mention—and it has been mentioned before as well—the arrangements for Te Oneroa-a-Tōhe Board. Each of the iwi will participate on that board along with local authorities with 50 percent representation from iwi and 50 percent representation from local bodies but with decision making having a requirement of a 70 percent agreement. That to me tells me that the people who have negotiated this settlement are determined that there will be a very clear decision-making process and that consensus—for want of a better word—would probably be best to describe the overall function of that board at a 70 percent majority.I also want to mention te korowai and the collective arrangements around that part of the bill as well. It will also require cooperation from all of the participants for that to work. So I congratulate the iwi of Te Hiku on their determination to use that part of this bill and this agreement for the future benefit of their people. That is also the case for the social development and well-being accord which in a similar vein is part of that collective of working together in unity. So I want to acknowledge that as well.There are always fish-hooks as I like to call them in such legislation. I just want to record that with regard to the relationship agreements within the bill where the Crown says that it will have a taumata rangatira hui each year between the iwi and the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations there is an “or” and I get worried when there is an “or” in these arrangements—“or” the ministries themselves. I think it is really important to have it recorded that those meetings with Ministers—with the decision makers—are at the highest level because my experience tells me that when officials and not Ministers sometimes turn up to the meetings they are not the decision makers. So I would encourage the Government to make sure that it is indeed the Ministers who turn up to those meetings.There is a host of cultural redress items including—and I counted—81 properties to be transferred to Ngāti Kuri Te Aupouri NgāiTakoto and Te Rarawa. Some of these properties are shared but I think—along with such things as statutory acknowledgments protocols fisheries advisory committees geographic place name changes and a host of other mechanisms—that it does mean that that cultural reconnection can be a real thing for the iwi involved. Although I have whakapapa from the north I have spent my entire life in Te Tau Hauāuru with my mother’s people. I was happy to have a story relayed to me by one of my colleagues Kelvin Davis about Murimotu Island which both Ngāti Kuri and Te Aupouri have interests in. I was told the story of Tūmatahina a great warrior and chief who found himself along with his people under siege on Murimotu Island. He asked his people to weave a long flax rope which they then used to guide themselves to the mainland with each one of them stepping in the footsteps of the person ahead of them hiding the fact that all of them had left the island. Through this action Tūmatahina saved the lives of his people.That story is about the tenacity of a great leader. It is about survival it is about unity of purpose and it is about protecting the future. I think that in a modern sense this bill and the work completed by ngā iwi o Te Hiku o Te Ika highlights the iwi’s tenacity their unity of purpose and their desire to protect the future for their mokopuna.Nō reira e Te Mana Whaka’aere o Te Whare nei tēnā koe otirā e tuku mi’i atu anō ki a koutou ngā iwi o Te Hiku o Te Ika tēnā koutou tēnā koutou.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker of this House and my acknowledgments indeed to you the tribes of the Tail of the Fish. Thank you collectively and congratulations.]I commend this bill to the House.