Clendon David: Ngati Manuhiri Claims Settlement Bill Ngati Whatua Orakei Claims Settlement Bill — Procedure First Readings 
Clendon David: Ngati Manuhiri Claims Settlement Bill Ngati Whatua Orakei Claims Settlement Bill — Procedure First Readings 
[Volume:678;Page:1039] 
DAVID CLENDON (Green) 
: 
 I am pleased to take a call on these two cognate bills the Ngati Manuhiri Claims Settlement Bill and the Ngati Whatua Orakei Claims Settlement Bill and could I say in passing that the Greens in fact do support this process with all due respect to the previous speaker Brendan Horan. We are part of the all-party agreement that this was an appropriate process. The intention of the process is to have the bills go through more quickly. The third readings of course will always be separate to ensure that the iwi and hapu affected have their moment solely for themselves. We do absolutely support this process. As I say with all due respect to the previous speaker we think it is a good process. There is a great deal of legislation. People have waited a long time for these bills. It is time that we have them go through the process as quickly and as smoothly as we can. I certainly add to others’ greetings to the people of Ngati Manuhiri and Ngati Whatua Orakei who have come to this House to witness this step forward. 
I will confine my comments to the Ngati Whatua settlement. As an Aucklander for most of my life indeed—we all know that it is New Zealand’s finest city of course—I know that the city exists only due to the generosity and significant hospitality shown to the early settlers by Ngati Whatua with the gifting of land and the sharing of resources. I think that is a debt we need to acknowledge as we go forward. Clearly the generosity and the hospitality were not reciprocated entirely and that has led to the situation we are in today where we endeavour to make good to make some restitution for the very shabby treatment that Ngati Whatua endured over many years. Perhaps the low point of the relationship between Ngati Whatua Orakei and the Crown—the Government—in modern terms at least was in the 1950s when their homes their whare were destroyed and burnt when their tauranga waka and their fishing grounds were compromised by sewerage pipes and the like. I think it is to the great credit of Ngati Whatua that for the last 30 or so years there has been reassertion of their mana of their right to be there and of their right to be involved in the ongoing future of Auckland. 
Auckland is often called the City of Sails. That is a great slogan a great brand but equally it is a city of maunga—Maungawhau Maungakiekie and Puketapapa. These are the icons of Auckland and clearly we are grateful I think and ought to be grateful to Ngati Whatua for having revealed to us some of the history of those places the significance of those places which were all centres of settlement that supported very large populations of people. Tamaki-makau-rau has been a prosperous place historically and hopefully will be again. But these are important sites and it is a great credit to Ngati Whatua that increasingly they are visible. I recall last year attending the opening of a cycleway on Mount Roskill—Puketapapa. OK that was a good thing for many reasons but it was important and significant that Ngati Whatua were there from the moment it began. They were part of the design of that infrastructure. There is a distinctly Maori flavour to the landscape architecture to the trail itself. They were there to give their blessing to the project on the opening day. That added a real richness and a value and I think it is something that increasingly Aucklanders are acknowledging—the value and the benefit that are coming from moving to a much healthier relationship based on the Treaty. 
It has been mentioned already of course the Takaparawhau occupation in the late 1970s and the tragedy that was associated with it. There was the loss as will be well recalled through an accident of a young child’s life which was a significant tragedy. It is of great credit particularly to the Hawke whanau but to all of Ngati Whatua that they took that stand. It was a turning point and not only in Ngati Whatua history and not only in Auckland’s history; it was a turning point in the history of this country. It was a moment when a hapu when an iwi stood and said “We do not step back from here.” They stood alongside other Maori. They stood alongside Pakeha of I dare say every political persuasion. It was a rare moment it was a turning point and I think we have to acknowledge that historical moment which ultimately led to a victory. 
We have seen a resurgence of Ngati Whatua’s presence in the city. They now manage a significant property portfolio. There is an emergent generation of leadership—people like Ngarimu Blair whom I have had the pleasure of knowing for some years. I have been very happy as a volunteer and purely for my own pleasure to be involved in some of the planting days on whenua rangatira to see Ngati Whatua young people under their leadership running event days and doing a zero-waste programme which not only teaches young people skills and generates some income but proves that young people in the cities can still respond very well to the leadership of the iwi and hapu in very positive ways. The whenua rangatira has always been an asset to Auckland. The revegetation programme and the expansion of that land under some of the provisions of this bill that give Ngati Whatua increasingly some management rights and some control—indeed ownership—of the maunga of other sites around Auckland are going to continue to add richness. I think we owe them a great debt of gratitude. We look forward to Auckland becoming an even more dynamic and beautiful city. It is a pleasure to be part of progressing this bill and we look forward to supporting it. Kia ora.