Mooney JosephJOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland): Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare hurinoa i te Whare nei e mihi atu ki a koutou katoa. Tēnei te mihi nau mai haere mai te iwi o Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki-nui-a-rua. Nō reira mauria mai ō whakaako ki te kaupapa i huihui ā-tākata e mihi atu ki a koutou katoa.[Greetings Madam Speaker and greetings to everyone in the House. Greetings and welcome to Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-rua. And so bring your lessons to this issue in person. Greetings to you all.]Thank you Madam Speaker and to all those who are watching welcome. It is my role today as the National Party spokesperson on Treaty negotiations to rise and to take this call. The Kahungunu hapū and whānau of Wairarapa and Tāmaki nui-a-Rua have been waiting 180 years for justice rising from the Crown's breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi—the Treaty of Waitangi. Those breaches included the Crown taking tens of thousands of acres of their whenua. Later their tīpuna were forced to give up tuku whenua leasehold arrangements with Pākehā settlers and instead sell the land. By 1854 the Crown had taken 1.5 million acres in exchange for very small sums. By 1900 90 percent of their land within the Wairarapa and Tāmaki nui-a-Rua was gone. In the 20th century purchasing for public works took much of what remained leaving only 1.5 percent or 35000 acres of the original whenua in their hands. They were rendered virtually landless which is the position they are in now and which this bill seeks to address. The treatment of Wairarapa Moana is especially distressing—a living taonga treasured by their tīpuna for its abundant supply of food and other customary resources traditionally harvested and traded for the benefit of people from nearby and from afar. Big challenges arose between the settlers and those in Wairarapa Moana and after 30 years of fighting to protect Wairarapa Moana their tīpuna relented and gifted it to the Crown in the spirit of rangatira ki te rangatira. This tuku rangatira was intended to end the discord between Māori and the Crown and Europeans. The Crown was supposed to protect their interests in the lake and set aside ample reserves to ensure ongoing access to the lake as a source of food and other traditional reserves. However it did not do so. After 20 years the Crown gave them land at Pouākani which was far from the Wairarapa inaccessible by road or rail and within another iwi's rohe or area. Those breaches have been recognised by the Crown as having created real and lasting prejudice undermining their economic social and cultural wellbeing. Through this settlement the Crown and the trust endeavour to recognise those wrongs. It cannot right all of them but it intends to try to put right some of those wrongs. Ngāti Kahungunu has written to members of the House asking that this process is not prolonged and the prejudice is not continued and saying that settling now is in the best interests of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua as a whole in the best interests of hapū and whānau to provide for their cultural social and economic welfare and in the best interests of protecting the welfare of the environment of the rohe. This has been 180 years in coming. In the most recent times it represents 34 years of hard work which has seen many kaumātua pass on before reaching this settlement today. Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua have advised that this ushers in a new dawn one that involves a productive working relationship with the Crown offering cultural redress and financial and commercial redress as well as a Crown apology. They say that they welcome this redress for their people just as they welcome a strengthened Te Tiriti relationship with the Crown local government and many other agencies that will come with it. A key element is the ability to purchase the Wairio and Rangedale stations and to return that land to Ngāti Kahungunu. These lands are culturally significant and having rangatiratanga over their whenua will allow the aspirations of the tīpuna to at last be fulfilled. It also includes over 9000 hectares of culturally significant lands being returned as cultural redress. Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua are particularly looking forward to the sense of pride that will come with having that whenua returned to them. Importantly there will be a Crown apology for breaches and the struggles of their ancestors. This has yet to be delivered due to COVID-19 restrictions but it will take place in the future when it can be done kanohi ki te kanohi or face to face to the hapū and whānau. This bill has raised some significant challenges and in fact the Supreme Court delivered a ruling only last week. As the Minister has said the majority of the Supreme Court said that the decision of the court did not affect the Treaty bill currently before the House and that was on the basis that the role of the courts was only to look at the legislation that exists at the time of the decision not the legislation that may exist in the future even if it's the week following the release of that decision. This has been something we have very very carefully considered because the Wairarapa Moana Inc. has had application for this on foot for some time before the Waitangi Tribunal which had been appealed by a number of parties to the High Court and then further to the Supreme Court. The primary issue that the Supreme Court dealt with was the definition of mana whenua and mana whenua relates to lands that are not traditionally in the rohe of the iwi. But the Supreme Court also went a little bit further than the issues that were on appeal to it and that opened the door potentially for a fresh application to be made by Wairarapa Moana Inc. in the Waitangi Tribunal although the Supreme Court recognised that the Waitangi Tribunal would have to change its original determination on the appropriate recipient if a resumption order were made. This has been something we have considered very very carefully. We recognise the mamae that this does bring to Wairarapa Moana Inc. and those it represents and it is something that we haven't taken lightly. We have looked very carefully at Ngāti Kahungunu and the representatives of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua and their wish to bring these proceedings to an end and to have a final Treaty settlement that enables them to provide for their tamariki and create a new dawn for their people. I do note that the point was made that there is Haronga litigation concerning the resumption applications of the Mangatu blocks in Muriwhenua which began in the High Court in 2009 and since that date the matter has been heard in the Supreme Court in 2011 it went back to the Waitangi Tribunal it was heard again in the High Court and the Court of Appeal in 2014 and 2016 it went back to the Waitangi Tribunal for further decisions following those judgments and I understand it is working its way through the courts again. So it will be a long time before there's a final decision on that issue and certainly one of the concerns that has been raised is the very likely prospect of ongoing litigation with no certainty about when that litigation would come to completion. The National Party is very keen for Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua to be able after 180 years and 34 years in this particular journey to get to this settlement point and be able to come to a point of completion so that they can look into that new dawn that provides for them and their people. Importantly these settlements are ultimately not just about what has happened in the past and the present but it's about the aspirations and the mana and the success of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua now and into the future and that is something that we very much wish to support. I should also touch on one other point which has been something we also have very carefully considered and that is the claimant definition of Ngāti Hāmua and Ngāti Te Rangiwhaka-ewa. In this settlement there has been an inability to get agreements between Rangitāne and Ngāti Kahungunu over the claimant definition and the Crown has come to the final position that it's not its role to determine whakapapa on behalf of iwi. As a result the claimant definition for the settlement legislation for both Rangitāne o Tāmaki nui-a-Rua and Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua includes both hapū in their claimant definitions because that is what both Rangitāne and Ngāti Kahungunu say is correct. So that is the way that this has been addressed. In the limited time available to me I say that I look forward to the completion of this settlement and the new future this brings for all of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua and I trust that the internal challenges will be able to be resolved so that all can benefit from this bill now and into the future. Thank you Madam Speaker.