Flavell Te Ururoa: Port Nicholson Block (Taranaki Whanui ki Te Upoko  o Te Ika) Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Port Nicholson Block (Taranaki Whanui ki Te Upoko  o Te Ika) Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:650;Page:19152] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena koe Madam Assistant Speaker. Kia ora tatou katoa. Koutou no koutou tenei whenua kare e tika ana ma te manuhiri te tangata whenua e mihi. Hoi ano ko taku he whaiwhai haere i te ahuatanga o nga korero a era i tu i mua i a au. Whakatau mai ki roto i te Whare nei tena koutou katoa. Otira ka huri atu ki a koutou o te Kahui Ariki ka rere tonu nga whakaaro ki Waikato he piko he taniwha he piko he taniwha te korero nau mai tena koutou kia ora tatou katoa. 
[ 
Greetings to you Madam Assistant Speaker and to us all. This land belongs to you the people of the land and it is not for the visitor to welcome to what is yours. Mine is merely to follow up on what others before me have advocated. But do make yourselves at home in this House. I turn now to acknowledge you the King movement; to Waikato and that adage: at every bend of the river is a chief. Welcome greetings to you and to us all. 
] 
It is a rare day when every member of this House can acknowledge a special association to a Treaty settlement. Today is that day when all of us honour the descendants of Taranaki Whanui ki Te Upoko o Te Ika for their generosity in allowing us to work in their rohe. We honour the presence of the uri of Taranaki iwi who migrated here to Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara in the 1820s establishing settlements around the harbour Kaiwharawhara Waiwhetu and Te Aro Pa. We acknowledge them all: Te Atiawa Taranaki Ngati Tama Ngati Ruanui and Ngati Mutunga who descend from the ancestors of Taranaki Whanui ki Te Upoko o Te Ika. 
For the uninformed some might ask how the heck the name “Taranaki” ends up in a bill about Wellington land. Similarly many would not know that Taranaki tuturu is actually one of the many tribes of Taranaki. This is the history a Maori history of migration. So to my in-laws and koeke of my Puniho and Parihaka children I say tena koutou kia ora tatou. 
The Maori Party as we say is unique in this Parliament for having kaupapa Maori drive us as our philosophical base. So it is with much pleasure that we note that the Port Nicholson Block claims also live by kaupapa that has paved the way for this significant day. I want to share with this House the kaupapa that they adhere to in their commitment to ensure that the settlement benefits are shared by all who are entitled to them. That kaupapa is: 
Together we arrived 
Together we lived 
Together we survived 
Together we go forward 
And together we will succeed. 
We believe that this kaupapa provides an impressive foundation for a future a foundation that validates the history passed down through the generations a foundation for success. 
Today is a critical point in the lives of generations to come. Taranaki whanui have mobilised all of their people to rebuild. These are people who have suffered the loss of connections to their harbour forests waterways and natural resources within the Port Nicholson Block. 
The ultimate offence had its beginnings in the 1839 deed of purchase the document that the Waitangi Tribunal later found to be invalid. It is somewhat overwhelming to think that we are doing what we are doing today in an attempt to make right the wrong committed almost 169 years ago to the day. The 1839 deed written in draft form and signed on 27 September 1839 but written only in English assumed ownership of the Wellington Harbour and its environs without even including a map of the boundaries. Before the New Zealand Company had even set foot in Aotearoa it had sold nearly 100000 acres of the Port Nicholson area to prospective settlers through a grand lottery in London for goodness’ sake! The 1839 deed of purchase re-appropriated the whole of Wellington city and its suburbs including Lower Hutt Upper Hutt and Wainuiomata. 
Wellington city is of course the seat of Government an area of major population the site of one of our most important ports and a business hub. The rugged hills and the lack of flat land mark out this space as one in which the whenua has acquired great financial value. 
I understand that it was 21 years ago that two men submitted a claim to the Waitangi Tribunal: Makere Rangiatea Ralph Love and Ralph Herberley Ngatata Love. Ka mihi ki a raua. That claim was on behalf of the beneficiaries of the Taranaki Maori Trust Board the Wellington Tenths Trust and the Palmerston North Maori Reserve Trust together with nga iwi o Taranaki. The claim was made on the following grounds: the Crown’s failure to ensure that one-tenth of the Port Nicholson Block was reserved as provided for in the 1839 deed of purchase for Port Nicholson; the exchange of reserve land in Port Nicholson for land of a lesser value in Palmerston North; the taking of Wellington Tenths reserve land for endowments; and the leasing in perpetuity of Wellington Tenths and Palmerston North reserve land. 
And so today we honour all those of Taranaki whanui for their perseverance in putting on the table claims relating to the action of the New Zealand Company the theft by the Crown of Maori reserved lands and the failure of the Crown to provide an adequate land base for Maori. They have also put on the table the impact of the regime of perpetual leases the damage and devastation caused by pollution and sewage arising from urban development and the reclamations around the harbour to provide land for public purposes. 
This is a day too to acknowledge and congratulate Taranaki whanui and a very impressive claims team. Some of them have been mentioned but I acknowledge them again: Professor Ngatata Love Sir Paul Reeves Neville Baker Kara Puketapu June Jackson Liz Mellish Mark Te One Dawn McConnell Dr Catherine Love Spencer Carr and Kevin Amohia. That there is a team! They have told their story which has been 21 years in the drafting but decades and generations in the creation. It is a story in which many of the main characters have now passed on and are no longer with us. We remember them. E hoa ma you have done well. 
The settlement has a quantum of $25 million as well as the opportunity to purchase a number of Crown properties in Wellington city and in the region—a portfolio of Crown-owned land estimated to be worth a mere $120 million. There is a significant cultural redress package recognising their key sites of tribal meaning including the three islands in Wellington Harbour. The lake beds of Kohangatera and Kohangapiripiri at Parangarahu are included and reserve lands such as Wi Tako Scenic Reserve. 
But there are some unique aspects of this settlement I want to bring to the attention of the House. This settlement is unique in that it introduces the concept of forgiveness. Forgiveness is a concept that we as tangata whenua understand. It is an essential component of reciprocity. In the act of forgiveness there are two players: those who extend the spirit of forgiveness and those who are forgiven. The difficulty in this case is that although the persons who are doing the forgiving are here in the flesh and form the Crown is a lifeless object—an entity bereft of emotion. Will it weep? Will it wail? Will it cry? This is a tremendous gesture on the part of Taranaki whanui who have offered a statement of forgiveness to the Crown. The Maori Party commends Taranaki whanui for an act of honour and great integrity an act that demonstrates the ultimate expression of manaakitanga. 
There are other elements of innovation that I want to note. The initiative of using an e-voting system including Internet voting was very impressive. Some 15 percent of the voters chose to vote online which is something this House may well consider worthy of looking at in depth for other voting processes. There was the commitment to ensuring that the ratification process encompassed not just those living in this rohe but also whanau living across the Tasman in Sydney and Brisbane. There was also the speed of the ratification process. The process of going from a signed agreement in principle to an initialled deed of settlement within 6 months is also as I understand it pretty unprecedented. In fact the rumour is that there are members here today who were hoping that the current urgency sitting might have been extended to allow Taranaki whanui to complete all of the stages of the bill on this great day. 
We in the Maori Party recognise the achievements of Taranaki whanui today. Together they have survived; together they will go forward; together they will succeed. Ka nui te mihi ki a koutou kai aku rangatira kua tae mai ki tou whenua tena koutou tena koutou tena koutou katoa. 
[ 
I am full of admiration for you my chiefs; the time draws near when it becomes your land. Congratulations and good wishes to you all 
.]