Turei Metiria: Te Urewera-Tūhoe Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTurei Metiria: Te Urewera-Tūhoe Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 07 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:17646. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green): Tēnā koutou e te Whare. The land that is the subject of this settlement bill the Te Urewera-Tūhoe Bill was confiscated in 1865.The iwi at the time were not in rebellion. They were rightly and justly living as an independent nation as was their right. The confiscation which caused enormous harm at the time was compounded by the courts which later gave land away to others compounding the harms and then later still by Government inducements in the form of threats—“Either sell it to us or we’ll take it.”—which again compounded even more the harms that had been caused.This land like all the land in this country has been subject to an incredibly abusive process by various Governments over many years—some that like today’s Government will claim that good is being done when in fact harms are still being committed. We have to accept that to some extent our process here will never fully right what was wrong and will never fully return to those who are entitled what was wrongly taken from them. That is a hard situation to be in for us making the decision. It is worse of course for those who are subject to it.This bill is an attempt to repair some of that hurt and to restore some of those resources back to the people who actually own them but the damage is done. We can see that damage and that hurt reflected in the Māori Affairs Committee when people come to us with concerns that they have been raising either with Government or with other iwi or through agencies or the courts—still decade after decade after decade. Iwi attempts to work through the Crown’s process for restitution has itself exacerbated the harms of the past. It is expensive. It takes many many years. It is often the same argument that iwi are running time after time with different Ministers with different Governments with different courts and with different judges and they are never properly heard and never properly dealt with.This settlement is part of a much larger and older series of systems and negotiations and at the end of the day concessions that are made by iwi Māori in an attempt to find some way to work effectively together. It is an enormously generous act of iwi Māori that they still engage with us as a Parliament and they still engage with Government as an agency when they know and we know that the harm will not fully be repaired. They know and we know that harm will be created in the process itself. I want to pay enormous respect to those who have been working through these negotiations particularly for this land in these circumstances. The minefield of a Government-driven process is very very hard work.We heard in the select committee very significant concerns from iwi and from hapū that as I have said clearly have a very long history premised in previous Crown-inflicted harm. We will not have time to go into all of the issues in detail because they were significant and there were a number of them but I do want to just acknowledge Ngāti Manawa Ngāti Haka Patuheuheu Ngāti Moewhare Ngāti Whare Ruapani Kahungunu and all of those who came and reiterated yet again for our benefit but to some harm to them the concerns that they have with this process.But also I want to acknowledge Tūhoe for pursuing a settlement for Urewera; for pursuing their best possible attempts for the independence of that land for self-government; for taking on a national park and all of the Pākehā history that is invested in that structure; and for finding a way to work through all of those issues with their own whānau with Pākehā who have this deep commitment to the restoration and conservation of our land and with a Crown-driven process that causes harm. It is an extraordinary act to have engaged with that. Tūhoe deserve the utmost respect as all of those who engage with settlements deserve for all of that hard work.This settlement will fix some wrongs that have been committed in the past and for that we should be very pleased but it has created others. It certainly will not fix all of those that have been created. So let us remember as we go through the process for thisbill that we still owe it to those who have been excluded and who are still bereft of their rightful entitlements to hold on to their concerns and to look for new ways to right them.The Greens have long called for a significant review of this settlement process. It was designed by the Government. It was designed by Pākehā. Although it has evolved a little over the last many years it has never been a process driven determined by Māori. That is its fundamental flaw. No Government has seriously addressed that fundamental flaw. If it was driven by Māori we would have a very different kind of process and rightly so. It should not be the perpetrator who decides how justice is meted out. Thank you.