Davis KelvinKELVIN DAVIS (Labour—Te Tai Tokerau): Tēnā koe Mr Deputy Speaker. Te mea tuatahi māku e mihi kau ana ki tērā o ngā tuākana a Te Ururoa nānā i whakapuaretia tō tātou huihuinga i te ata nei i runga i te huarahi tika arā mā ngā karakia. Tuarua ki a koutou e Taranaki Iwi tēnei ahau e mihi atu nei ki a koutou i tau mai nei ki raro i te tuanui o tō tātou Whare kia rongo ai i ngā kōrero e pā ana ki tō koutou pire; nā reira nau mai haere mai whakatau mai ki roto tēnei tō tātou Whare tēnei te mihi ki a koutou. Ā ka huri ake ahau ki a koe e Mahara mihi kau ana ki a koe nāu nei i whakapau ō kaha i tō wā i roto i tēnei Whare i nāianei e whakapau ana i ō kaha hei whakatau i ngā kerēme nā reira ka mihi ake ahau ki a koe mō ō mahi.[Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker. Acknowledging that senior colleague Te Ururoa who opened our gathering this morning in the accepted manner namely through prayers is the first thing for me to do. Secondly I acknowledge you collectively the iwi of Taranaki who have arrived here beneath the roof of our House to listen to the contributions relating to your bill; so welcome draw hither alight in this House of ours I commend you. I turn to you Mahara and really commend you on the efforts that you expended during your time in this House and now you are spending your efforts to settle claims so I applaud you for your work.]First of all I would just like to say that I am disappointed by the exchange that I have seen this morning between members across the House. Yesterday in our Māori Affairs Committee we asked officials to leave. The members remained and we had a discussion around this when we expressed our views led admirably by the Hon Nanaia Mahuta. We said we would have our say in that select committee we would do it face to face and we would leave it there. So it is really unfortunate to see that the confidence of the Māori Affairs Committee a committee that generally works very well together has been broken. It was disappointing to see those exchanges because to me it was posturing when we had had our say yesterday and it should have been left in the room there. This second reading is a time to talk about the people and about the bill and so we need to do that. Taranaki iwi along with the other iwi around Taranaki maunga were subjected to some of the most atrocious conditions by colonial forces back in the time. Some 1.2 million acres of land was confiscated from them. If we put that into the context of today with our population of 4.8 million 1.2 million acres would in fact provide a quarter-acre section for every New Zealander alive today. That is the extent of the confiscation of the land in that time. We need to reflect on just how great an impact that sort of confiscation would have on a people. I think it was the first reading when I said that if somebody came and invaded our country and confiscated land we would go to war to defend ourselves and quite frankly that is what—well actually it is not quite what Taranaki did. In the first instance they resorted to peaceful resistance. People who resorted to peaceful resistance were then arrested in their hundreds—most of them detained without trial—and yet nothing happened to the invader. The invader was in fact rewarded for its acts of aggression and consequently now possesses most of the land in Taranaki leaving Taranaki iwi basically landless. So this bill contains acknowledgments of the Crown's actions that breached the Treaty of Waitangi and it contains an apology for those breaches. The apology and the quantum that is being returned—and I heard from the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations that some $200 million will go into the Taranaki region. That $200 million is great but if we put it into the context of 1.2 million acres being confiscated and the price of land these days we will see that it is just a drop in a bucket. I have also said in this House previously that we need to—sorry I will just go to that text that the Minister read out. It was somebody basically objecting to all of this and focusing on You're giving Māoris this and you're giving Māoris that." We should focus less on what Māori are getting and focus more on what has been lost. When we look at the size of the loss and the scale of the loss the $200 million that may be coming back pales in significance. It represents the ongoing impact of all of those actions of the Crown in the 1860s that are having a lasting effect on Taranaki iwi and it has been replicated right throughout the country over time through all iwi. The ongoing effects that we are now seeing in terms of Māori incarceration the lack of Māori achievement educational achievement at school—just the loss of Māori potential. It is the genuine hope that that $200 million will go towards turning that around so that Māori in Taranaki can fulfil their potential from here on in and become the leaders in the economy the leaders in business the leaders in education and the leaders in the community. The bill provides a mechanism for iwi representation on the Taranaki Regional Council. That is admirable despite the text that the Minister received and read out parts of. Minister you should have a word to David Seymour about sending texts like that! The iwi are able to nominate three members for appointment to the committee of the council. I really fail to see what the country is scared of when we have Māori representation. Let us face it: Māori are environmentalists—you know into conservation into doing what is right for communities and for the environment. Really Māori participation in council and decision making is only going to bring strengths to the Taranaki region. It is not something that Pākehā should ever be scared about. The fear is really something that is self-generated and self-perpetuating. The bill provides for changes to place names and one of those place names is St George's Redoubt. I went online to check out exactly the history around St George's Redoubt. "St George" as a name for a Māori area to me is quite strange. I had to look up who the heck St George was and apparently he was a Greek in the Roman army who was martyred because he would not give up his Christian faith. That is honourable but what does a Greek Roman soldier have to do with Taranaki? The name is going to be changed to Tataraimaka. The history around St George's Redoubt—basically there was some armed opposition to British forces. There was a battle. There was retaliation by Sir George Grey when some 29 locals from Taranaki were killed and the remains of 28 of them were transported and buried in an unmarked grave. It was unmarked except for a concrete slab for some time. They were buried in this area. It is important we realise that when we are talking about Treaty settlements we are actually talking about lives about people who lived and existed and died for their cause. Those people died in a battle and many more died in a battle of different sorts—just the battle to survive over the years. That is why it is really important that we do settle these claims. That is why I look forward to the swift passage of this bill through the House through all its stages. Nā reira huri rauna i tō tātou Whare tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.[Therefore I acknowledge congratulate and commend you and us all throughout our House.]"