Turei Metiria: Ngati Tama Claims Settlement Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Turei Metiria: Ngati Tama Claims Settlement Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:613;Page:10182] 
METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
: 
The Greens have outlined our concerns about the treaty settlement process. We consider that it is fundamentally flawed and that it creates further injustices. We are putting forward two amendments on this part that we believe will help to alleviate some of that injustice and we urge this Committee to support those amendments.  
The two amendments are the deletion of clause 12 which renders the settlement as final and the deletion of clause 13 which removes the jurisdiction of the Waitangi Tribunal. If those clauses remain in the bill they will remove for ever all opportunity for the reconsideration of the appropriateness of the restitution and—most important—the process by which that restitution has come about.  
We recognise the Crown’s admission that such processes and restitution are what is appropriate in this particular time and in this particular circumstance. We cannot see why iwi and hapu should be required to sign away all opportunity they may have for reconsideration of that process in the future. That is not the means by which the Crown should be developing a long-term ongoing relationship with iwi that has durability and mutual respect. That is not the means by which that relationship and te tiriti should be given effect to.  
The Greens do support the resolution of and restitution for all outstanding historical and current breaches of te tiriti. We are simply not convinced that the treaty settlement process does this and that concern is held by a significant proportion of our population both Maori and non-Maori. We believe that by deleting clauses 12 and 13 we will be able to remedy some of those injustices.  
In the debate on the second reading we raised the very serious concerns and issues of a significant portion of Ngati Tama represented by the whanau whanui who had consistently raised over a number of years concerns about the governance entity. We clearly identified the failure of the settlement process and the failure of the funding process within the Office of Treaty Settlements which put that office in a very serious conflicted position and rendered it entirely unable to deal effectively with the issues.  
We also talked about the fact that those concerns have not been dealt with subsequent to the select committee’s consideration of the matter and that those issues remain at this late stage in the process major points of contention. We are very concerned to allow the passage of the bill without those concerns being sorted out and without there being any future means by which the parties can resolve the issues in an independent forum. Therefore we believe that by deleting clauses 12 and 13 the parties will be able to have the provisions in the bill reconsidered.  
The primary concern is that should this bill be passed the iwi as a whole will be able to have the structural and legislative space to develop the processes that will lead to confidence in the governance entity in whatever form and with whatever membership it determines to manage its own assets. It is crucial that the iwi has real confidence in the body that manages those hard-fought and hard-won resources—resources for its future economic maintenance—because although the redress is minimal compared with what was lost it is none the less a significant resource for an iwi that has been bereft of its capacity for economic independence for generations. We urge the Committee to support those amendments.