Finlayson Christopher: Waitaha Claims Settlement Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFinlayson Christopher: Waitaha Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 05 June 2013. Volume:690;Page:10837. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations): As Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations I take the last call in this debate. I usually take the first call but I deferred to Dr Sharples the Minister of Māori Affairs who is a great ministerial and parliamentary colleague as is the local Waiariki MP Te Ururoa Flavell who has been advising me on many aspects concerning settlements in the Bay of Plenty. When Dr Sharples was giving his speech I left the Chamber not because I had the pip with him but simply because as the Minister in charge of the Waitaha Claims Settlement Bill I cannot be here if someone else is moving the third reading. So I just thought I should make that clear. Dr Sharples was most anxious that people not think there was any disagreement between us. He has shot away to do something else and I can assure you that it is not because he has got the stitch with me.This day signifies the end of a long journey for Waitaha. I want to congratulate all present here on your vision on your endurance and on your patience because settlement negotiations began in February 2008 in parallel with those of your close relatives from Ngāti Mākino. Waitaha signed an agreement in principle with the Crown on 16 October 2008 and finally on 20 September 2011 we signed the deed of settlement. So I am so pleased that we have now reached this legislative stage.I want to say this also: as Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations I am very lucky. You have heard some comments in the course of the morning about not knowing the history of this country—that too many people do not know it. Well I am very lucky because through being Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations I sure do learn the history of this country. So I can understand what drives Tūhoe who signed a deed of settlement here a couple of days ago in their yearning for reconnection with te Urewera. I can understand the hurt and the suffering of the iwi of the Taranaki arising from the land wars that started there a little over 150 years ago. I can understand the anger of Rongowhakaata over Te Hau ki Tūranga which is why Te Hau ki Tūranga—which of course they own—needs to go back to Tūranga.And so it is with Waitaha because Waitaha negotiations have sought recognition of their identity and particularly the acknowledgment of the tupuna Hakaraia. Hakaraia rose to prominence as a leader of the resistance to the Crown’s survey of confiscation land. In January 1867 Government forces assaulted Waitaha settlements near Te Puke. They destroyed houses crops and livestock as a special punishment for Hakaraia. Using scorched earth tactics the Crown pursued Hakaraia to his death in 1870. The fate of Hakaraia is central to the story of Waitaha and their claims. This settlement acknowledges that fact and will address the matter directly through for example an education endowment fund of $3 million in the name of Hakaraia funding for Waitaha to record the story of Waitaha and Hakaraia and as has already been mentioned the restoration of Hei Marae. The intention of the redress is to restore the mana and identity of Hakaraia and I am so very pleased to hear that the funding of the marae restoration has gone to building a new wharekai that is now in place at Hei Marae.The settlement redress also includes commercial and cultural redress. One of the important aspects of settlements particularly in the cultural redress area is to provide facilities for iwi to work with regional and local government for example on cleaning up canals lakes and rivers that have become polluted over the years. That is why I am so very pleased for example that my ministerial colleague Amy Adams has just announced this morning the investment of $2.4 million by the Government to clean up Kopeopeō Canal. It is in the Bay of Plenty and used to be a place where folk would swim and fish and hopefully in the not too distant future for the first time in decades that will be able to happen again. It is a priority site on the part of Amy Adams to clean up contaminated sites and it is but an example of the sort of work that can be done when iwi and the regional council and the Crown work together. I have to tell you that in the last couple of years about $28 million has been spent seeking to restore some of these sites around the country.This settlement which has its third reading today is not the end. These settlements are never “done and dusted” a phrase that irritates me considerably. They are never over and done with but they are designed to mark a relationship between the iwi and the Crown that will build on trust and cooperation and respect for the Treaty. A very important part of what now happens is for the Crown to audit the relationship between the particular iwi and itself to make sure that the mistakes of old are not repeated again. That is why we have established within the Ministry of Justice a post-settlement organisation under the guidance of the Secretary for Justice to ensure that if the Crown says it will do something then it does it—not just today and tomorrow but 25 years onfrom now. That is the very least that iwi who settle with the Crown can expect and I believe that if the Crown lives up to its promises then the relationship can be very good indeed.There is so much more that needs to be done outside Treaty relationships. For example the reform of Te Ture Whenua Maori Act is a huge task and doubtless will impact on many of the whānau in your iwi. There is good work being done on that and I am hoping that we will be able to have some reforms next year to make that legislation more user-friendly. But today we are concentrating on this great iwi its persistence its courage and its dogged determination to see the mana of Hakaraia restored. I end by echoing the great Waitaha whakataukī: Kua tau te rangimārie ki te Whare o Hakaraia ake ake ake.[Peace has settled upon the House of Hakaraia for ever and ever.]I commend the bill to the House.Bill read a third time.KarangaWaiata