SpeechHon MEKA WHAITIRI (Minister of Customs): E te Māngai o te Whare tēnā koe otirā ngā mema katoa tēnā tātou katoa anō. [Mr Speaker greetings to you and to all the members greetings again to you.]I'm proud and pleased to take a call in the second reading of the Ngāti Maru (Taranaki) Claims Settlement Bill. To the people of Ngāti Maru ngā mihi ki a koutou katoa i runga i te kaupapa o tō pire nō reira tēnā tātou tēnā tātou tēnā tātou katoa.[To the people of Ngāti Maru I greet you all as you bring your bill to be discussed therefore greeting greetings greetings to one and all.] I'm not a member of the Māori Affairs Committee so I'm very reliant on the report that came back to the House and the close examination of this bill by the Māori Affairs Committee. Can I obviously add my appreciation for and acknowledgment of the negotiators for Ngāti Maru. I won't repeat what both the Minister for Treaty settlements and the previous member Joseph Mooney have said. They've traversed the parts of the legislation that we're debating tonight. As a former Treaty negotiator you always look for a unique part of each iwi's settlement and I think the two previous speakers touched on the two from my perspective which give rise to the uniqueness of this settlement and that is the use of conservation land—which has been touched on—and the riverbed of the Whanganui River and of course the removal or the resumptive orders which is really important as a mechanism to return what we can back to the people of Ngāti Maru.So it is one of the last iwi of the Taranaki iwi whānui that is settling here. This is the second reading. I want to acknowledge all those that submitted on the bill. I want to acknowledge the Māori Affairs Committee who gave it the right scrutiny. I want to acknowledge the amendments that they brought to the House and that the Minister of Treaty settlements the Hon Andrew Little has taken on board and has adjusted accordingly. This is a very important reading for the Ngāti Maru people of Taranaki and the area of interest is the inland Waitara River Valley which goes out to Taranaki maunga to the west and the upper Whanganui River in the east. In acknowledging the significance of what we're debating here as the second reading I want to acknowledge the Taranaki leadership that has bestowed itself on not only this House but the region of Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara particularly as the iwi come together to put a cloud—a karakia o raukura—over this whole capital city of ours and I want to acknowledge that tribe and the tribe of Taranaki with the people of Ngāti Maru because they are one people. So I want to acknowledge the Taranaki whānui Te Atiawa in terms of the karakia that it has bestowed on this place—Parliament—as acknowledgment of the mana whenua in my contribution to this particular bill. It is important for Ngāti Maru to feel the support on this side of the House—and I thank all members of this House—in the second reading of this particular bill. But it's also to acknowledge the significance that their people the iwi of Taranaki have also provided comfort and some blessings to this place of work—the Parliament the New Zealand House of Representatives—and to those that have found their way here to politely say to them that it's about time they go home and we've heard contributions from previous members in this House that have talked about what has actually occurred to the people of Te Atiawa of which Ngāti Maru is one of those key iwi that are part of that particular tribe.I want to again commend the bill to the House. I want to acknowledge all the negotiators who have fought gallantly on the unique qualities of Ngāti Maru—particularly like I said around the riverbed and the clarification around the partnership that will be forged with the Taranaki Regional Council. From the limited knowledge I know of that part of the northern land which is distinctly different to the East Coast is that it is the significantly productive land that occurs in the wider Taranaki region and of course there is the significance of the awas and its contribution to the primary sector.So with those few words of support and endorsement I look forward to the third and final reading of this bill in acknowledgment of what has been negotiated and agreed between Ngāti Maru and the Crown to address the past wrongs and hurts of the omissions and acts of the Crown. I look forward to hopefully hosting the people of Ngāti Maru should they find themselves down this part if conditions allow to celebrate alongside them the significance of this bill. I commend the Ngāti Maru (Taranaki) Claims Settlement Bill to the House.