Turei Metiria: Rangitāne o Manawatu Claims Settlement Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTurei Metiria: Rangitāne o Manawatu Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 15 March 2016. Volume:712;Page:9779. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green): Tēna koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Tēnā koutou e te Whare. I too want to stand on behalf of the Green Party and acknowledge Rangitāne o Manawatu and Tānenuiarangi in particular for all of the hard work over the last more than 20 years in bringing this settlement legislation to the House. Settlements are always bitter-sweet. They come at great cost particularly to the iwi and hapū who work so hard to negotiate those very tricky waters of the Waitangi Tribunal and the Government negotiation process and their own issues within their own iwi and hapū too to bring settlement to the House. It is always great to come to this part the final part of the process to have the settlement legislated for but we must also recognise the cost—the cost in lives and the cost in time and the cost in relationships too. So I want to acknowledge Ruth Harris and her passing and also as other members have done Danielle Pikihuia Harris and the whole team for the work that they have continued on with.But I also want to acknowledge those who have concerns about the settlement. They too are entitled to a voice and to be recognised for their work in trying to uphold from their point of view—whether you agree with it or not—the rightfulness of their claim the acknowledgment of their own loss and the difficulty that they have in negotiating also these very difficult waters of settlement. So Ko Te Pou Marangatahi O Rangitāne Ki Manawatū I want to acknowledge you for the efforts you have made to see justice for yourselves. It has been a long and difficult process for you as well.In the select committee we will no doubt hear more about the history of this settlement given it has been a very long and somewhat contentious history. As someone who was born and raised in Palmerston North I really am looking forward to working with and talking to all of the whānau involved about whether there are improvements we can make and making sure that we really listen to the issues that are raised.Finally because I know that we are short on time I want to echo the statements of Pita Paraone in the last bill about the generosity of iwi in agreeing to these settlements. In my calculation—and I have never been the best at maths—the settlement is around $27 an acre. That is the reparation: about $27 an acre. We are talking about the Manawatū here right? My dad was a farm labourer all his life and we know that the Manawatū area is extraordinarily valuable in terms of land—possibly less so for dairying these days but none the less valuable land—and goes for thousands of dollars an acre in a commercial sense. Let us be really clear about the cost—the economic cost—that this iwi is prepared to bear in order to see progress for their people and about the economic contribution they are making to New Zealand society to the New Zealand economy and to the local economy in the Manawatū - Palmerston North area. Let us also just acknowledge the special treatment that Māori talk about when we say “No thank you.” to that kind of special treatment.I will finish here with another really important statement from my point of view acknowledging my particular interest in this settlement as Rangitāne from Manawatū and Wairarapa and also again acknowledging all of the hard work that has gone into bringing the settlement here to us today. I am looking forward to engaging with these issues to the completion of the settlement in time. Tēnā koutou katoa.