Tirikatene Rino: Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru Claims Settlement Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTirikatene Rino: Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru Claims Settlement Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 31 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:12226. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga):Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. E rau rangatira mā huri noa i te Whare tēnā koutou. Ngāti Rangiteaorere Ngāti Rangiwewehi Tapuika nau mai nau mai haere mai ki te Whare Pāremata e takatū nei ā tēnā koutou tēnā koutou ā tēnā tātou katoa. E tū ake au ki te tautoko i tēnei pire.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. Greetings to you collectively the many leaders throughout the House. Welcome to you Rangiteaorere Ngāti Rangiwewehi Tapuika. Welcome to Parliament House in deliberation mode here and so acknowledgments greetings and congratulations to you and you collectively as well as all of us. I rise to support this bill .]I am pleased to stand in support of this bill the Ngā Punawai o Te Tokotoru Claims Settlement Bill. It is not the Tokotoru Tapu that Tau was referring to but three illustrious tribes from Te Arawa: Ngāti Rangiteaorere Ngāti Rangiwewehi and Tapuika.Te Ururoa Flavell: Very illustrious.RINO TIRIKATENE: Indeed. Try as I might I have not been able to connect my whakapapa link to this particular bill but the history and the whakapapa continues with my kōrero. This time we are focusing in on Te Arawa - Bay of Plenty where these tribes made their home. The land wars of Waikato had finally overflowed into neighbouring areas of Tauranga Moana at Te Ranga and Pukehina and the main players the antagonists who have featured so far in the Waikato Land Wars raise their heads in this bill as well. I am talking about people like Grey Cameron Whitmore and Mair. But this time they faced the people of Te Arawa and I know that the hapū of the Rotorua lakes district share a common eastern border also with Raukawa and have over many centuries forged close bonds and become kin.It was because of the kinship with Raukawa that some of Te Arawa fought with their Raukawa relations against the colonial forces of General Cameron and Colonel Whitmore. Those who fought against the Crown paid a high price. Although the people of Ngāti Rangiteaorere did not sign the Treaty they did have a relationship with the Crown.So let us remind the House exactly where we are at when we talk about these great tribes. Rotorua is the tourist capital of New Zealand a geothermal wonderland and it has been since Europeans discovered that the area is a fantastic attraction and experience for many many people. The Crown actively encouraged the sale of desirable land. So with that taniwha that was created which I mentioned in my previous speeches the Māori Land Court the Governments of the day along with land speculators managed to alienate the people of these three iwi from their ancestral lands. No surprises there. That was the modus operandi of the day. We know today that the Māori Land Court was not set up to help keep Māori title in those days; it was set up to do the exact opposite.The Rotorua lakes district had the potential to attract international tourists. Even as long ago as the 1860s 1870s and 1880s there was a tourism industry so securing title to important lands to ensure Pākēha control over strategic assets was very important in those times. So I want to indulge the House and let us stop and think about Rotorua for a minute because I am sure all of the members of this House have been to Rotorua at least once. The drive is spectacular as you make your way in there. You can see all the geothermal wonders and the flight there is even more spectacular. You can see the volcanic nature of the land from high above. It is also easy to see how truly significant Rotorua is in the cultural history of Aotearoa and also to the economy of our nation.It was stolen legally and by trickery until the people had nothing but steep hills and mud pools. All the nice land was bought by Pākehā at mortgagee sales for a pittance and as always—this is the classic modus operandi—Māori were forced to pay survey costs or other debts by selling their land. It should have been these tribes here today that formed our first Tourism Industry Association and opened up the chain of hotels. Iwi Māori should have been the managers not just the guides. The souvenir business the ice cream vendor—everything should have been run by these three tribes that we speak of today and other hāpu of the Te Arawa confederation.So the next time you fly into Rotorua have a look at the land that these people lost and the economic opportunities that were lost such as tourism and geothermal energy. It is plain to see from the sky. All that steam and beautiful scenery used to be under the mana of the local body authorities of Ngāti Rangiteaorere Ngāti Rangiwewehi and Tapauika. So this claims settlement bill is divided into three parts one for each of the respective iwi. I am looking forward to working with my colleagues on the Māori Affairs Committee. We certainly have a busy work programme ahead but it is very enjoyable work awhi-ing and hearing submissions on these very significant pieces of legislation.I would like to acknowledge the whānau and all the representatives from the wonderful iwi up in Te Arawa who have come through today. It is always a significant occasion to be able to speak on these bills and although the tone of my speeches can sometimes be a bit heavy I think it is very important that we acknowledge the significance and the history for each iwi because each iwi has its own mana and its own story. I look forward to further tautoko for this bill in later stages and I commend it to the House. Kia ora tātou.