Simpson ScottHon SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): Thank you Mr Speaker. What a pleasure and a privilege it is to welcome representatives of Ngāti Paoa who have travelled a long distance here to the Parliament to experience and witness the first reading of this special piece of legislation that has been so long in getting to this place. I want to set the record straight at the outset; usually when we have Treaty settlement debates there is consensus across the House but the last speaker Arena Williams got it wrong—she got it very wrong and as the member of Parliament for Coromandel I need to say that the very best part of the Ngāti Paoa rohe is actually on the Firth of Thames in the fine part of the Coromandel electorate. So wearing that hat as the member of Parliament for Coromandel I welcome you once twice thrice to this place. It's an important and historic day for you all no matter which part of the rohe you consider to be the best part of the rohe.This has been a long journey and I regret to advise there are actually still several steps yet to go. But the first reading of a Treaty bill is an important marker because it brings to this House the House that represents the Crown as Treaty partner a process that will now go to the Māori Affairs Committee and you've just heard from the select committee chair. So the issues the history the mana and the drama that is both historic current and aspirational for the future will be debated and discussed in detail by the members of that committee and that's a good and appropriate process. It's a slower process than I think any of us would want but it's an important part of the process because that's where we get to open up to the issues that still confront some members of the Ngāti Paoa whānau that still are unresolved that still are the cause of some angst and do need further discussion and further resolution. So I know that my colleagues who sit on that select committee will be listening carefully and will be wanting to hear debate discussion and history about what has happened and how it's happened and where it's gone and what's more important where it is going. Even as recently as today I've received correspondence—as my colleague Joseph Mooney has indicated—from people wanting to litigate and to discuss and to debate the issues that are outstanding. Well those issues will be debated and discussed and they will be I hope resolved satisfactorily because it's important that after so long and after such a long journey that this piece of legislation gets passed by this House and I would hope sooner rather than later. I well recall as a relatively new MP visiting the Mangatarata volunteer fire brigade. It wasn't the fire brigade it was just a public meeting that happened to be held in the fire brigade building so what I'm about to say was not reflective of the fire brigade let me assure you of that; those volunteers do a particularly good job for our community. But there was a public meeting in the brigade station house and there was public concern that I needed to hear because I had been invited as the member of Parliament because there had been a decision by I think the Geographic Board to allow the name Pūkorokoro to be used instead of Miranda. There were some people in the local community who were upset by that decision and said Why is that so? It's always been called Miranda. Why can't we keep calling it Miranda?" and it wasn't until I was able to describe to some of those people present who felt somehow uncomfortable and awkward about the use of the term and the name Pūkorokoro rather than Miranda and to explain the history of that and to explain the history of the terrible act that was inflicted upon Ngāti Paoa people at Pūkorokoro at the pā at the marae by HMS Miranda where a vessel of the Crown of the Royal Navy came into the Firth of Thames and then fired cannon into the marae and into the pā. There was death there was desecration and there was harm and damage that was done and then they had the audacity to sail away having inflicted that terrible crime to sail away then and rename that area Miranda in the name of that vessel. That was wrong.So today I often and whenever I can proudly use the term Pūkorokoro because those of us that know that history and who did not know that history until relatively recent times need to understand that that is just one—just one of the issues that can't be put right completely but through a process of a Treaty settlement legislative action will I hope bring at least some cause for reflection and some cause for an ability to move on. So acknowledging that there are still some unresolved issues but acknowledging also that this has been a long journey not today just physically but it's been a long journey emotionally and it's been a long journey historically. Some of those people that embarked on that journey so long ago are no longer with us and as other speakers and colleagues around the House have acknowledged I wish also to acknowledge their passing and their contribution to getting us to where we are today. But there's still more work to do. We still have some way to go. There are still steps to be taken and I know that today marks an important and historic step along that pathway. So it's with very great pleasure that as the member of Parliament for the best part of the rohe of Ngāti Paoa I welcome representatives here today wish you well safe travels home but be very proud of the fact that you are here for this auspicious historic momentous proceeding in this Parliament. Kia ora."