Harawira Hone: Te Roroa Claims Settlement Bill — Second Reading 
Harawira Hone: Te Roroa Claims Settlement Bill — Second Reading 
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HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Deputy Speaker; tena tatou katoa e te Whare. Me mihi ake ki a koutou katoa e oku whanaunga i tu mai ki te korero ki tenei kaupapa i te po nei. 
[ 
Greetings to you Mr Deputy Speaker and to all of us in the House. My acknowledgments to those relatives of mine who rose to speak to this matter tonight. 
] 
We are debating the second reading of the Te Roroa Claims Settlement Bill. The submission from Te Roroa Mana Whenua Trust and Te Roroa Whatu Ora Trust on the settlement was six pages long and four of those pages were a list of the names and signatures of those who had died during the prosecution of this claim—a graphic and solemn testimony to the suffering of Te Roroa in its quest for a just settlement. No reira e Te Roroa anei to mokopuna e mihi atu ana e tangi atu ana ki a ratou kua ngaro atu ki tua o te arai te utu mo nga mahi tahae mahi morikarika a te kawanatanga. 
[ 
So to you Te Roroa here am I your grandchild acknowledging you and grieving for those who have passed away as a consequence of the thieving and abominable actions of the Government. 
] 
Another submission from the Reverend Daniel Ambler described in some painful eloquence the grief he felt for the mana of his tupuna and at their wahi tapu being ripped out of their arms by the Crown—a grief he says “which has left us feeling so diminished and incomplete.” One can almost touch the sense of defeat and emptiness that runs right through the 25 submissions received by the Maori Affairs Committee. The people of Te Roroa—nga uri o Ngati Kawa Ngati Whiu and Te Kuihi—did not deserve to be treated in such a callous and an uncaring way. The descendants of Manumanu of Ngakuru Pana of Rangitauwawaro of Parore Te Awha of Hapakuku Moetara of Kohuru Te Whata of Tiopira Kinaki and Marara Mahuhu and many many others are worthy of far more respect than this Government is showing them. 
To Te Roroa I say this: “I greet you today and those who stand with you—you whose spiritual and physical home runs from the Kaipara up to the Hokianga; you who have fought to protect those sacred lands and who have guarded and preserved the significance of Waipoua for us all to enjoy; you who stood strong like Tane Mahuta trying to shield and defend your future descendants from any further grievance and wrongdoing. Your honour is evident in the way you have fought for your mokopunas’ future in the same way that your fathers and grandfathers fought for the future of the whole of Aotearoa in the First and Second World Wars. What cost does the price of citizenship have? I acknowledge in particular those who have fought to protect the sacred sites of Kaharau and Te Taraire which the Government has refused to return. For what it is worth Te Roroa this moment is yours.” 
But in acknowledging the significance of Te Roroa’s efforts since claims were first lodged with the tribunal way back in the 1980s we must also look at the part the Crown has played in reaching the deed of settlement in December 2005. The submissions describe that part in vivid detail. Gary Hooker highlighted the lack of sincerity in the Crown apology by pointing out the Government’s continuing attempts to sanitise Te Roroa’s history and its own crimes against Te Roroa. Sheena Ross spoke of the unsatisfactory registration and voting procedures of defects in the proposed cultural redress and of the pathetically inadequate quantum offered to Te Roroa. The Waipoua Forest Trust said it was critically important that the settlement be finalised so that the present generation could move forward economically while also restoring the unique character of the landscape but it concluded rightly that the present deal failed to do that and failed to create a sense of settlement. 
It seems that those words continue to fall on deaf ears. Indeed less than a week ago the Waitangi Tribunal itself stated: “The burden on both Maori and Pakeha of the great wrongs that were done in the past will not be lifted if the process of settling creates new wrongs. We consider that the process for settling now being followed is creating divisions within Maori society that are very damaging. Damage to whanaungatanga to te taura tangata is a great wrong: it affects Maori society at its very core. It also goes to the heart of the Treaty guarantees in article two.” That was said just last Friday. Three days later the tribunal reported again that it was “left fearing for the customary future of Te Arawa Waka” because of the “ ‘serious flaws’ in the way the Crown consulted with ‘non-settling Te Arawa groups’ ”. 
Yesterday we were told that the Te Roroa Claims Settlement Bill would not be coming up today and then at the last minute bam it is back on the Order Paper. It seems as though the Government is determined to rid itself of all three disasters at once by ramming through another seriously flawed settlement. 
Brendan Lyne head of the New Zealand corporate finance division for one of the world’s largest accounting firms Grant Thornton is Pakeha and he is hardly the type one would think to want to bother himself with the Te Roroa settlement. But even he felt moved to make a submission noting that like past attempts at settling that were later seen to be unfair this one too would be unlikely to endure. He described himself as “a New Zealander who passionately believes that all within this country should be treated fairly and justly” and his assessment of the Te Roroa settlement was that: “The failure of the Crown to return Kaharau is an injustice perpetuated on the back of the original injustice. Adding insult to injury the Crown appears to be inviting Te Roroa through its own resources to attempt the impossible task of seeking to acquire Kaharau”. 
As well as the grievances created by the exclusion of Kaharau and Te Taraire the Hokianga whanua hapu land and resource claims collective also raised the concern about overlapping claims. Will Ngakuru described the cost of this process in his submission when he said: “The settlement process has divided Te Roroa. … Trustees need time to communicate with the whanau and involve them in the process. OTS have indicated a July settlement this would place a large amount of stress on Te Roroa and lead to further division.” 
Over and over again the submissions have spoken of a flawed process of scepticism about the integrity of the registration and voting procedures of the anguish experienced over the exclusion of Kaharau and Te Taraire and of an insultingly low quantum that fails to recognise the seriousness and extent of the Crown’s Treaty breaches against Te Roroa. 
So the Maori Party will be splitting our vote on this bill. We will give one of our votes towards respecting the right of Te Roroa to seek justice for its claims but our other three votes will be abstentions. We will not vote against Te Roroa for it deserves redress and it deserves an immediate response. But we will not vote for the disgraceful way that the Crown forced Te Roroa to the wall. We will not vote for a process that is driven by the Government’s tight-fisted attitude to Treaty claims and we will not vote for a process that has led to a serious miscarriage of justice for Te Roroa. 
Stephen Naera’s submission summed the situation up well when he said: “Take anything out of this Bill that reflects full and final settlement… Return our taonga and koiwi at crown expense… Remove reference to the crown acting with honour during this process.” To Te Roroa I say this: “We do not believe that this is a full and final settlement. We do not believe that justice has been done and we do not hesitate to say to you and to your descendants: kahore ano kia ea to koutou tono. A tona wa me hoki mai kia oti tuturu ai. Your request has not been honoured. When you are ready come back and complete the job.” No reira e te Whare tena koutou tena koutou huri rauna kia ora tatou katoa.