Jones Shane: Whanganui Iwi (Wanganui (Kaitoke) Prison and Northern Part of Wanganui Forest) On-account Settlement Bill — First Reading 
Jones Shane: Whanganui Iwi (Wanganui (Kaitoke) Prison and Northern Part of Wanganui Forest) On-account Settlement Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:659;Page:7857] 
Hon SHANE JONES (Labour) 
: 
 A kia ora ano tatou. Te mihi atu ki a koe e te Kaihautu o te Whare. I te tuatahi me huri oku mihi ki tenei tangata hou kua tae mai ki waenga tonu i te marea o nga kaitorangapu te uri a Tenana nau mai haere mai tena koe. Tena koe mai i Hokianga Whakapau Karakia tena koe mai i Te Pewhairangi na reira nga mihi ki a koe. 
[ 
Greetings again to us and to you Mr Deputy Speaker of the House. In the first instance I turn to extend my greetings to this new member descendant of Clendon who has arrived in the domain for politicians. Welcome welcome. Greetings to you from Hokianga Whakapau Karakia and Pewhairangi greetings 
.] 
Before I begin my speech I want to record and acknowledge the presence of the new MP Mr Clendon the proud descendant of James Clendon. I am not sure whether he comes from Sarah or the daughter of Takotowi of the Te Whata whanau but whichever line he comes down I welcome him. 
As I stand and very briefly speak about this Whanganui Iwi (Whanganui (Kaitoke) Prison and Northern Part of Wanganui Forest) On-account Settlement Bill I am reminded of the tupuna from Whanganui who undertook some very perilous litigation not the least of which was to recover their rights to the bed of the Whanganui River. To date they have been unsuccessful. I met some of them in 1976 when my school St Stephen’s School were welcomed to the marae in Taumarunui. There were two old men on that marae one being Richard Barrett—otherwise known as Tiki Parete—and the other being Titi Tihu. Those two gentlemen would have probably been in their 90s and that time I was the ambitious young school orator. I think fondly of all those people who sought to recover their land in this area with limited resources great indifference from the Crown and a considerable level of societal ignorance as to whether there was any legitimacy whatsoever associated with the complaints and the grievances of these people—in particular those who came from the upper reaches of the Whanganui River. 
I join with our other colleagues and acknowledge the good work that is being continued by the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations and I acknowledge the role played by the Hon Tariana Turia in respect of advancing the land issues of the people whom she hails from. The genius of what is here is that at long last we are seeing a greater spirit of pragmatism in the settlement of claims. It is my view that there has been far too much slavish adherence to process. We allowed ourselves to be incarcerated within the fictional boundaries of the fiscal envelope. This is an example of where we have two competing claimants and a contested resource commonly owned about which presumably the Government of the day and its advisers are capable of being flexible in their thinking and in the execution of the policy and its inevitable conversion into law. 
As I look at this bill I see that the Whanganui people have given us some very exciting episodes recently not the least of which is Pakaitore which is otherwise known to those possessed of a poorer level of history as Moutoa. It is rather interesting that in Part 1 of this bill there is not only a reference to the trust but also a definition of what the trustees are to do. It is a beautiful reminder that from a great deal of foment and anger from the occupation of Moutua we are now witnessing legislation going through the House that redresses a problem that captured an enormous amount of attention and threatened to divide lots of New Zealanders. It was quite a passionate issue. I think it was when the Hon Tau Henare was the Minister of Maori Affairs and I may have mistakenly gone up there alongside him one time when I was a member of the Maori Fisheries Commission. But this is progress and it has taken a long time to get here. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: It wasn’t a mistake. You did it on purpose. 
Hon SHANE JONES 
: I am not entirely sure whether he had a great deal to do with either moving this bill forward or the first foray that he undertook. I know that he scared the life out of the mayor who I think was called Chas Poynter or something like that. In that sense it is positive. 
In relation to the remarks of my colleague Mita Ririnui about Kaitoke Prison it is ironic that the land that is being made available for inevitable full restoration back to the tangata whenua of that area has a prison on top of it. It is sad to say but a significant percentage of its occupants will no doubt be related to the people who originally owned that land. I hope that when the land is moved into private ownership albeit in the form of some sort of collective kin-based possession we do not see the infrastructure standing on top of the land similarly follow a type of private ownership so that one day we have not only the private ownership of the land underneath the prison but also the private ownership of the prison. That is something that I do not agree with and anyone promoting that deserves the meaning of “kaitoke” which means to be consumed by worms. 
We need to be positive about the other piece of this legislation because there is a great deal more work to be done. This legislation gives an excellent account in clause 5 of Part 1 as to what the origins of the claims are. It is essential that when we resolve these claims we resolve them in such a way as Sir Douglas Graham did in his time that we give reassurance and peace to the communities that are impacted by these land disputes resource disputes and historical grievances. Whether they come from fiduciary duties from actual rights protected in law from existing or subsisting common law or from some other origin—customary or indigenous—it is important that once these settlements are entered into they remain intact. They should not be used by Governments that follow as a source of fomentation or of trammelling or fiddling with a long-term solution for a short-term political gain. 
That is why when this claim which relates to forests among other things is entered into I hope that all members of the House agree that it should not be subject to relitigation. It should not be opened up. It should not be changed at the caprice or the whim of whatever political flavour is breezing through the House at a given point in time. I fear that that would undo the work and the promise that all New Zealanders have decided to trust in; that is the process for settling claims. For those reasons a number of useful remarks were made earlier uncharacteristically by the ACT Party and they come as a timely warning. When we use the good will of the public and we make a legitimate attempt to address the wrongs of history we do not allow short-term political imperatives to undermine those settlements. That will lead not only to racial discord but also to our mokopuna our future generations coming back and saying that we encouraged and engendered an appetite to continually revisit acts of history to suit short-term social or political imperatives. Irrespective of what area one comes from that is not good for our overall nation’s future. 
In relation to the Crown forestry asset portion of this bill I have to acknowledge a small largely forgotten—predictably so—role that Mr Quinn played in the origination of the Crown Forestry Rental Trust. I acknowledge him along with one of his matua Tama Nikora and my matua from the far north Sir Graham Latimer. Had it not been for the Federation of Maori Authorities the New Zealand Maori Council and the willingness of the Government of the day with great encouragement from the High Court or the Court of Appeal—I do not recall which particular one—we would not have legislation that relates to forests. Earlier Governments decided that the forests were no longer useful parts of the public estate. As I have recalled the names of the kaumatua from the tangata whenua of that area I also think it is important that we recall the names of the people—indeed some of them grace this House today—who played a role in building the infrastructure that has brought us forward over the last 20 to 25 years. 
It is a pleasure to support this legislation. There is a great deal more work to come but there are some fantastic leaders not the least of whom is Sir Archie Taiaroa. I wish them well along with the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations. Kia ora tatou.