Court SimonSIMON COURT (ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. The ACT Party wishes to acknowledge those who have come to the House today to hear the first reading of the bill Ngāti Kahungunu and Rangitāne and we want to let you know that the ACT Party will support this bill at first reading to go to select committee where any remaining details can be ironed out hopefully to the satisfaction of the claimants and to those who may be affected by some provisions of this bill. There are a couple of matters that I'd like to canvass very briefly.Firstly the ACT Party believes that New Zealand is unique in that we have a Treaty between the indigenous people of New Zealand and the Crown Queen Victoria which sets out the rights and privileges of all citizens and that we are all equal before the law. The ACT Party believes that is one of the truly unique and wonderful things about New Zealand that founding document. We support the process—that is to bring historical grievances to a tribunal where all of the evidence can be documented and then worked through for the purpose of achieving a settlement to deal with historical grievances which have often held back the development—the economic and social development—of people whose lands were alienated by the Crown or by the actions of others. So it's important that we recognise that this process is vital for past grievances to be addressed and that it is one of the most important things that leads New Zealand to a place of social cohesion. For that reason the ACT Party supports this process. It's also wonderful to hear that the interests of the iwi and hapū in the very important wetland are to see the values of the wetland enhanced the biodiversity and the ecology of the special place protected and that there is also a provision for people who wish to fish in this wetland and to enjoy all of the benefits of the natural resources that this wonderful wetland produces. So again those are shared values and that is recognised by the settlement. I was surprised to hear from the previous member who spoke Jan Logie that in fact the Crown might have been too keen to settle the claim. That surprises me because in my short time in the House I've seen the Crown as represented by the current Government be extremely reluctant to acknowledge problems and to seek to settle them unless it becomes too embarrassing. So I think it's wonderful that the Crown is keen to settle the claim and I think at the risk of creating new grievances that's what the select committee process is for—so that in fact if there are risks which haven't been sufficiently resolved they can be addressed through the select committee process.It's important also to consider whether settlements that benefit some of the parties who have rights and interests in land and waters do not conflict or override the rights of others who believe they also have interests in lands and waters. So in order for the settlement to be durable all of those matters must be fully explored—and despite the fact that some parties might feel that actually they haven't been able to recover all of their property or to have all of their rights and interests fully acknowledged that they are sufficiently satisfied with the deal that's on the table and that it means they can move forward as a group as an iwi as a hapū and have sufficient economic power to actually go about and develop their own business and their own land in a way that benefits them for the long term. So that is the purpose of the settlement process and ACT supports that. I do note at some stage in the bill it refers to setting up statutory boards that will have a co-governance approach to the wetland to reserve land and to conservation land. Now where the scope and the purpose and the objectives of those statutory entities is clear and that revolves around ecology and making sure that the people who have an interest in these lands and waters are satisfied that the ecological and the biodiversity values are being enhanced then look there may very well be good reasons to have a co-governance model. But there will always be concerns from some people who feel that in the absence of a democratically elected pathway to people who control reserves and other what are currently common lands held by the Crown for the purpose of administering them so that all New Zealanders can access them that a co-governance arrangement may in fact exclude some people who wish to be heard. But I do note in the bill that there are extensive provisions for consultation on reserve management plans that the statutory board wishes to implement and so it seems like in this particular case many of the concerns that people have about co-governance could in fact be allayed by very high quality legislation that delivers the best of both worlds. So on that note I would like to confirm that the ACT Party supports that this bill should go to select committee for further investigation and on that note ACT commends this bill.