Roche Denise: Ngāti Kōata Ngāti Rārua Ngāti Tama ki Te Tau Ihu and Te Ātiawa o Te Waka-a-Māui Claims Settlement Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRoche Denise: Ngāti Kōata Ngāti Rārua Ngāti Tama ki Te Tau Ihu and Te Ātiawa o Te Waka-a-Māui Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 16 April 2014. Volume:698;Page:17428. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENISE ROCHE (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Deputy Speaker.E ngā mana e ngā reo e ngā rangatira mā tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa. It is a pleasure to speak on behalf of the Greens on the Ngāti Kōata Ngāti Rārua Ngāti Tama ki Te Tau Ihu and Te Ātiawa o Te Waka-a-Māui Claims Settlement Bill. I maintain that it is a privilege to speak on these Treaty settlement bills. I want to thank the iwi who are here today because this was the first settlement bill that I have been involved with where I have travelled to the actual area where the land claims are from. I did that with the Māori Affairs Committee. It was the first time that I had actually heard from the people who lived there in the rohe while we were surrounded by the beautiful lands while we were surrounded by the losses that these people had endured. That was the first time that it happened for me. So the weight of those submissions actually carried much more for me because I was there and because it waskanohi ki te kanohi. So thank you for that.I want to acknowledge that there are many people over the very many generations who have worked to bring these Treaty settlements into legislation today. I want particularly to acknowledge those who have passed away on the journey to here. I want to acknowledge their foresightedness and their tenacity to bring justice to their people.This bill puts into legislation the settlements that were signed with each of the four iwi. Ngāti Kōata signed on 21 December 2012. Te Ātiawa o Te Waka-a-Māui signed the deed of settlement on 21 December as well. Ngāti Rārua signed theirs on 13 April 2013. Ngāti Tama ki Te Tau Ihu signed theirs in April 2013 as well. Each of these iwi has separate and specific histories. However they share a similar fate and that is why they are here today. Ngāti Kōata Ngāti Rārua Ngāti Tama Te Ātiawa and Te Tau Ihu o Te Waka-a-Māui have areas of occupation and areas of interest that overlap but they are distinct for each.In 1839—and this is the common history—they were all caught up in the dodgy deal that was done by the New Zealand Company when the New Zealand Company purported to have bought the entire top of the South Island. After the Treaty was signed a year later—and leaders from these iwi did sign the Treaty—the Crown appointed a commissioner to investigate the company’s purchases.In Ngāti Rārua’s settlement it says that in Nelson the commissioner heard from only one Māori and that person was Ngāti Rārua before suspending the entire inquiry to enable the New Zealand Company to attempt to negotiate a settlement. Local Māori signed the deeds of settlement in return for accepting payments that were described as gifts rather than as payments for the land. It is fair to say that the New Zealand Company in its attempts to wrest land from iwi negotiated with individual Māori for land ownership when in fact land was owned collectively. Breaking that collective ownership is basically how the land was alienated from iwi by both the New Zealand Company and also subsequently the Crown.The Crown continued to do that. It used a variety of mechanisms which are outlined fully in each of the deeds of settlement in each of the acknowledged histories that are contained in the legislation. To read those accounts and to understand the huge injustices that occurred when iwi were forced out of ownership of their resources their economic base is so incredibly sad. I just want to give an example of those acknowledgments from the conclusion of the Te Ātiawa o Te Waka-a-Māui deed of settlement. It says: “Within three decades of Te Ātiawa rangatira signing the Treaty of Waitangi at Tōtaranui (Queen Charlotte Sound) extensive Crown purchases in Te Tau Ihu had left Te Ātiawa o Te Waka-a-Māui virtually landless. The small areas of reserve land left to Te Ātiawa were insufficient for Te Ātiawa to participate in the new economy and were subject to further alienation over the twentieth century. The loss of land has impacted on Te Ātiawa’s connection and access to many of their significant sites and resources. This has had a detrimental effect on the spiritual economic and cultural wellbeing of Te Ātiawa as an iwi.”Iwi have carried these injustices and been hurt by them for generations so I am aware that the apologies from the Crown are really important and I acknowledge what the previous speaker Nanaia Mahuta said there. The apologies are crucial to healing those hurts. When I read the apologies that are in the legislation I can see that care has been taken. Maybe the words were crafted and debated by the negotiation team but they have been crafted to ensure that the Crown’s apology is sincere and unflinching in accepting responsibility for its actions and its omissions that disadvantaged the iwi.I am going to quote from the Ngāti Rārua apology which I think the previous speaker may have already done but I think that it is worth repeating as an example of that unflinchingness: “The Crown is sorry that its actions rendered Ngāti Rārua virtually landless in their rohe. This had a devastating impact on the social and cultural well-being of the people of Ngāti Rārua that continues to be seen today. The Crown also accepts that the loss of their land and their restriction to inadequate reserves has significantly marginalised Ngāti Rārua from the benefits of economic development and limited the autonomy and ability of the iwi to exercise customary rights and responsibilities throughout the Ngāti Rārua rohe.”I maintain that to accept the apology is an act of huge generosity from these people. To be sure the redress has been outlined in the legislation as well and iwi have managed to secure from the Crown some financial cultural and commercial redress but in no way are the losses that have been suffered covered by what is in the legislation and what has been negotiated. Ngāti Kōata will get financial redress of $11.6 million and the opportunity to purchase Waimea and Hira forestry land near Nelson Ngāti Tama ki Te Tau Ihu receive financial redress of $12.06 million for Te Ātiawa the financial redress is $11.7 million and for Ngāti Rārua the financial redress is $11.7 million. As I pointed out in a previous speech this is a drop in the bucket compared with what this Government sometimes spends its money on and I refer to South Canterbury Finance. All the iwi get small parcels of land back but they get nowhere near what was lost and they symbolically give some of that land back to the people of New Zealand. For example Te Tai Tapu and Kākā Point will be given to iwi but will be gifted back to the people of New Zealand 7 days later.The Greens do not agree that these are full and final settlements and that is a political point that I need to make in every speech on every settlement. It is not full because the compensation is obviously not full and it is not final because how can we know now how the histories of these iwi will impact on their people in the future? Without a doubt someone out there in the public will say that this is a gravy train and that Māori are privileged. It is my incredible wish that those people will receive the true histories of the tangata whenua of Aotearoa New Zealand. That is the only way we willbreak down racism. Today is the day to celebrate. I join with the rest of the House in congratulating the people whose legislation will pass through finally. Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa.