Upston Louise: Ngāti Hauā Claims Settlement Bill Ngāti Koroki Kahukura Claims Settlement Bill — First ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeUpston Louise: Ngāti Hauā Claims Settlement Bill Ngāti Koroki Kahukura Claims Settlement Bill — First Readings[Sitting date: 22 October 2013. Volume:694;Page:14162. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō): Tēnā koe e Te Mana Whakawā. Tēnā koutou e te Whare. Rau rangatira mā tēnei te mihi ki a koutou i runga i te kaupapa o te rā. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa.[Salutations to you Mr Assistant Speaker. Greetings to you collectively the House. To you the multitude of leaders I extend this greeting to you collectively in regards to the matter of the day. Acknowledgments greetings and congratulations to you all.]I stand before you in this House as the proud member of Parliament for the Taupō electorate. The anchor at the northern part of the electorate is of course your mighty Maungatautari. What is connecting the people of the Taupō electorate is the Waikato River and the mountain that anchors the south is Tongariro. The places that are referred to in this House today the names and places where tragedy has occurred where wrongs have been undertaken and where blood has lain on the ground are the places where I work that I love and where I am raising my children.The generosity of Ngāti Hauā and Ngāti Koroki Kahukura allows these first readings to be read together as a cognate bill. As you are neighbouring iwi iwi in my electorate I know how closely you work together and I know that it was not a difficult decision for you to agree to these first readings to be combined. But I think it is a particularly special moment for your member of Parliament to be able to speak in the first readings in this House.Some of you would have travelled here to Parliament before but for many of you it will be your first occasion. I was disappointed that I was not able to attend the deed signing for Ngāti Hauā but it was in December last year on a beautiful sunny shiny day at the base of Maungatautari that the deed was signed for Ngāti Korokī Kahukura. One of the things that will always be a very lasting impression for me is the generosity that you showed. I want to honour you as a people in coming to an agreement. I think to say in this House that it is a deal dishonours you as a people and what you brought to the table over many many years to get to this point. I have seen it I have been part of it and I have witnessed it in a way that I feel is extraordinary. Your generosity even recently around the Pukeatua cemetery is yet another example of your generosity.I want to honour you in this House as a people who have reached an agreement with incredible generosity and with the real intention around being able to say that we take nothing away from the horror the injustice and the indignity of the past. We acknowledge that very clearly. When the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations stands on your marae and offers the Crown apology that is heartfelt in a way I have never seen a Minister of the Crown speak. That allows for that part of our collective history not to be forgotten but for a chapter to be concluded so that we can move on with the next part.Very important in terms of the resolution and the agreement around Maungatautari was the fact that it was an issue that divided a community in a way I have never seen before—the intensity of feelings the real ignorance and the lack of understanding. Butyour generosity when you turned up were patient and understanding and shared your experience made sure we could get to a point of agreement with the Minister’s incredible commitment that the community at large could be proud of.At the end of the day the Maungatautari reserve is something that is special to all New Zealanders and something that we do share and want to share with the world. That meant an enduring agreement. So I am enormously proud of you here in the gallery representing your iwi for what that took. The job for us now—and I say “us”—is to make sure that the wider community continues to know and understand and respect the history to get us to this point but more important what that provides for us and the future.My only regret is that I am no longer a member of the Māori Affairs Committee so I will not get to share the next part of this journey. With you with Raukawa I am very very clear how important this is to you to your young for completing the past but more important for securing the future. Thank you for being here physically in the Chamber thank you for your generosity and I look forward to the day that we stand together in the third reading of your legislation. Kia ora.