Turei Metiria: Ngati Makino Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Turei Metiria: Ngati Makino Claims Settlement Bill — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 25 July 2012. Volume:682;Page:3998. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Speaker. E te Upoko o to tatou Piringa me nga mema e huihui mai tena koutou katoa. Huri atu ki te whakanui i te Wiki o Te Reo Maori tena koutou katoa. 
[ 
Thank you Mr Speaker. Greetings to you the head of House and to the members assembled here greetings to you all. I turn to acknowledge Maori Language Week greetings to you all. 
] 
Tena koutou katoa Ngati Makino who are present in the gallery today. Kia ora. I am pleased to speak on behalf of the Greens and our support for the Ngati Makino Claims Settlement Bill. I want to acknowledge my colleague Denise Roche who made our second reading speech on this bill. It was a very articulate description that she set out in that speech of the history of the confiscation of the wars and of the loss to Ngati Makino over many years. She outlined a great deal of the history: the land confiscation from 1866 and the loss of 80000-odd hectares of land by the 1990s. At a very early stage most of the land was taken. Some 100 years later very very little of that land was left. 
I will take only a short call today because I know that there is a great deal of celebration still to go for this legislation. I want to echo the words of both Denise Roche in her second reading speech and Louisa Wall today in her korero just earlier about the generosity of iwi and hapu who accept these settlements and the generosity today of Ngati Makino in their acceptance of this settlement. It is 20 years in the making. That is a lifetime for many and there were many lives lost during that process. 
The Greens have always opposed the Treaty settlement process. We have always been prepared to stand up in this House and talk about the failures of the process the weaknesses of the process and what that means for iwi and hapu who are trying their best to engage with it. We have a huge amount of respect for those who are prepared to engage with it because it is so difficult. It is unfair and it is ill-conceived in our view. The Crown sets the terms the Crown makes the rules and the Crown creates the delays that lead to many many years between a claim being made and a settlement being finalised. In our view a durable and just settlement between two sovereign parties requires an equitable engagement between those parties. That does not happen in this Treaty settlement process. An equitable engagement between sovereign parties means that the parties agree together on the process that they undertake and that the parties agree to negotiate terms with an open mind. We know from settlement after settlement after settlement that that is not the case in Treaty settlements. The Crown comes to the table with a deal and it is very rare for the terms of that deal to be significantly changed in the negotiations. It is not treated with an open mind with a view to the needs of the other sovereign party in this engagement. 
We also know that the resolution of settlements and Treaty settlements often lead to further injustices and that should not be part of the process either. That is a weakness of the Treaty settlement process. We do not apologise for making that explicit in this House when we discuss settlements. Someone needs to be clear and straight about that. If we are to improve the process and to make sure we move towards durable settlements and just settlements where there is equitable engagement we must be prepared to debate the weaknesses and the failings. But that also does mean as has been said by Louisa and Denise—and no doubt others—that we recognise the generosity of iwi who are prepared to engage at all and the hard hard work and the money and the time that it takes for them to do that. They are prepared to put themselves on the line in order to get some progress not only for themselves and for their whanau their kids and their mokos but also actually for the rest of the country as well. 
I think one of the big changes that could be made to the settlement process that is a responsibility of the Crown—not of the iwi involved—is that their stories are made much more explicit as has been discussed to the rest of the New Zealand population. They just do not know about the history. It is a block to genuine progress for iwi and Crown relationships and for our community relationships that New Zealanders do not know the full history: the pain the hurt the damage the loss and the deaths that arose out of the colonisation process which has now led to the need for the Treaty settlement process. 
I am I have to say disappointed with the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations’ rather personal attacks today. I think that those attacks belittle him given that I understand he is committed to this process. But those attacks do belittle him and I am disappointed by that. I agree with the Minister that the Crown must now build a relationship with Ngati Makino based on trust and commitment. I agree with him that it will be the actions of the Crown or the actions of the Government more explicitly that will count in the building of that relationship with Ngati Makino. But thus far we hear pretty words and we do not see the actions that would give those words genuine dignity or that relationship genuine dignity. We look forward to seeing how those words will be put into action. 
I want finally to pay my respects to all of those of Ngati Makino who have been involved in any way in the settlement process who have passed on and our deep sorrow that the delays have meant that that has happened and those who worked for the settlement in the past have not been able to see it come to fruition today. I want to congratulate all of those who have worked and continue to work not only on the settlement but also on the best means to use the resources that have been returned however meagre for the benefit of their whanau hapu and iwi. It is no small feat to try to use these small resources to resolve more than 100 years of pain loss and degradation. Even that alone—that that attempt is being made and that the skills are there to do that work—is just extraordinary. The Maori community is extraordinary. Ngati Makino is extraordinary. I want to pay them homage for all the work that they have done. Kia ora koutou.