Hipango HareteHARETE HIPANGO (National—Whanganui): Takitimu te waka. Ki ngā uri o ngā hapū o Mana Ahuriri. Nau mai haere mai ki tēnei Whare Pāremata Te Whare Miere. Ko Harete Hipango taku ingoa. Nō Whanganui te iwi. Ko Ngāti Tūpoho te hapū. Ko Pūtiki Wharenui a Tamatea Pōkaiwhenua te marae. Tēnā tātou katoa.[Takitimu is the ancestral waka. To the descendants of the hapū of the Ahuriri territories welcome to Parliament welcome to the Beehive. My name is Harete Hipango. Whanganui is my iwi. Ngāti Tūpoho is my hapū. Pūtiki Wharenui a Tamatea Pōkaiwhenua is my marae. Greetings one and all.]Whenever I stand and have the privilege to address the House and those who have travelled from afar to gather here on this significant occasion of the reading and the passage of the bill—which is depictive and reflective of a lifetime journey for many: those of us from our past those of us who are here and those of us who are yet to come—I always stand and attempt to make a connection.So what I have done is—being the member of Parliament for Whanganui but also uri of Whanganui—made that affiliation and connection to a tupuna of Ngāti Kahungunu and our people from Ahuriri who have come here. Your tupuna Tamatea-Pokai-Whenua travelled over to my area my whenua a long time ago. When we stand on our marae and whenever I am home I always hearken to that relationship. Nau mai haere mai.At this first reading of the bill my colleagues have addressed much of the history. Some may have noticed that as part of my journey as uri of Whanganui I had the privilege of sitting up in the gallery some years ago with the passage of Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Bill our bill. I have also as part of my lifetime journey carrying on the journey of my tūpuna as our people from Ahuriri Ngāti Kahungunu today do that—we carry with us the burden but we also carry with us the hope.Part of my journey 25 years ago was as a young woman going on to reclaim part of our whenua at Pākaitore Moutoa Gardens. Twenty-five years ago on 28 February I was there with whanaunga and many who had travelled from afar to hearken to the memory of the efforts and the hard work associated with that journey. Here I stand today in this position of privilege to acknowledge Ngāti Kahungunu Ahuriri with this first reading in the passage of your bill. I say yours" because I always hearken refer to our people who come and travel and gather from afar and also many of us who are down here in Wellington continuing that mahi.I have limited time with this call but I just share that our people who have gathered here from Ngāti Kahungunu this is your bill. You know the contents of it because it is your people who have carried that burden for decades for generations. We are here today to celebrate the present with the first reading and the passage of this going through to the final reading hopefully that not being delayed any further.I acknowledge my parliamentary colleagues—Minister Nash Meka Whaitiri and my colleague Lawrence Yule—because we carry on part of the journey on behalf of those. That is our role here as members of Parliament.This bill it's divided into significant portions and I will just very briefly highlight those. Clause 8 is a depiction in detail of a historical account of the mamae of the grievance of the injustice. Clause 9 traverses the acknowledgments of the Crown's errors of the Crown's avarice and of the Crown's attempts to remedy and rectify. Clause 10 is the formal apology in this bill. Then of course it goes without saying but for those who do not know and for the purposes of the law to be very clear clause 13 defines and details who you of Ahuriri hapū are. That is for the benefit of the Crown and is the clarity of a commitment to you to those who have gone but to those of you who are to come into the future and carry on in representation of what the Crown has traversed with all its wrongdoings to make this right.There is so much—I am limited with my time. I do hope to take a call at the second and the third readings when there will be many tears of memory of remembrance but also of hope and joy travelling into the future. In conclusion I commend this bill on the first reading through to select committee where I invite my parliamentary colleagues—I hope I have the opportunity to sit in on that select committee to ensure that there is clarity there is transparency that things are corrected and put right so that this carries through into the future. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa. Kia ora."