New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill

Tēnā koe, Mr Assistant Speaker. Talofa lava i tēnei rangi.

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): O a mai oe?

Kia ora rā. I move, That the New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill be now read a third time. I a au e tū nei, me mihi rā ki a koutou i hara mai i tēnei rangi, ko ngā uri, me kī, o Kōraurau, o Hikareia, o Hōri Tūpaea. I tēnei rā nōku te hōnore nui ki te whakatakoto i tēnei pire mō koutou, he whaiwhai haere i te oati o Hēnare Taratoa mā, Hōri Ngātai mā, Rāwiri Puhirake mā. Nō konei te aroha atu, kāre rātau i konei ēngari, te āhua nei kei konei rātau ā-wairua nei i tēnei rangi. Hara mai kai aku rangatira o Tauranga Moana ki te rongo i ngā kōrero e whai ake nei. Ko tēnei te whakatinanatanga o ngā moemoeā, arā, o ngā hapū, o Te Materāwaho, tae atu ki a Ngāi Tūkairangi, Ngāti Tapu, ki Te Whānau-a-Tauwhao.

Kua tata ki te 5 tau tātau e kōrero ana mō tēnei o ngā pire. Ka mihi rā ki a koutou ngā kaitiaki o Ōtamataha. Me mihi rā anō hoki ki a koe e Albert Puhirake Īhaka, mōu i whai nei i tēnei kaupapa, mōu i ārahi i tēnei kaupapa kia eke ki tēnei o ngā taumata. Ka nui te mihi kai taku rangatira. I roto i tō pānui tūatahi ki tēnei o ngā Whare Pāremata, hāngai tonu ana tō kōrero ki te pūtake o tēnei kaupapa, arā ko tēnei, whakahokia te whenua ki te hunga nō rātau tērā whenua. Kāore i kō atu, kāore i kō mai. Nō reira, tēnā koe, tēnā koutou katoa.

Ko tāku, ko te whakaingoa noa hoki i ngā kaitiaki katoa i te mea, nā rātau anō tēnei pire i whakatakototo ki roto i te Whare Pāremata nei, a Mōrehu Ngātoko Rahipere, a Desmond Matakōkiri Tata, a Joanne Ngāpeeti Gear, a Peri Rēweti Kohu, a Sylvia Hemoata Willison, a Rena Uruhina Bennett, a Raewyn Ngakumāmā Keith, a William Charles Retireti McGuigan. Ka mutu, ko taku mihi whakamutunga ki a koe, te ringa āwhina, te ringa kakama, Alan Tate, mōu i āki i tēnei kaupapa ki tōna taumata, ka mihi rā ki a koe.

[As I stand here before you, I must acknowledge you the descendants, shall we say, of Kōraurau, Hikareia, and Hōri Tūpaea who have come here today. It is, indeed, a great honour for me on this day to present this bill on your behalf, to follow up on the promise by Hēnare Taratoa, Hōri Ngātai, Rāwiri Puhirake, and others. It is a pity that they are not here but it seems that they are here spiritually today. Welcome, my esteemed of Tauranga to hear the addresses that are to follow. This is the manifestation of the dreams of, namely, the subtribes of Te Materāwaho, including Ngāi Tūkairangi, Ngāti Tapu, and the family of Tauwhao.

We have been talking for nearly 5 years about this bill. I acknowledge you, indeed, the trustees of Ōtamataha. I must commend you once again, Albert Puhirake Īhaka, in terms of following up this matter and for leading this proposal so that it reached this of the levels. I commend you highly, my esteemed elder. In your first reading to this one of the houses of Parliament, your address focused directly on the nub of this matter, which was, indeed, to return the land to those who owned that land, nothing further, nothing less. So greetings to you and everyone.

My part is merely to mention the trustees, all of them, as they presented this bill to this House of Parliament here: Mōrehu Ngātoko Rahipere, Desmond Matakōkiri Tata, Joanne Ngāpeeti Gear, Peri Rēweti Kohu, Sylvia Hemoata Willison, Rena Uruhina Bennett, Raewyn Ngakumāmā Keith, and William Charles Retireti McGuigan.

Furthermore, my final acknowledgment is to you, Alan Tate, executive assistant and nifty handyman in terms of your encouragement to get this matter to its summit. I really applaud you.]

A very distinguished New Zealander, and a former Māori Party member at that, Robert Consedine, has written a very important book with his daughter Joanna in mind, and it is titled Healing our History. The musician and songwriter Tim Finn made a comment about this book, which I thought was pretty apt to refer to at this very important moment in the history of Ngāti Tapu, Ngāitamarāwaho, and Ngāi Tūkairangi—indeed, for Tauranga Moana across the board. This is what he had to say: “I remember singing background vocals on the Australian Aboriginal group Yothu Yindi’s song ‘Treaty’. I felt proud at the time that at least New Zealand had a Treaty. After reading Healing our History I am reminded that we have no reason to feel smug. The theme for Pakeha, of personal responsibility, to learn and apply the lessons of history, comes through loud and clear. …Frank Sargeson out of print. Ronald Hugh Morrieson out of print. Literary and historical amnesia spring from the same culture of forgetting. Healing our History reminds us that for all the stories of duplicity, cruelty and ignorance, there may still be one place where poetry and politics can meet.”

Today at this third reading we trace back over a history in which vast tracts of land were confiscated by the Crown, including the Ōtamataha site. It is a history in which the tangata whenua were positioned as rebels, a space into which the Church Missionary Society took advantage. This bill remedies the original wrong done in 1835 when Archdeacon Brown purchased two blocks of land at Te Papa, Te Papa peninsula being the site of central Tauranga to this day.

I just want to focus on one word in the bill’s title and the fact that this bill is “empowering” legislation. To empower is to give someone authority or power, to give them the means to control their life, to claim their rights, to emancipate, to unyoke, to unfetter, to unshackle, to set free, and to give freedom. Well, today is the final step in extinguishing the New Zealand Mission Trust Board and discharging its trustees. Through the legislation we pass today, we will mandate the change in the trust and the beneficiaries, and, in doing so, unshackle the hapū of Ngāti Tapu and Ngāitamarāwaho. I took the step of naming the trustees who have made this possible because we must not unknowingly contribute to the historical amnesia about the story of our nation. The Māori Party has raised an issue directly with the Prime Minister about appropriate ways in which we recognise those events of our past conflicts, events in which precious strands of whakapapa were desecrated, where land was alienated and dispossessed, leaving the people impoverished.

A key issue at the heart of this bill is that awarding the Crown grant in 1852 was actually contrary to the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. But we must not abandon the broader context of this bill, which was that the actions that resulted in the land transaction at Ōtamataha were in themselves a punishment meted out to those so-called natives, those heathens, for the battles at Te Ranga and Pukehinahina. Over the course of this year we have been reflecting on the impact of the Land Wars occurring throughout Waikato at Rangiriri, Waiari, Rangiaowhia, Rākau, and Pukehinahina. In fact, next month we commemorate the last battle, Te Ranga. We must tell the stories beyond the conflict and remember the lives lost, both of British soldiers and of mana whenua who are buried alongside one another. I spoke about that in the second reading.

This was the ultimate miscarriage of justice—the colonial project deteriorating into land being sold by the Crown and vested in the Church Missionary Society. These are not just stories of duplicity, cruelty, and ignorance; this is also a story of a church that took bold action to seek a pathway for reconciliation. It is a story in which the Waitangi Tribunal has enabled a new future to be rewritten. The mandate of the tribunal in 2004 has in effect enabled this legislation to stand to address the Treaty breach of active protection. The tribunal concluded definitively, and I quote from its ruling: “We find that Godfrey failed to ascertain and acknowledge the conditional nature of the transaction under Māori customary law, and that he wrongfully concluded that the Church Missionary Society had fully and fairly purchased the whole area.”

It is a story of courage and determination on behalf of Ngāti Tapu and Ngāitamarāwaho in working with the New Zealand Mission Trust Board to establish a new common law trust. The beneficiaries of this trust will rightfully be, as Puhirake Īhaka stated, the descendants of the tūpuna from whom the property was originally taken. In the space of less than 5 years, the Ōtamataha Trust has worked diligently to rectify the breach over land that has been held by the New Zealand Mission Trust since 1896. The most recent innovation was to amend the Ōtamataha Trust Board just 2 months ago to allow Ngāi Tūkairangi members to benefit through their whakapapa links to the historical hapū of Te Materawaho, whose connections to the land are now recognised in the trust deed. A definition of “Ngāti Tapu” has also been expanded to take this whakapapa into account.

In closing, I want to congratulate my friend and colleague the Hon Tau Henare on presiding over the Māori Affairs Committee, and I acknowledge also my fellow select committee members for their support in allowing this bill to come to its third reading before Parliament breaks up. I acknowledge, too, the Business Committee of the House, which granted leave to compress the second reading and Committee stage of the bill. The priority for all of us in this House was, indeed, to heal our history, to restore the Ōtamataha land to its rightful owners, and, in doing so, to offer up the greatest opportunity for meaningful dialogue to be held across the greater rohe of Tauranga Moana.

This bill provides the incentive for reconciliation between Māori and the Crown, and Māori and the Church. It enables—indeed it empowers—all New Zealanders to learn and apply the rich lessons of history that come through military conquest, through land acquisition, through legislative stealth. Most important of all, it allows new waiata to be written about the significance of whakapapa, the enduring value of land, and the importance of the tribal connections between Ngāti Tapu, Ngāitamarāwaho, and Ngāi Tūkairangi. As I wrap up, I just acknowledge the descendants of those who were involved in this whole issue. They are in the gallery today. They have come down from Tauranga Moana. I wish them well. In moving this bill, I commend it highly to the House of Parliament.

Kia ora, Mr Assistant Speaker. The New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill transfers land in Tauranga and other property from the New Zealand Mission Trust to the Ōtamataha Trust, so that it can be used for the beneficiaries of the Ōtamataha Trust, the hapū of Ngāti Tapu and Ngāitamarāwaho.

I will not dilly-dally. This is a good bill. This settles for all time an incident that happened. It settles some of the raruraru, some of the hurt, of various people in the Tauranga Moana region. Having said all of that—and it was only 45 seconds long—

💬 Sue Moroney: Oh, that’s enough!

Oh, that is enough. Well, listen up—the whole House needs to listen up—because the underlying message in this bill is the fact that the Anglican Church and the Catholic Church were complicit in the theft of hundreds and hundreds of acres of land throughout this country, and, quite frankly, they have gotten off scot-free.

They have gotten off scot-free, because although we have been trying to reconcile our differences, trying to reconcile some of the bad things, we have been looking at the Crown. We always love to stand up and belt the Crown, whoever the Government is—we always like to belt it for the past.

But there are certain groups in this society that need to look at themselves. They need to look at themselves very clearly and start on the same track as this Government has, and as previous Governments have, about reconciliation, and realising the hurt that they have caused. So I make no bones about what I say. I make no bones about using the opportunity not only to congratulate those people, those home folk, and not only to congratulate the Māori Party and my colleague Te Ururoa Flavell on bringing the bill here but also to make the point that nothing is done in isolation.

You cannot just do something and leave it there as if it was on its own. So use the opportunity of passing this legislation to have a look, not as some sort of a witch-hunt but as some sort of reconciliation process that the Crown has gone through, that the Government has gone through, and continues to go through, and that organisations like the Church Missionary Society are going through.

It is important that we play our part—every bit—in our part of the reconciliation. Just because the Crown was involved in Treaty negotiations, it does not mean that the whole play of reconciliation is taken care of. My advice to everybody is to get into it, and then we will move on to being a very, very good country. Kia ora.

Tēnā koe, Mr Assistant Speaker. Tēnā koutou e ngā rangatira o Ngāti Tapu me Ngāitamarāwaho. Tēnā koutou ngā rangatira o Tauranga Moana, nau mai, hara mai ki te Whare Pāremata e takatū nei. He rā whakahirahira, he rā harihari koa. Nō reira, huri noa i te Whare, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa.

[To the esteemed leaders of Ngāti Tapu and Ngāitamarāwaho, salutations to you collectively. Greetings to you collectively, esteemed leaders of Tauranga, welcome, welcome to the House of Parliament standing here in readiness. This is a great day and a really joyful one. And so acknowledgments, accolades, and congratulations to you all throughout the House.]

I am delighted to be speaking at the third reading of the New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill. As I have mentioned in earlier contributions, this bill is a beautiful piece of reverse engineering—or reverse privatisation, as I call it—whereby we are returning lands back to the tangata whenua, back to the original hapū. It is a historic day. I have to truncate my speech somewhat today, but the sincerity is there. I would like to acknowledge our rangatira who have travelled all the way down, who have been the stalwart trustees who have been involved in holding the fort for the New Zealand Mission Trust Board and who are soon to be vested in the Ōtamataha Trust.

There is a long history to this bill. It goes back about 176 years, way back to when the land at Ōtamataha, the Te Papa peninsula, was acquired—“acquired”, I should say—by the Church Missionary Society and the Rev. Brown. I am sure that there were some genuine, altruistic-type, good-hearted purposes to the acquisition, but the bottom line is that the land was taken. It was not the understanding of the tangata whenua that they had given up rights to their land, and, indeed, the actions that followed were not so altruistic, because we saw 80 percent of the land that was acquired was subsequently granted to the Crown and further parts of the land were also disposed of. So what we are dealing with today is just a small remnant—a very small remnant—of the original land blocks, which is now prime real estate right in the heart of Tauranga. As I understand it, as you drive around the waterfront by the Sebel suites, I think it is on that sort of drive. Anyway, it is a beautiful piece of land, and this is just a wonderful opportunity to speak on this bill in recognition that that land is returning back to the original owners.

We heard, as the Māori Affairs Committee, submissions from Ngāi Tūkairangi in terms of their inclusion in the bill. I am pleased that the Ōtamataha Trust was able to amend the trust deed so that their ancestral hapū were also included, and so that they could all link up to the Ōtamataha Trust. By and large, it was a very pleasant process, whereby we travelled to Tauranga on a nice, balmy late summer’s day to hear the submitters, who were largely all in favour of this legislation.

But I want to pick up on a point that our chair, matua Tau Henare, mentioned, in saying that these hapū are lucky. They are lucky because they are receiving back the lands that were taken from them, but not every hapū around the country has been so lucky. So there were many other Māori right around the motu who are very generous—very generous—to the Christian missionaries with their tribal estates. We are very familiar with the schools that have been set up around the country by the early missionaries, such as Te Aute College and St Stephen’s School, which is where our kaitautoko—our sponsor—of this bill, Te Ururoa, is an old boy from. These schools were set up to be self-sufficient, and hence there were large tracts of land given for these schools for pastoral, agricultural, and educational purposes.

But other tribes have not been so lucky. I am thinking of a local instance here, in the case of Wi Parata v The Bishop of Wellington, where the Ngāti Toa people had given up land, and 500 acres of that land was set aside for the building of a school. None of that eventuated, and it led to the low point—the absolute low point—of Treaty jurisprudence and judicial pronouncements in this country, when Chief Justice Prendergast called the Treaty “a simple nullity”. Fortunately, we have moved well on from those dark days, but that is just an example that there is a long history. I would like to find out about other pieces of land that the Church Missionary Society may have in its possession, and if it is willing to offer them back to other hapū around the country, then I would encourage it to do so. This is a great bill. I am very pleased to tautoko it and to acknowledge our rangatira here in the House today. I commend the bill to the House. Kia ora tātou.

Kia ora. In this third reading of the New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill, I am very happy to stand in support of it. This bill does right a wrong. It brings back to the hapū the ability to receive benefit from the proceeds of land rent, a benefit that they have not received, essentially, since this land was alienated from them. So I am very happy to stand in support of this bill. As my colleague Rino Tirikatene mentioned, the Māori Affairs Committee travelled to Tauranga and we met with many submitters. There was general agreement and support for this being done. It is an intriguing history, and I think that what we can be very pleased about, and proud of, today is that in many regards—although not fully and completely—we have turned back the clock to where it should be. So I am very pleased to stand and commend this bill to the House.

Tēnā koe, Mr Assistant Speaker. Ngā mihi nui ki te hapū katoa o Tauranga Moana me Ngāti Tapu me Ngāitamarāwaho. Tēnā rā koutou. Thank you for coming here to see the third reading of this important bill, the New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill. I would also like to acknowledge the Māori Affairs Committee and the sponsor of the bill, Te Ururoa Flavell—tēnā koe. It is awesome. As a previous speaker from the Labour Party said, let us make it a trend. You know, this could be a trend of Church Missionary Society descendants handing back whenua to tangata whenua. Sounds like a good trend to me. I was privileged to speak on the first and second readings of this bill. I am going to keep it short but I would like to make just a couple of comments about what we are doing here today and the important history.

I was recently at the battle site at Pukehinahina. I stood there in the heart of Tauranga thinking of the Ōtamataha Trust bill, thinking of everything I had learnt about Alfred Brown and the history of the tangata whenua and what they went through, and just how important it is to go to those places, stand there, feel them, and feel the responsibility that we do the right thing here when we have the opportunity. This is not so much about a chrysalis becoming a butterfly; this is about replacing prejudice, violence, discrimination, and alienation with justice and hope. It is high time, overtime, and just in time that we do this kind of work. I really want to acknowledge the tangata whenua for the efforts, the ahi kā, to hold fast to the whenua, to the whakapapa, and to the history, because that is a gift to the whole nation.

The original purpose of Alfred Brown and the Church Missionary Society was the evangelising of the heathens. It is one of my favourite expressions: the evangelising of the heathens. The problem with the evangelising of the heathens is that it takes messages of love, peace, and hope mixed up with messages of sin and guilt, and the implication of Western religious beliefs being superior. It was that that did so much damage in the history of this country and at places like Ōtamataha, because those are mixed and conflicting messages that have had a destructive effect as well as a positive effect. So, yes, we must congratulate the church people of today on their sincere and well-guided endeavours to work with tangata whenua to create a better future based on justice and to return the whenua. But let us not forget that the evangelising of the heathens is never a good idea. Evangelising—full stop—is usually about propaganda, control, alienation, and the idea that the ideas of the person or the organisation, such as the Church Missionary Society, are superior to others. That in itself is a damaging concept, and so let us have no more evangelising.

I think it would be excellent if we stopped evangelising about Western culture and actually took our relationships back to the concepts that started in the 1800s from Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the Declaration of Independence, He Whakaputanga. If we go back to those, we will be guided by a greater and lesser evangelising concept: the concept of negotiation, harmony, and peace based on the recognition of tangata whenua and tangata Tiriti.

So, congratulations to Ōtamataha Trust on shifting, moving over, for the rightful owners of this place to take their leadership. We recognise again that the whenua and the whakapapa have eventually been acknowledged. It takes a long time—far too long—for these things to be acknowledged in this country, but at last we have got there. I would like to just express the Green Party’s full support for those people, for their efforts, and for their leadership. May tangata Tiriti follow the lead of tangata whenua and let Te Tiriti o Waitangi speak. Kia ora tātou.

Tēnā koe, Mr Assistant Speaker. Tēnā tātou katoa ngā mema o te Whare nei. I was in such a rush because this is such a great day, so I do apologise to my colleague Catherine Delahunty for trying to jump into her speaking slot. But can I first acknowledge our rangatira who have turned up here in the House from Ngāti Tapu me Ngāitamarāwaho. E ngā rangatira kua tae mai, tēnei te mihi aroha ki a koutou.

[To the leaders who have arrived here, fond greetings to you collectively.]

It is always a privilege to stand and support the third reading of a Treaty settlement bill. Like all the previous speakers, I say that it is a great day for the hapū of Tauranga Moana in seeing that this land is being returned to the original owners. As a proud member of the Māori Affairs Committee, I say that after the way in which this bill was championed by my colleague Te Ururoa Flavell—tēnei te mihi ki a koe, te rangatira—and handled by the Māori Affairs Committee, this is one of those proud moments that you can stand there and celebrate, but you cannot imagine what it feels like for the people who have joined us here in the gallery and those who are at home in terms of the returning of this land and what that is going to do for the people of Tauranga Moana.

In my earlier contribution on the New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill, I did talk about the particular submitters who felt themselves excluded—Ngāi Tūkairangi—but, again, through the reality of our shared whakapapa, those descendants of that particular tipuna are recognised through their links with Ngāti Tapu. I am a big believer that the iwi-Māori, hapū-iwi way of dealing with challenges is to go back to our whakapapa, and so I acknowledge in the passing of this bill the importance of that to ensure that we see the passage of the bill through this third reading.

I want to take a bit of time to just divert and pick up on what the Green member Catherine Delahunty spoke about in relation to the role of the Church Missionary Society in shaping or influencing the fabric of Aotearoa New Zealand in terms of the early missionaries. Like we have seen in this particular bill, whether the establishment of this post and the acquisition of the land were legal can definitely be challenged, and these kinds of things have had a huge impact on all parts of Aotearoa New Zealand. In my area, in my electorate of Ikaroa-Rāwhiti, there are Te Aute College and Hukarere Girls’ College, and we also have St Joseph’s Māori Girls’ College. They are schools that have been touched by Christianity. They are founded on the principles and values of Christianity, but for a lot of those schools, if you visit them—and I encourage members to visit both Te Aute College and Hukarere Girls’ College; you will see that they are great schools, which produce great leaders—you will see that though they have got endowment land attached to them, they are struggling to keep the maintenance of the hostel areas.

On the one side I am seeing the Church Missionary Society sitting on huge economic opportunities in terms of the land that was gifted for the purpose of education so many years ago. So my contribution is to support the plea in this House that this gifting back to the people of Tauranga Moana should be the catalyst for the return of the missionary land gifted by hapū and iwi so many years ago. It should come back to the original owners, so that the original owners can enjoy the economic, the social, the spiritual, and the environmental returns that land gifted back to the rightful people quite rightly creates.

I do not want to go on too much longer. This is an exciting time. I am honoured to support all members in the House in this third reading, and I do in all sincerity wish the people of Tauranga Moana a very safe journey home. You have done your deed, you have seen the passage of this important bill in its third and final reading, and I celebrate your success and that of the people you represent here on the gifting of what I know is an important piece of whenua to the people of Tauranga Moana. Nō reira, I stand again and support the third reading of this bill. Kia ora tātou.

Kia ora, talofa lava, and greetings to you, Mr Assistant Speaker. This is just a brief call on behalf of New Zealand First to support the New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill. We are fully supportive of it and the sentiments that have been made in this House. We recognise the work of the member Te Ururoa Flavell in bringing it through to the third reading, and we are very supportive of it. The previous speaker, Meka Whaitiri, mentioned Te Aute College. I have fond memories of playing rugby against Te Aute College in my days at Central Hawke’s Bay College. We lived in fear every time we played Te Aute College, because we always knew we were going to come out much worse off. We certainly went up there and came back battered and bruised, and we were usually many, many points down. But it was always a great experience going to Te Aute College. The haka of the whole school on the side of the field was enough to have us quivering under the goalposts at the other end of the field.

💬 Tim Macindoe: I’m surprised you lived to tell the tale.

Yes, exactly. But having been to the mission house and the trust in Tauranga, and having seen what was done throughout this whole bill, New Zealand First is fully in support of it and we commend it to the House.

Tēnā koe, Mr Assistant Speaker. Talofa lava. I rise to support this private bill, the New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill, in the name of Māori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell. The return of the land is highly significant to the hapū of Ngāti Tapu and Ngāitamarāwaho. It re-establishes the hapū connection to their wai. It provides income to the hapū to finance other activities, including allowing the hapū to participate in the economy of downtown Tauranga. It comes with the 150-year anniversary of the Battle of Gate Pā, which was commemorated a couple of months ago—just this year. I commend this bill to the House.

Kia ora. Talofa lava. It is my pleasure to rise in the third reading of the New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill. I would like to take this opportunity to mihi to Te Ururoa Flavell. This is another bill he is going to get through the House—kia ora. I would like to mihi to the Church Mission Society, the Ōtamataha Trust, Ngāti Tapu, Ngāitamarāwaho, and the representatives who are here today.

I just want to take us through a very brief history lesson. Essentially, there was a transaction, and lands were gifted from Māori to the Church Mission Society in 1835. In 1852 there was a dispute about those lands. The Crown stepped in and said: “The lands don’t belong to you, tangata whenua. They belong to the Church Mission Society.” I just want to read an excerpt from Te Raupatu o Tauranga Moana: Report on the Tauranga Confiscation Claims, dated 2004. It says “We accept that the strictly legal beneficiary of the trust was the CMS, not Tauranga Maori. The land had already been permanently alienated from its Maori owners through the Crown action of granting the land to the CMS, an action which we have found was in breach of Treaty principles. In a narrowly legal sense, then, Maori had no remaining rights in the Te Papa block, and the CMS was free to use the land for whatever purposes it wished.”

What the Church Mission Society did was gift 80 percent of that land back to the trust, and it retained 20 percent, which has been retained in the form of the New Zealand Mission Trust Board in Tauranga. What I want to acknowledge is that the Church Mission Society since 1998 has actively ensured that tangata whenua have been involved in that trust. Essentially, what this piece of legislation is doing is changing the beneficiaries—and I do want to read this, because it is interesting. Currently, the trust is for “the spiritual benefit and spiritual instruction of Maori people in the North Island of New Zealand or failing that, the evangelisation of heathen races in any part of the world:”.

The beneficiaries from the enactment of this piece of legislation will be Ngāti Tapu and Ngāitamarāwaho, and I think that that is the most significant part of this legislation. I again want to commend the Church Mission Society for giving back what belonged to tangata whenua originally. Kia ora tātou katoa.

Tēnā koe, Mr Assistant Speaker. Talofa lava. Ā, tēnā koutou ngā rangatira o Tauranga Moana.

[And salutations to you collectively the leaders of Tauranga.]

I am pleased to take a short call on the New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill, a private bill in the name of Te Ururoa Flavell, the Māori Party co-leader. It has seemed like a lifetime for the hapū Ngāti Tapu, Ngāitamarāwaho, and Ngāi Tūkairangi to see this bill reach its final destination in the House.

There have been many words expressed to date, and no doubt I could add many more, but I see it as a time for action, a time for ngā hapū o Ōtamataha Trust to move forward and implement their economic development plans for their whānau. I want to thank those who have worked diligently on this bill: whānau and hapū, the officials, the Māori Affairs Committee, the Hon Chris Finlayson, and, of course, the member Te Ururoa Flavell. I am proud to commend this bill to the House. Kia ora.

Before I call the next speaker, is this a split call?

💬 Kelvin Davis: No.

The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson): It is not? In that case, I call the honourable member Kelvin Davis.

Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker. Ngāitamarāwaho, Ngāti Tapu, tēnā koutou. Tēnā koutou i tae ā-tinana mai hei kite ā-kanohi, hei rongo ā-taringa i ngā kōrero e pā ana ki tō koutou whenua. Nā reira, nau mai, haere mai, whakatau mai.

[Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker. Salutations to you, Ngāitamarāwaho and Ngāti Tapu. Greetings to you who have arrived here personally to see and hear the addresses about your land. So welcome, welcome, settle in.]

I whakapapa to the Church Missionary Society. My great-uncle Manu Davis from Tōrere was an Anglican minister. His son Rangi is an Anglican minister. My father’s eldest brother, Walton Davis, was an Anglican minister. His son Kerry is training to be an Anglican minister. My mother is an Anglican minister, and my brother-in-law is an Anglican minister.

💬 Te Ururoa Flavell: What about you?

I aspire to be a Minister of other sorts, but that road has been full of potholes and speed bumps, I must say.

Despite my whakapapa to the Anglican Church, of which I am proud, I agree entirely with the words of Tau Henare when he said that the Church has a lot to answer for. Taking land was one of the biggest crimes that the Anglican Church has committed over its many years here. We have a saying in Māori, and it is very clear, and I think it sums up this whole bill, the New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill. It goes “Riro whenua atu; hoki whenua mai”—land has been taken; return it. That is what this bill is doing; it is setting right a wrong. As my uncle J J Johnson, who was a cousin of my grandmother and who was also an Anglican minister, used to say to me, if you make a mistake, fix it up. This is a mistake that has been fixed up for the betterment of Ngāitamarāwaho and Ngāti Tapu.

Before I close, I would just like to acknowledge Te Ururoa Flavell for bringing this bill to the House. Obviously, I missed all but this part of it, I think, due to my forced absence from the House, but I have to say I am pleased to be back. If the House can just indulge me one last time. I tētahi tau i mua i roto ahau i tōku whare e whakarongo ana ki ngā poroporoaki mō tōku hoa, a Parekura. I te mātakitaki ahau i roto i tōku kāinga, taumaha ana te ngākau, mākūkū ana ngā whatu ēngari, tēnei taku tāima tuatahi hei hoki mai ki te Whare, hei mihi atu, hei poroporoaki ki te rangatira rā, a Parekura. Nā reira, Parekura, haere atu ki a rātou, rātou hoki o Ngāitamarāwaho me Ngāti Tapu, rātou i mate i mua i te taunga o tēnei o ngā pire. Nā reira, e te Whare, tēnā koutou katoa.

[A year ago I was in my home listening to the farewell tributes for my mate, Parekura. I was watching in my place heavy-hearted and tearful, but this is the first time I have come back to the House to pay a tribute to and farewell that esteemed elder, Parekura. So therefore go forth, Parekura, go forth to them and to those of Ngāitamarāwaho and Ngāti Tapu who died before the settlement of this one of the bills. And so I salute you all the House.]

Talofa lava. Tēnā tātou katoa. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. I think it is appropriate, as that was the first speech in debate of the member Kelvin Davis since he has returned to this House, that we acknowledge in kind that he is indeed back with us. Mr Davis, I personally extend a welcome to you. It is good to see you again. We entered Parliament together in 2008, and I have respect for that member. I share his comments on the late Parekura Horomia.

I had the privilege of speaking in the second reading debate on the New Zealand Mission Trust Board (Otamataha) Empowering Bill, and I did so in detail, so I will take only a short call at this point, but I do again wish to acknowledge the fine work of the member Te Ururoa Flavell. It is a significant occasion when any member is able to shepherd a bill through this House, and he has done that skilfully—that is very clear. I understand that when the Māori Affairs Committee considered the submissions on it, it was felt that a good job had been done.

As my colleague the Hon Tau Henare noted earlier in this debate—and I say this as a proud member of the Anglican Church—sometimes the Churches got it wrong, as well, and this was indeed one of those occasions. So I am pleased to see an injustice being corrected after a very long period of time. It is said that sometimes good things take time, and I welcome my honourable colleague Nicky Wagner into the House and thank her for taking the time to be here. It is a significant occasion. I congratulate the member Te Ururoa Flavell. I am delighted to support the bill and to be the final speaker on it. Me whakanuia e tātou.

[We must celebrate it.]

Bill read a third time.