Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki Claims Settlement Bill

Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te W’are, otirā, tēnā tātou katoa. E tika ana kia tuku mihi atu ki a Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, tēnei ahau e tuku mihi atu ki koutou katoa kua tae mai ki Te W’āre Pāremata nei, ki te w’akarongo ki te pānuitanga tuatahi o tēnei pire w’akatau i ō koutou kerēme. Nō reira, tēnā koutou, nau mai, hara mai, whakatau mai. Ā, tēnā koutou ngā w’ānau me ngā hapū o Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, ā, tēnā tātou katoa.

[Salutations to you, Mr Deputy Speaker, but at the same time to us all. It is apt that Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki is acknowledged, and I acknowledge you all who have arrived here in this House to listen to the first reading of this bill to settle your claims. And so, salutations to you collectively, welcome, come hither, welcome. Greetings to you, the whānau and hapū of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, and to us all.]

It is an honour to take a call in the first reading of the Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki Claims Settlement Bill. I want to acknowledge the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations today, this being probably my last contribution to settlement bills in the 51st Parliament. I want to acknowledge also the chair and the members of the Māori Affairs Committee for the work they do on Treaty settlement bills, and the Office of Treaty Settlements and all of the officers. I want to acknowledge the Crown negotiators, but especially the Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki negotiators—anei ahau e tuku mihi atu ana ki a koutou [here I am extending a tribute to you collectively].

I read with interest the historical account in the deed of settlement. After one has read a number of these historical accounts—I try to get the feeling of the particular historical account. The unfortunate part of going through the historical account is that you almost relive or try to imagine what it might have been like to go through those experiences. As a former negotiator myself, I know what that is like. So I want to acknowledge Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki for their generosity in, first of all, allowing their story to be told. I want to acknowledge the magnitude of the impact of such loss.

The chair of the Māori Affairs Committee mentioned that in one transaction, a total of one-third of that land—it was agreed that it would be retained by Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki. Unfortunately, that did not happen. The total amount of that land was 83,000 acres—so, one-third of that would have been 27,666 acres, which should have been retained by Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki. Nearly 28,000 acres in Tāmaki-makau-rau—can you imagine what the value of that might be today?

I agree with the kōrero of my colleague Peeni Henare, where he talked about today’s value of that land, but, more important than today’s value, what is actually important is the huge loss of opportunity for the descendants of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki—the loss of opportunity to enhance the economic phase, as it would have been at that time, right up until now. That is really what the purpose is of going through a settlement process. It is about looking at what has happened in the past and trying to find a way forward. That is why I thank Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki for their generosity. I think the whole of New Zealand, and in particular Tāmaki-makau-rau, should send their thanks for such huge generosity in bringing this settlement to the House.

I also agree with what Peeni Henare said about the first part of this bill, that it is about expressing the history of what these lands are and the people there. It is about the Crown acknowledging what it has done wrong and then making an apology, also recorded in this piece of legislation. What we need to do is make certain—and I am talking about all of Parliament; not just the Government but every single member of Parliament, now and into the future—that we stay loyal to those acknowledgments and, most importantly, the apology, because unless we do that, one would have to question how valuable that apology is. The way forward on that is for this Parliament to never ever put Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki in that position ever again. That is a real tough ask on politicians, because sometimes we forget—and I am not just talking about one side or the other; both sides of this House have done that. So I mihi again to Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki.

Beyond that, the next parts of the bill are really about how we can work together so that Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki can move forward for its future generations and provide a legacy to help future descendants of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki in their future. The Minister has outlined a number of aspects of this settlement bill, including a number of mechanisms within the cultural redress, which we from the Labour Party support wholeheartedly because, I think, it provides an avenue for Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki to express their traditional values and to express all the things that are important to them as mana whenua. This is a mechanism that gives them the ability to hold their cultural integrity. So I acknowledge all of the cultural redress items that are within this Treaty settlement.

I also acknowledge the financial redress as well, and I note that the financial redress is not a huge amount, really, in terms of the amount of land lost and the value that it has today. All I can say to that is that it would be great to hear the thoughts of individuals, w’ānau, hapū, and the iwi, through the select committee process. It is an opportunity for everyone to have their say. I ask and encourage members, w’ānau, of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki to make a submission. Sometimes, the Māori Affairs Committee does not receive many submissions on settlement bills. What happens is if there is huge opposition to a bill, then the select committee gets lots of submissions, but I would also encourage everyone who agrees with this settlement to have their say and have it recorded in the records of this House. That is a way in which every w’ānau and every hapū can have their say and have it recorded as well.

Mr Deputy Speaker, thank you for this time. I greet the House in the spirit that these Treaty settlements are discussed in this House. Nō reira, tēnā tātou katoa.

E rau rangatira mā, e ngā iwi, kia ora mai tātou. It is a pleasure to rise and speak to the Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki Claims Settlement Bill here today in its first reading. The journey for this bill started on 26 February—in fact, a bit before that, but on 26 February 2010 the Crown recognised the mandate of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki Tribal Trust, which the 2013 census shows has roughly 498 members. Here we are today on the second to last sitting day of this, the 51st Parliament, and this settlement process is now making its way through the House.

The benefits of the settlement will be available to all members of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, wherever they live. The redress was negotiated by the Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki Tribal Trust. Some redress in the Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki deed of settlement is also jointly provided for with Ngāti Whanaunga, Ngāti Tamaoho, Ngāti Koheriki, and the Marutūāhu Collective. Members of the House have talked to some parts of the settlement. I have also drawn out parts that I thought were particularly poignant. I will not redress what others have spoken to. I would also just comment that Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki are one of the 12 iwi groups in the Hauraki Collective and one of the 13 iwi groups included in the Ngā Mana Whenua o Tāmaki Makaurau Collective Redress Act 2014.

If we look at Part 1 of the bill, the historical account, much of that has been presented here today, so I will move on to the acknowledgment. I want to highlight several clauses. What I first want to highlight is clause 9(5), and I want to read here: “The Crown acknowledges that by failing to set aside one-tenth of the lands purchased during the pre-emption waiver period for public purposes, especially the establishment of schools and hospitals for the future benefit of Māori, including Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, it breached Te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles.” I think what struck me next was subclause (10): “The Crown acknowledges that its agent pressured Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki to pay their rivals to withdraw challenges to the Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki applications for title to the Whakakaiwhara and Urungahauhau blocks.” Subclause (11) then strikes me: “The Crown acknowledges that Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki permanently lost the ownership and use of land at Mātaitai despite the Crown’s assurance that this land would be used for the rehabilitation of returned serviceman,” as my colleague Nuk Korako spoke to, “including a Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki serviceman, when it purchased the land.” The member Nuk Korako described how that came about.

If we move to the apology, what I found interesting there was—and we have heard from the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations several parts of the apology, but it was actually clause (10)(a): “Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki sought to establish mutually beneficial relationships with European settlers and the Crown by welcoming them into your role and offering land, but the Crown did not honour this gesture. Instead, its acts and omissions undermined relationships that should have been based on good will and mutual benefit. The Crown broke its promise to protect your interests, confiscated your whenua, and promoted policies which had devastating economic, social, and cultural consequences for Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki.”

The cultural redress is extensive—a vesting of 15 cultural redress properties. Part 3, “Commercial redress”, talks to commercial property redress and minerals in such associated lands other than what the Crown Minerals Act 1991 allows, and there is also a right of first refusal. As was mentioned by my colleague, the financial redress is $12.7 million, with $500,000 already on account.

I look forward to this bill coming to the Māori Affairs Committee so that we can explore and so that we can take public submissions and hear what the voice of the public says on this bill. We always find that when we take public submissions our final deliberations are always better. They always more informed. Very rarely does the initial bill as it appears end up being its final form, and I think that is a good thing. So I am very much looking forward to this bill coming to the select committee, and, at its first reading, I commend it to the House.

Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare, tēnā tātau katoa, kia ora tātau. He mihi nui ki a koutou o Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, kua tae mai nei ki tēnei Whare Pāramata, kia ora koutou katoa.

[Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and to all of us, thank you. A huge tribute to you of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, who have arrived here at this House, an appreciation to all of you.]

Tēnā koutou, everybody. I stand here, this mokopuna of Ngāpuhi, Te Rarawa, and Ngati Porou who has had the benefits of living and visiting and enjoying the ancestral whenua, moana, and awa of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki for many years. I want to thank the tribal trust in particular for reminding us that Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki have a longstanding whakapapa and ahi kā relationship over their whenua, over their people, their awa, and their moana, mai rā nō—mai rā nō.

The very name “Ngāi Tai”, I think, has to be acknowledged in this House today and for ever—that “Ngāi Tai” in itself encapsulates a maritime people; ancient navigators and voyagers of the tai, of the coast, of the foreshore, and of the sea. With that, I am very privileged to be able to stand here and speak to this, the first reading of the Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki Claims Settlement Bill—always, always, particularly with the acknowledgment of Ngāi Tai as ancient navigators and voyagers, acknowledging those who have passed on mai rā nō and also through this Treaty settlement process.

I have been delighted to have a look at the different whenua, the different moana that are part of the Ngāi Tai settlement claim. I think about the paddling that I did over my years as a student. I have been very humbled and privileged to paddle to and sleep on many of the motu, the islands, that are part of this settlement claim. I mention that I have had the privilege, many times, of paddling from Ōkahu to Motuihe, of paddling from Ōkahu to Motutapu, and, indeed, of sleeping on those very islands—sleeping on your motu and your whenua, in among the middle of your harbour and your moana.

It reminds me today in this first reading to speak about the benefits of the generosity that Te Iwi Māori have always afforded to Aotearoa, not just to tauiwi but to we who are not living on our ancestral lands but living on your ancestral lands—the benefits that have been long going, that ensure all people in our communities are able to enjoy your generosity. It is generosity, I might add, that has come through incredible sacrifice, wrongdoing, and injustice. Te Iwi Māori are amazing. Our people are amazing. We have gone through incredible injustice, sacrifice, land theft, genocide; the removal or our Reo, of our whenua, of our moana; the removal of our tūrangawaewae base. And yet here we are today, and here you are today, in this House, having worked so long for so many years to try to do what best you can with the little that the Crown is willing to give back after it has stolen so much of it. Te Iwi Māori are amazing. Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki are amazing. Our country owes so much to our people.

It is with absolute pleasure that I stand here in this first reading and acknowledge the work that has happened to date and the work that is going to have to happen. I want to remind all of us, while I am talking, as a Ngāpuhi, Te Rarawa, and Ngāti Porou descendent living in Tāmaki-makau-rau and living in South Auckland, about the years that I have benefited from visiting—I want to remind us all that Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki are an iwi with interests centred around Tāmaki-makau-rau, extending out to Hauraki, Coromandel, and, in particular, the coastline harbours of Waitematā Harbour and Hauraki Gulf’s Tīkapa Moana. The primary marae of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki is Umupuia Marae at Maraetai in Clendon—I am just making sure that we locate ourselves; where we are talking about, right here in the House.

I, as always, looked at the historical account and tried to get a sense of some of what has happened to Ngāi Tai, particularly how, before the Treaty was signed in Ngāi Tai rangatira alongside rangatira of other iwi, they were involved in land transactions in Tāmaki and the inner Gulf islands—those beautiful islands, those amazing islands. Ngāi Tai consider that their tupuna did not intend to permanently alienate—see, this is funny, this: we talk about our tupuna alienating ancestral lands, as opposed to the Crown stealing them. Of course our tupuna did not intend for our whakapapa connection to be broken with our whenua and, absolutely, indeed, with Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki.

It is said that it is Ngāi Tai’s view that those transactions were attempts by tupuna to foster ongoing connections and relationships with tauiwi. However, between 1836 and 1839, in the 1800s, Ngāi Tai and other iwi negotiated transactions with a missionary for a massive block in Tāmaki. This is where I wanted to learn about what happened with that particular deal—another shady deal. There were 83,000 acres involved in that land transaction, and the missionary wrote that iwi and hapū who had sold the land would retain at least one-third of the block for their personal, ongoing use for ever. The exact science of that transaction has never been established, but the royal commission concluded that it was about 83,000 acres. Now, if we are talking about one-third, then that in itself is supposed to be around 28,000 acres retained for Ngāi Tai for personal use, for ever. From what I can establish, it came down in the end to about 5,500 acres. That is just a small example of the shady deals that happened, in which the Crown retained most of the land as surplus amounting to 78,000 acres. Most of it was retained.

I am probably always going to call out the language that a bill uses, and will just make sure that I put on record here, for the Green Party, in Hansard, what actually happened—because I have got another example here. The language that we use in these bills—I am happy to take the opportunity to give the words from the Green Party, to call it what it is. If I go to clause 9, the Crown’s acknowledgments—and this is going back to the raupatu, when Crown forces were sent into Mangatawhiri in 1863—it says: “(a) after the war, [the Crown] confiscated 51,000 acres of land”. It stole it. Then clause 9 says: “(b) [the Crown] broke its promise”. It lied. I just want to acknowledge that for what it is today, but I look forward to the submissions. I look forward to hearing those stories in more depth, and I look forward to understanding the full impact of what has actually happened to Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki.

Again, the generosity of Ngāi Tai, of Te Iwi Māori, through these settlement processes can never be overstated. Today, who has benefited from the land loss, from the land theft in Ngāi Tai? Who has benefited? My colleague Peeni Henare mentioned the value of houses. Well, all of our whenua is valuable, but, my goodness, under tauiwi terms today? You have got water, moana, reserves—my goodness. The fact that some of our people, some of Ngāi Tai people, no doubt, are without a home, when Ngāi Tai have given so much—that is the justice that we should always be trying to create and look for.

So tēnā koutou Ngāi Tai for being here in this House for your first reading. It is going to be an honour to hear from you all about what has happened and about how we can try—how we can try—to seek enduring justice for your settlements. Kia ora tātou katoa.

Ā, tēnā koe Mr Deputy Speaker. Tū wāhi poto tēnei ki te tautoko i ngā mihi i mihingia i tēnei wā ki ngā uri o Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, koutou i tau mai nei i runga i te karanga o te rā, ki te whakarongo nei i te pānui tuatahi o tā koutou pire, i whakatau i tā koutou kerēme i raro i te mana o Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Nā reira, nau mai, haere mai.

[And so, salutations to you, Mr Deputy Speaker. This is but a short stand to endorse the tributes accorded at this moment of time to the relatives of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, to you who have arrived here on the call of the day to listen to the first reading of your bill, to settle your claim under the jurisdiction of the Treaty of Waitangi. Therefore, welcome, come hither.]

Here we have another settlement bill that is a result of not only confiscation but broken promises—and these are words that have certainly been used by the Crown—and I think it is important to remind ourselves and to remind those who are watching and listening to this debate what this is all about. It is to the Crown’s credit that through the terms of this bill it acknowledges the wrong that it has done, and has proffered an apology. It has also proffered a process of settlement and, quite clearly, it is a settlement that at this stage has the support of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki.

New Zealand First will certainly be supporting this bill to the Māori Affairs Committee, because it is during the select committee process that we will be able to ascertain the level of support from within the iwi to the proposed terms of settlement that are articulated in the bill. I note that there have been two amendments to the original agreement signed, and I do not know whether this is an indication that perhaps the final agreement has reached the total aspiration of the iwi and that we do not have to go back and make further amendments during the process of seeing this bill through to its final reading.

Having said that, I am glad that those points have been recognised early in the process. I understand that the quantum for this settlement is in the area of $12.7 million and reference has been made to the present-day value of the lands that have been subject to breaches of the Treaty by the Crown—their present-day value. It is not very hard to imagine that in today’s values $12.7 million may seem insufficient. However, again, during the select committee stage we will certainly hear from those who want to participate in that process as to their thoughts.

I think it is important that we actually identify just what the Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki is defined as. Clause 13(1) states it is: “(a) … the collective group composed of individuals who descend from an ancestor of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki; and (b) includes those individuals; and (c) includes any whānau, hapū, or group to the extent that it is composed of those individuals, including the following groups:”—and I just want to articulate those so that they are on record within Hansard—“(i) Ngāti Te Raukohekohe: (ii) Ngāti Kōhua: (iii) Ngāti Rangitawhia; and (d) includes the following groups, to the extent that they are composed of those individuals: (i) Ngāti Taimanawaiti: (ii) Ngāti Taihaua: (iii) Te Uri o Te Ao.” Clause 13(2) states: “ancestor of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki means an individual—who (a) exercised customary rights by virtue of being descended from—(i) Te Whatatau (Te Whataatao); or (ii) a recognised ancestor of [Ngāti Te Raukohekohe, Ngāti Kōhua, and Ngāti Rangitawhia]; and (b) exercised the customary rights predominantly in relation to the area of interest at any time after [the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi]”.

I also want to make reference to a part of the explanatory note of the bill itself. It says: “… Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki may not receive the shared redress in a timely manner or at all. In other instances, it means shared redress may transfer to all parties before the final group has settled (or potentially might never settle). The Crown considers the risk associated with these provisions to be low.” One might want to ask the question: “What if it does not happen in fact and they never settle?”. It also states: “The benefits of the settlement will be available to all members of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, wherever they live.” I can assure those who might be listening that we will certainly explore that particular aspect of this bill during the select committee process.

Finally, I want to say that New Zealand First will certainly support this bill to the select committee and looks forward to the opportunity of hearing submissions from those who want to make a submission to this process. I notice that the census figures are just under 500 people and that the proceeds of the settlement are available to any Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki uri wherever they live. I think that is certainly a departure from what we have seen in other settlements and I would certainly be asking how we see that in practice. But be that as it may, I just want to take this opportunity of thanking or congratulating those who have been responsible for bringing this matter on behalf of your iwi to this stage, and I look forward to further discussions in regards to the bill.

Mr Deputy Speaker, I just want to conclude with this, as this may be the last time I have the opportunity of addressing you as Deputy Speaker of this House. I wish you well in the future as you depart this House. I just wanted to have on record that on behalf of New Zealand First we wish you all the best for the future. Tēnā koe.

E Te Mana Whakawā, e taukotohia ngā mihi kua mihia ki a koe i roto i tō tūrunga i a koe e whakahaere nei i ngā mahi o Te Whare, ā, tēnei kua tata ki te wā mutunga mōu. Nā reira, kai te pīrangi mātou o Te Pāti Māori ki te mihi atu ki a koe i roto i ō mahi, tēnā koe Chester Borrows, kia ora.

[Mr Deputy Speaker, I endorse the tributes accorded to you in your role, as you administer the affairs of the House, and, as this nears the end of the time for you, we of the Māori Party therefore wish to pay a tribute to you in your responsibilities. Well done, Chester Burrows, and thank you.]

Well, I am going to dismiss with all the mihi, but suffice to say I tautoko everybody and everything that everyone has said, because I have done some figures. In the bill it says: “The Bill comprehensively settles the historical Treaty claims of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki resulting from acts of omissions by the Crown before 21 September 1992.” So I added up all the little bits of land just, you know, on the back of my Post-it, that this bill acknowledges that you have lost. I have come to a figure of about 152,560 acres of land from Tāmaki-makau-rau—round about. I checked it with the Minister and he said I was in about the right area.

So then I thought: “OK, how much does it cost to buy a house in Tāmaki-makau-rau nowadays?”. Apparently, by the news, it costs about $1 million on average, and if we think that might be on a quarter acre section you know it is not. You know it is on a sliver of land squashed up between two other houses. But let us be generous—let us be generous and pretend it is on a quarter acre section. If we extrapolate—that is a flash new word I have learnt from being in Parliament, by the way—that out, if we multiply that out, over the 152,000 acres that you have lost, my figure comes to $610 billion—billion dollars—in today’s terms.

Let us not even add in the loss of earnings throughout the last 175 years. Let us not go there. Let us not be so harsh as to add in the loss of waterways or let us not even go so far as to talk about the decimation of your people and your language and your cultural archives, through oral traditions. If I read this properly, what has happened is that not only did you lose the land but your people were scattered across the four corners of the area. In the last census, I think it was something like 400 people—am I right—claimed to be of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki. Did I read that right—498. So about 500 members. Who knows whether they are from Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, if your people have been decimated and left landless?

I know that in Wairarapa, when we lost our language, we lost our history—completely. We had, because of the good grace of our tūpuna, recorded our history in 120 volumes of manuscript that we could not read because we had no Reo. The people who came to Wairarapa from Ngāti Porou, from Tūhoe, and from Ngāpuhi, who were married into the area and who came to settle in Wairarapa and who taught in our own kōhanga reo—they did not know our stories. We loved them because they brought Reo back to us so that we could find our stories.

But when we grew up in our rohe, we did not know whether we were Rangitāne or Kahungunu for so long, and, in fact, thought we were pretty much just Kahungunu—just going to say that right now, since they are all in the Whare. But my uncle tells me I cannot split myself in half. I have a leg in each waka—that sounded not quite the way it was intended. But here is the point. We had no idea about our ancestors.

It was not until I went to kōhanga reo, having had the most amazing Pakehā education that people would pay good money for—just by accident, I ended up in Christchurch Girls’ High School. People would move into that area to get that education. But not until I went to kōhanga reo and learnt Te Reo Māori did I find out that I did not come from “Te Wit”. I came from Te Whiti, and that did not mean I was from Taranaki. It was Te Whiti o Tutawake. And who was that? He was a man who crossed the river to save his sister, Tauraharakeke, and bring her back to good mental health—because she had taken herself off to kill herself in the bush—and to keep her safe. Instead of him, he whakatū tāne nō Tūtewake, he toa—[be a man of Tūtewake stature, a warrior.]—the making of a man. If you want to be the man, you need to be like Tutawake, the warrior who knew how to look after his family. I did not know about that until I was well into my 30s—last year.

But I can imagine—I can imagine—what it is like for the 500 people who have found themselves and connected their whakapapa back to their whānau, Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki. I can imagine exactly what that feels like, to have your language and your culture and your whenua ripped away, and to come to this point and settle for $12.7 million when you should have got $610 billion—can we just put that on the record. I mihi to you because, again, we see another iwi come to this House and accept a pittance—accept a pittance—for the decimation of their people.

You know, never mind the land—we lost the land. But without land, without whenua—Meka Whaitiri says to me all the time, that we cannot have tangata whenua without whenua. That is in regard to another thing we argue about, but anyway. A pittance.

We turn around from being the people of protest and we become the people of progress. We put it behind us and we stand up in front of all the naysayers who look at our people and see us as a deficit, and we turn around and say: “We rise, we thrive, we strive, and we’re still here.” And you are still here.

Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki—man, it must be tough. I drive up there through that city all the time now. I had never been to Tāmaki-makau-rau so often, except in the last 3 years. I drive past those flash houses. One of my nannies was with me one time, and she goes: “Is this what they call rich people’s State housing, where they all have a flash house and live on top of each other and the houses all look the same?”.

I congratulate you on coming to this point and for taking the courage to say that, well, enough is enough, but we have to move on. We document our history for our tamariki mokopuna, so that they will never be lost as we were lost, so that they will never have to search as we have had to search, and so that they will have their future, which they can lay out for their babies, and make the decisions now that will affect our grandchildren’s grandchildren. We do not do this for ourselves; we do this for them.

Lastly, I want to acknowledge all of your ancestors who have passed on, some of whom may never have known that they were from Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki because with the decimation of culture and whenua comes the loss of language, and the decimation of that is the loss of whakapapa. If we do not know it, how can we claim it?

In the story that I told about Tutawake, there is another little whakatauki that says—do not correct my Reo after this—ka taea te wāwāhi i te taura harakeke engari, te taura whakapapa, te taura tangata, ka tū mō ake tonu atu [the flax cord can be taken apart but the genealogical, the mankind cord, the kinship link remain forever and ever].

The taura tangata is the whakapapa that binds us, no matter what, and when we search out our ancestors we are connected for all time and all eternity. We are bound to our whenua and we are bound to each other and we are bound to make decisions together, collectively, for the betterment of all our people. So I mihi to you. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, kia ora mai tātou katoa.

E Te Māngai o Te Whare, tēnā koe, otirā, ngā mema o Te Whare nei tēnā tātau katoa. He mihi tuatahi ki Te Minita Take Māori, the Hon Te Ururoa Flavell, mō tōna karakia mō tātau i tēnei ata, nō reira, kei te mihi ki a ia. Ā, e te iwi, Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, nau mai, hara mai, hoki mai ki tō tātau Whare, Te Whare Mīere o Aotearoa, nō reira, tēnā kou.

[Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and salutations at the same time to us all, members of this House. A tribute firstly, to the Minister of Māori Affairs, the Hon Te Ururoa Flavell for his prayer this morning, I acknowledge him. And so to the iwi, Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, welcome, come hither and return to our House, the Beehive of New Zealand. Therefore, salutations to you collectively; welcome, greetings to you collectively; come hither and accolades to you all.]

It is indeed a proud moment for me, as the member for Ikaroa-Rāwhiti, to stand and make a small contribution on this significant day for Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki. Can I first acknowledge the Ngāi Tai people, the negotiators, for all the mahi that you have done. It is not an easy process to navigate when you have had such a very challenging history at the hands of the Crown. I am not going to traverse your history, but I want to acknowledge your history. I want to acknowledge your stories, and I especially want to acknowledge the hard mahi of your negotiators.

As a former negotiator—and I just want to mihi to my sister here, the Hon Nanaia Mahuta, who just successfully got her Ngāti Maniapoto to an agreement in principle yesterday—along with my colleague Adrian Rurawhe, we have had the experience of being Treaty negotiators ourselves. So I wanted to say that it is easy to sit on the outside and make suggestions on how you can improve it; it is harder when you are at the table, trying to battle over it with the Crown.

So I want to say that I absolutely believe that our people deserve more when we look at the mass land losses that we have achieved at the hands of the Crown, but I just wanted to stand and mihi to you—mihi to you for your support, your generosity to the people of Tāmaki, and your patience. I note that you signed your deed of settlement 3 months short of 2 years ago, and so I want to say to all members in this House, again—the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations probably has very good reasons why, but I cannot understand why we have to wait for almost 2 years before we have first readings. So I am glad I am standing here to acknowledge the achievement of Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki in terms of your special circumstances, in terms of the redress that you have got here, and I do want to wish you well as we get this bill through the House.

By way of explanation, just very shortly, this is the first reading. It is important that all members of this House scrutinise every piece of legislation before it is passed into law. So this is the first reading. Then it will go off to select committee, and we encourage—and I want to support other members of this House to encourage—the Ngāi Tai people to submit. The negotiator has brought us this far. Please do not reserve yourself if there are any issues surrounding the Treaty settlement. Use the select committee process to raise any issues.

But there is just one point I wanted to leave, in my contribution, for the Māori Affairs Committee. So we have the first reading, which we are just doing right now. The bill will go off to the Māori Affairs Committee, where it is publicly scrutinised. So anybody around the country can make a submission on this particular piece of legislation. The committee then comes back to this House and reports what people presented to it—the good, the bad, and the indifferent. Then we go through the second reading of the bill, and, of course, the third and final reading is when your bill becomes law and the parts of your deed of settlement are enacted by that piece of legislation.

So my message, in celebrating Ngāi Tai’s achievement in getting to a first reading, is that when I look at the particular parts of their bill—I have raised this before in previous contributions around Treaty settlements—is about when we get to shared redress. In this particular settlement, we see that there is—and I would expect, in Tāmaki-makau-rau, for there to be shared interests. But I do believe that it is still the domain of the Crown to come up with good frameworks in which we deal with shared redress. I do not believe we have it quite there. I know there are actual examples of iwi that have actually taken out the interest and decided to discuss it and determine how they share that among themselves.

So my point here to the Māori Affairs Committee members, when we are addressing this particular Treaty settlement for Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki, is that we should not examine just what the shared redress is about. My plea to the Māori Affairs Committee members is to look at best practice—at best practice—and ask for advice from officials on where it has worked successfully. I think sometimes we leave that up to the respective iwis, and it kind of makes the process a bit more difficult. So all I am asking, Mr Deputy Speaker, through you, is that select committee members on the Māori Affairs Committee do look at best practice models to inform Ngāi Tai’s settlement, and I know that there will other settlements that are also sharing the issue around shared redress.

So that is my contribution to this—not to underdo or undercook my celebration for Ngāi Tai being in the House today or that we have got there. For me, it is how we use your particular settlement and improve those that are coming behind you, and I definitely see that in the shared redress components for when we are dealing with Treaty settlements in this House. I proudly commend this first reading to the House. E te iwi, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa.

Bill read a first time.

Bill referred to the Māori Affairs Committee.