Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua Claims Settlement Bill

I present a legislative statement on the Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua Claims Settlement Bill.

💬 SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.

I move, That the Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua Claims Settlement Bill be now read a third time.

At this point, I would ordinarily have welcomed members of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua to the House. They are on their way. They travelled from Tāmaki nui-a-Rua right through Wairarapa down to Wellington today by steam train, and, would you believe it, the steam train was late, so it took a while to arrive at Te Whanga-nui-a-Tara, and then their buses were waylaid by some activity out the front of Parliament by some people who are opposed to blood transfusions from people whose blood hasn’t been cleared of vaccinations. So they are making their way to the House.

But, nevertheless, it’s an honour to be able to lead the third reading of this bill to the House. I want to be very clear, too, because this has been a troubled process, certainly in the last five years or so, and I’ll come back to that shortly, but I want to say that the message from Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa, and, indeed, some fellow iwi across the motu, has been very clear: that it is time, Ngāti Kahungunu says, to move forward. Ngāti Kahungunu want to take back control of their destiny. The Crown is determined to be a better partner, to be a respectful Treaty partner. As I said, I’ll come back to some of the issues that have been prevalent in the last few years, but I ask that while we debate this bill, we don’t lose sight of those very important objectives of Treaty redress, which is the ability for iwi to take back control and determine their future and for the Crown to truly honour its obligations under Te Tiriti.

The Treaty process is not a perfect one, and it requires compromise. It often requires painful decisions and tough conversations. It does not and it cannot fully address the pain and suffering that iwi across the country have had to endure at the hands of the Crown. However, the agreements reached, once they are reached, are a step in the right direction. They provide valuable resources, and we have seen over the years how iwi have been able to grow and support their people through the benefits of Treaty redress.

The Ngāti Kahungunu negotiators in this case have done an outstanding job at holding the Crown to account and negotiating a package for their people. I’d like to acknowledge their hard work and to recognise the difficult position they are put in. Navigating Crown policy while considering the expectations of their people and the weight of the mamae passed down for generations—it’s an extraordinarily difficult balancing act. The Ngāti Kahungunu negotiators and advisers of past and present have done an exceptional job, and in this respect I acknowledge the Hon Ron Mark, Ian Perry, Robin Potangaroa, Hayden Hape, Haami Te Whaiti, Marama Tuuta, and Rawiri Smith. Nei rā te mihi ki a koutou. I know you have high ambitions for your people, and the job has only just begun. But I hope they are able to take a moment to appreciate the fruits of their labour and, eventually, to enjoy a well-earned rest.

I’d like to also acknowledge the work of Lee Grey, Wi Tako Love, Andrew Sharrock, Mike Colson, Jennifer Braithwaite, and Monique van Alphen Fyfe. I also mihi to the settlement trust trustees of past and present, who have also been putting in the hard work to get their people to this day.

I want to take a moment to talk about the challenges of the last few years. Shortly after the settlement trust reached settlement, there was a remedies application by a group, the Wairarapa Moana ki Pouākani Incorporation, for resumption of land, the Pouākani land. That’s the land that’s in Waikato. Part of the history was that the Crown, having pushed Ngāti Kahungunu off its land and undermined its cultural rights in respect of Lake Wairarapa and Lake Onoke, then having, frankly, nicked land off Raukawa and Tūwharetoa, gifted that land to Ngāti Kahungunu in some sort of compensation, then later, in the 1940s, took a chunk of that land back under the Public Works Act to build the Maraetai hydro power station. The remedies application was to get back the land that the Crown had seized under the Public Works Act and hand it back to at least somebody representing Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa.

The tribunal in March 2020 made some preliminary findings, and those preliminary findings included that it would order resumption—it would order the resumption of the Pouākani land claimed and that it would make sure that Ngāti Kahungunu in that respect was properly compensated for what had happened. But it is interesting to note these comments that the tribunal made in its extensive preliminary determination in March 2020, specifically in relation to one of the then claimants for those remedies, and that was the incorporation, the Wairarapa Moana ki Pouākani Incorporation—bearing in mind that by this time the settlement trust had also replicated the claim for remedies in order to preserve its position. But in relation to the question of who should receive any land ordered back to Ngāti Kahungunu, the tribunal said this: “We do not consider we should recommend the return to them”—that is, the Wairarapa Moana Ki Pouākani Incorporation—“of the 787 acres, however, because the value of that land and the assets located there is not proportionate to the prejudice they suffered as shareholders in 1949.”

The tribunal went on to say that “Even if we considered that the prejudice that the shareholders suffered from the compulsory acquisition alone might justify the return of part of the land to them, we do not favour the exercise of our discretion in that way.” The tribunal goes on to talk about learning about the shareholders of Wairarapa Moana ki Pouākani Incorporation and that there was a variety of size of shareholders but that, in any event, they weren’t representative. The tribunal said, for the reasons they’ve outlined, “We are satisfied that the return of land to the incorporation would not be a just outcome.” and went on to say, “The recipient entity of the lands they do award must be demonstrably representative of and exist for the benefit of those who suffered prejudice in respect of the well-founded claims. The incorporation is not that kind of recipient.”

It is very clear that the tribunal, when it made its extensive determination ruling, had no intention of returning the land to the incorporation. Nevertheless, the tribunal’s decision was the subject of an appeal, or at least a judicial review to the High Court. The High Court focused on a question of mana whenua and whether the lack of it was a disqualifying factor for the order of resumption. The High Court ruled in favour of the Crown and Mercury Energy and Raukawa and a number of others. That decision was then appealed not to the Court of Appeal, as it ordinarily would’ve been, but to the Supreme Court, and last week the Supreme Court made a decision. Interestingly, the Supreme Court said its decision would not affect the bill before the House, although that is somewhat inconsistent with later statements in the Supreme Court decision. The Supreme Court took a different view on mana whenua and also laid out its expectation about how the tribunal would consider the issue of mana whenua in the future.

Against that, I as Minister have made a judgment about proceeding with the bill, and the reason I’ve made that judgment is because I, as Minister representing the Crown, have to consider a whole variety of interests, not just the interests of the incorporation, who took the appeal and about whom the tribunal said they would not order resumption, but the interests of Ngāti Kahungunu, the only mandated entity for Wairarapa, who’ve gone out to their people, sought their support, had a vote, had not just one ratification vote on settlement but two, after they renegotiated their settlement, had it modified—that is to say, improved—and won the support to proceed. It was Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua Settlement Trust who has said, “We want to proceed because we want to face the future with certainty and with confidence, and we’re confident that we can restore our relationship with the Crown.” Raukawa says, “We do not want to be dragged into years and years of litigation defending our mana whenua rights anymore.”, and Ngāti Tūwharetoa supports the continuation of the legislation as well.

The bill contains a variety of redress and compensation as well—$115 million of compensation along cultural revitalisation as well. The time has come to bring the benefits of comprehensive Treaty of Waitangi settlement redress to all of Ngāti Kahungunu. On that basis, I commend this bill to the House.

The question is that the motion be agreed to.

Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare hurinoa i te Whare nei e mihi atu ki a koutou katoa. Tēnei te mihi, nau mai haere mai te iwi o Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki-nui-a-rua. Nō reira, mauria mai ō whakaako ki te kaupapa i huihui ā-tākata, e mihi atu ki a koutou katoa.

[Greetings, Madam Speaker, and greetings to everyone in the House. Greetings and welcome to Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-rua. And so, bring your lessons to this issue in person. Greetings to you all.]

Thank you, Madam Speaker, and, to all those who are watching, welcome. It is my role today as the National Party spokesperson on Treaty negotiations to rise and to take this call.

The Kahungunu hapū and whānau of Wairarapa and Tāmaki nui-a-Rua have been waiting 180 years for justice, rising from the Crown’s breaches of Te Tiriti o Waitangi—the Treaty of Waitangi. Those breaches included the Crown taking tens of thousands of acres of their whenua. Later, their tīpuna were forced to give up tuku whenua leasehold arrangements with Pākehā settlers and, instead, sell the land.

By 1854, the Crown had taken 1.5 million acres in exchange for very small sums. By 1900, 90 percent of their land within the Wairarapa and Tāmaki nui-a-Rua was gone. In the 20th century, purchasing for public works took much of what remained, leaving only 1.5 percent, or 35,000 acres, of the original whenua in their hands. They were rendered virtually landless, which is the position they are in now, and which this bill seeks to address.

The treatment of Wairarapa Moana is especially distressing—a living taonga treasured by their tīpuna for its abundant supply of food and other customary resources traditionally harvested and traded for the benefit of people from nearby and from afar. Big challenges arose between the settlers and those in Wairarapa Moana, and after 30 years of fighting to protect Wairarapa Moana, their tīpuna relented and gifted it to the Crown in the spirit of rangatira ki te rangatira. This tuku rangatira was intended to end the discord between Māori, and the Crown and Europeans. The Crown was supposed to protect their interests in the lake and set aside ample reserves to ensure ongoing access to the lake as a source of food and other traditional reserves. However, it did not do so. After 20 years, the Crown gave them land at Pouākani, which was far from the Wairarapa, inaccessible by road or rail, and within another iwi’s rohe, or area.

Those breaches have been recognised by the Crown as having created real and lasting prejudice, undermining their economic, social, and cultural wellbeing. Through this settlement, the Crown and the trust endeavour to recognise those wrongs. It cannot right all of them, but it intends to try to put right some of those wrongs. Ngāti Kahungunu has written to members of the House, asking that this process is not prolonged and the prejudice is not continued, and saying that settling now is in the best interests of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua as a whole, in the best interests of hapū and whānau to provide for their cultural, social, and economic welfare, and in the best interests of protecting the welfare of the environment of the rohe.

This has been 180 years in coming. In the most recent times, it represents 34 years of hard work, which has seen many kaumātua pass on before reaching this settlement today.

Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua have advised that this ushers in a new dawn, one that involves a productive working relationship with the Crown, offering cultural redress and financial and commercial redress, as well as a Crown apology. They say that they welcome this redress for their people, just as they welcome a strengthened Te Tiriti relationship with the Crown, local government, and many other agencies that will come with it.

A key element is the ability to purchase the Wairio and Rangedale stations and to return that land to Ngāti Kahungunu. These lands are culturally significant, and having rangatiratanga over their whenua will allow the aspirations of the tīpuna to at last be fulfilled. It also includes over 9,000 hectares of culturally significant lands being returned as cultural redress. Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua are particularly looking forward to the sense of pride that will come with having that whenua returned to them.

Importantly, there will be a Crown apology for breaches and the struggles of their ancestors. This has yet to be delivered due to COVID-19 restrictions, but it will take place in the future when it can be done kanohi ki te kanohi, or face to face, to the hapū and whānau.

This bill has raised some significant challenges, and, in fact, the Supreme Court delivered a ruling only last week. As the Minister has said, the majority of the Supreme Court said that the decision of the court did not affect the Treaty bill currently before the House, and that was on the basis that the role of the courts was only to look at the legislation that exists at the time of the decision, not the legislation that may exist in the future, even if it’s the week following the release of that decision.

This has been something we have very, very carefully considered, because the Wairarapa Moana Inc. has had application for this on foot for some time before the Waitangi Tribunal, which had been appealed by a number of parties to the High Court, and then further to the Supreme Court. The primary issue that the Supreme Court dealt with was the definition of mana whenua, and mana whenua relates to lands that are not traditionally in the rohe of the iwi. But the Supreme Court also went a little bit further than the issues that were on appeal to it and that opened the door, potentially, for a fresh application to be made by Wairarapa Moana Inc. in the Waitangi Tribunal, although the Supreme Court recognised that the Waitangi Tribunal would have to change its original determination on the appropriate recipient if a resumption order were made.

This has been something we have considered very, very carefully. We recognise the mamae that this does bring to Wairarapa Moana Inc. and those it represents, and it is something that we haven’t taken lightly. We have looked very carefully at Ngāti Kahungunu and the representatives of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua and their wish to bring these proceedings to an end and to have a final Treaty settlement that enables them to provide for their tamariki and create a new dawn for their people. I do note that the point was made that there is Haronga litigation concerning the resumption applications of the Mangatu blocks in Muriwhenua, which began in the High Court in 2009, and since that date, the matter has been heard in the Supreme Court in 2011, it went back to the Waitangi Tribunal, it was heard again in the High Court and the Court of Appeal in 2014 and 2016, it went back to the Waitangi Tribunal for further decisions following those judgments, and I understand it is working its way through the courts again. So it will be a long time before there’s a final decision on that issue, and certainly one of the concerns that has been raised is the very likely prospect of ongoing litigation, with no certainty about when that litigation would come to completion.

The National Party is very keen for Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua to be able, after 180 years and 34 years in this particular journey, to get to this settlement point and be able to come to a point of completion so that they can look into that new dawn that provides for them and their people. Importantly, these settlements are ultimately not just about what has happened in the past and the present, but it’s about the aspirations and the mana and the success of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua now and into the future, and that is something that we very much wish to support.

I should also touch on one other point, which has been something we also have very carefully considered, and that is the claimant definition of Ngāti Hāmua and Ngāti Te Rangiwhaka-ewa. In this settlement, there has been an inability to get agreements between Rangitāne and Ngāti Kahungunu over the claimant definition, and the Crown has come to the final position that it’s not its role to determine whakapapa on behalf of iwi. As a result, the claimant definition for the settlement legislation for both Rangitāne o Tāmaki nui-a-Rua and Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua includes both hapū in their claimant definitions, because that is what both Rangitāne and Ngāti Kahungunu say is correct. So that is the way that this has been addressed.

In the limited time available to me, I say that I look forward to the completion of this settlement and the new future this brings for all of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua, and I trust that the internal challenges will be able to be resolved so that all can benefit from this bill now and into the future. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Karanga, karanga ki a Ranginui e tū iho nei

Karanga, karanga ki a Papatūānuku e takoto nei

Huakina atu rā te tatau o te whare kōrero

Uhia te kōrero

Uhia te whakaaro

Uhia ki te ao mārama

E rongo, whakairia ki runga

Haumi e, hui e, taiki e.

E te Māngai o tēnei Whare, he hononga tata i waenga i a mātou o Te Arawa, ki a koutou, ki a rātou o Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa. Ko Pūhaorangi te tangata kua puta ko Ohomairangi, ko Muturangi, ko Taunga, ko Atua Matua, ko Houmaitawhiti, ko Tama te Kapua, ko Kahu-mata-momoe, ko Tawaki-moe-tahanga, ko Uenuku-mai-rarotonga, ā, ko Rangitihi. Ka moe a Rangitihi ki a Papawharanui, ka puta ko Tūhourangi. Ka moe a Tūhourangi ki a Rongomai-papa, ka puta ko Uenukukōpako, anei a Uenukukōpaka e mihi atu nei ki a koutou.

Ko Rongomai-papa te tamāhine o Rongomaiwahine, te wahine tapairu o Te Tai Rāwhiti me tōna pāpā, a Kahungunu, nō reira ki a koutou o Ngāti Kahungunu, anei a Te Arawa e mihi atu nei ki a koutou.

[Call, summon universal space

Call and summon solid matter

Open the doors of the house of dialogue

Lay out the dialogue

Lay out the thought

Lay out to gain enlightenment

Rongo uplift these words

Gather … affirm!

To the Speaker of the House, there is a strong link between Te Arawa and those of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa. From Pūhaorangi came Ohomairangi, Muturangi, Taunga, Atua Matua, Houmaitawhiti, Tama te Kapua, Kahu-mata-momoe, Tawaki-moe-tahanga, Uenuku-mai-rarotonga, and Rangitihi. Rangitihi married Papawharanui, and produced Tūhourangi. Tūhourangi married Rongomai-papa, and produced Uenukukōpako. As a descendant of Uenukukōpaka, I acknowledge you all.

Rongomai-papa was the daughter of the East Coast chieftainess Rongomaiwahine and her husband Kahungunu, so therefore, Ngāti Kahungunu, here stands Te Arawa to greet you.]

Can I start by acknowledging my recent visit to Hurunui-ō-Rangi in the Wairarapa. My auntie died, and we made the trip down to the marae there; we got to see the beautiful papa kāinga kei te kite i a koe Marama, tēnei te mihi nui ki a koe me tō māmā. [village and we saw you, Marama. Warm greetings to you and your mother.]

We got to meet, we got to hang out, and we got to hear a little bit about the kōrero that’s gone on around there. It’s nothing different to what we heard during the submissions process on the select committee. There was a lot of hurt that came through in the select committee process, and I want to acknowledge that.

This isn’t a new battle; in fact, the iwi had been battling this for a long time. The journey to settlement dates back decades. The first historical Treaty claim, lodged in 1989; years later in 2004 and 2005, the claims were presented to the Waitangi Tribunal; and in 2010, the report released at Te Ore Ore marae in Masterton concluded that, overwhelmingly, they had claims that were very well founded. The historical claims date back to the 19th century. The mamae is still felt over centuries, impacting whānau continually today.

While this settlement does not right the wrongs of the past, it ushers in, as my previous colleague said, a new dawn; one that involves a productive working relationship with the Crown. The redress is of importance to the iwi and to the settlement trust. The acquisition of Wairio Station and Rangedale Station as part as part of the settlement—they have ownership that is going to be reinstated on their whenua, around Wairarapa Moana, which will allow the aspirations of the tīpuna to be fulfilled in a meaningful way. Included in that settlement is 9,000 hectares of culturally significant land, and Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua is looking forward to an enhanced sense of pride that comes with such important whenua being returned.

I mentioned in the second reading speech in the House here on this particular bill one of the submissions that really struck to my heart. We had a really lengthy day of submission hearings, covering all manner of issues, but I found this submission, and I want to attribute it to Paul Te Huki, who actually got up and sat there, he brought photos, and he said, “I make this submission on behalf of My father Renata Paora Tuhokairangi, My older Twin brothers Raymond John Te Huki and Stephen Douglas Te Huki, My Uncle Joe Todd and Aunty Pauline Todd, Uncle Stephen Todd, Aunty Maise Harrison, Aunty Deli Wilson, Aunty Moana Te Huki, Aunty Bobby and Kani Reiri, Aunty Hine and Mike Nikora who have all passed during this [very] long journey.”

He went on in his submission to say, “This was my immediate family who grew up on or around Whiti Te Ra marae in Tāmaki-nui-a-Rua since the early 1940’s, and”—in his words—“now it is up to my generation to make it happen which I find is a heavy burden to carry. … I ask that on behalf of my father who passed away on the 14th June [this year] at the [grand] age of 84 who signed an agreement with Minister Finlayson and then again with Minister Little who after signing sat down and had a meal to celebrate and his world meant the deal is done.”

His recommendation to us, the committee, was to honour the agreements that his father had signed, to pass their settlement through Parliament ASAP before any more whānau pass, to let them keep their mana intact and “stop making us beg for our rightful compensation for the Crowns wrong doing”, and to “Regain the Crowns Mana by Honouring the agreements my Dad signed.” I want to thank Paul for his contribution to the committee and to everybody else that put forward their submissions.

I want to also take the opportunity to read a couple of the paragraphs of the apology. The apology is a big part of any Treaty settlement, and usually what iwi have to do is wait until we travel to the marae to hear a bit of that apology. But I want to read it today. I think that it is especially pertinent, and I acknowledge the long wait that their iwi have had to get to this point right now.

The first paragraph of the apology, in English, goes like this: “The Crown pays tribute to the struggles of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua and your ancestors in pursuit of justice for the Crown’s wrongs and especially to those [of you] who have not survived to see this settlement completed. To you, the people of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua, to your tīpuna and [to] your mokopuna, the Crown offers this apology.

“The Crown unreservedly apologises for not honouring its obligations to respect te tino rangatiratanga o Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua through repeated breaches of te Tiriti o Waitangi/the Treaty of Waitangi and its principles. The Crown profoundly regrets the damage and hurt [that] these breaches have caused to the hapū and whānau of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua.

“The Crown is deeply sorry that it began its relationship with Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua in 1845 by prejudging their guilt in a dispute with settlers and depriving Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua of tens of thousands of acres by forcing them to cede this land with threats of armed violence.

“The Crown profoundly regrets that it threatened to end Pākehā settlement in Wairarapa and Tāmaki nui-a-Rua unless your tīpuna sold their land to the Crown, giving up the pastoral leases they had negotiated with Pākehā which had provided [the iwi]”—[Turns page]—the rest is in the bill. I thought it was on the other side.

Look, I just want to say, it speaks to the position that we have as members of Parliament, here in 2022, that we have to stand here, on behalf of the Crown, apologising for injustices that were done a long time ago, but where the hurt still remains.

I stand here today, as the chair of the Māori Affairs Committee, as a member of the New Zealand Labour Party, and as a member of the Labour Māori caucus, acknowledging the hurt and the pain that the Crown have caused to your iwi for a very long time. I wish you the best. I wish you all the best as you track through what the future looks like, because at some point, we have to move past this.

Today, what we’re doing is we’re giving that opportunity to get this out of the parliamentary system so that we can put the money in your bank and so that you can go on to determine what the oranga for your iwi looks like. If that looks like some kind of hauora or health centre in Masterton, if it looks like something else for your tamariki, mokopuna kei te heke mai [for your children and grandchildren to come], then kei a koutou te tikanga—that’s yours to decide. We in this House stand proudly next to you on the journey, we acknowledge the pain and the hurt from the past, but we are also aspirational and hopeful in our hearts that your future is bright and that you go on to make some really good decisions on behalf of your children, your mokopuna, and your mokomoko that are still to come, and you place them in the front and the centre when you go to make decisions after what happens here today.

Nō reira, ki a koutou e te whanaunga a te whānau whānui o Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki-nui-a-rua, nei rā te mihi ki a koutou katoa.

[So, to the relatives of the wider family of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-rua, greetings, greetings to you all.]

E rau rangatira mā e ngā iwi kia ora mai tātou. Ko tēnei te mihi e tuku ana ki a koutou. Nau mai, haere mai ki tēnei Whare, te Whare Pāremata mō tēnei mahi hirahira, nō reira kia ora mai tātou.

[To all the chiefly authorities and the tribes, greetings one and all. This is my acknowledgment to you. Welcome to the House of Parliament for this important work, therefore be well one and all.]

National will be supporting this bill at its third and final reading, the third reading of the Ngāti Kahungunu settlement bill known as the Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua Claims Settlement Bill. This bill has taken a long time to reach this point, and I want to thank the claimants, the negotiators, the Office of Treaty Settlements, and the Māori Affairs Committee for their work. This bill has had a complicated path, one that over the past week became more complicated with various announcements. The Government has a majority and has the ability to vote out other views, regardless of what we may think, and the Government’s vote of support here today, while welcome, is clearly with the consent of their Labour Māori caucus. We too have sought a collective view from our caucus, from the National Party caucus, and presented to them a balance of views—the best balance that we possibly could.

We note that the passage of this bill will extinguish the claims of Wairarapa Moana. We have a great sadness with that. And our team had a range of views on this very issue. We note our colleagues’ proposal for a Supplementary Order Paper that would allow further debate of the Wai 85 Wairarapa Moana claim and explore its extraction and putting aside. This is not possible, with the committee of the whole House not sitting. What may have happened may have been that we would have had a more thorough debate and, possibly, we would have reached a conclusion, but that is now past this point.

National is supporting this bill, which we believe, on balance, provides a pathway forward. On balance was a balance of many things—that initially Wairarapa Moana was determined not to be the correct claim holder; that Ngāti Kahungunu removed the contested Pouākani claim from its settlement to facilitate progress; that in this format the settlement is supported by local iwi Ngāti Raukawa and Ngāti Tūwharetoa. The recent court case raised issues that could change all of these stated positions. It was determined that it was not moot that Wairarapa Moana was not an appropriate claim holder. It was determined that the description of mana whenua was not nuanced enough and that Ngāti Kahungunu may further explore mana whenua status over the claim. If these were to be pursued, support from Ngāti Raukawa and Ngāti Tūwharetoa could also be compromised. The pathway to resolution would seem to be back to the Waitangi Tribunal, a pathway that would likely take many years and further hold back this settlement. These are some of the many things that National has spent much time on, and much anguish and much deliberation, and we have done our very best to balance these matters.

It is not as if recent decisions have made determinative judgments and recommended an appropriate claim holder or recommended who might have mana whenua status. What has been determined, then, is what things are not and not what they may be, and, in our view, further deliberation seems to point to a prolonged return to the Waitangi Tribunal. Ngāti Raukawa stated to us, “We’re obviously disappointed that the Supreme Court decision hasn’t brought any finality to this issue. Instead, it has breathed life back into it without significantly changing the position of the parties at all.” On balance, we believe that a return to the Waitangi Tribunal would be unnecessarily and unreasonably onerous. We understand that there are harms with either path that we take today, and we have done our very best to weigh these up.

We support the Ngāti Kahungunu settlement bill. We note Ngāti Kahungunu writing to us, “If this bill was not to proceed, we would be irretrievably prejudiced and consigned to a deeply uncertain future, if the Crown now does not pass our settlement legislation. You would be putting us in the worst possible position—no settlement and no viable litigation option. You would have made us give up that litigation option for a promised settlement that you then did not give us. That would perpetuate yet further Te Tiriti breaches on Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua, compounding the historic breaches from which we already suffer.” We support wholly the integrity of Ngāti Kahungunu—that they too have balanced up many things to be here today, and that, going forward as a settled iwi, they will continue to seek a path forward that best accommodates as many of these competing interests as possible.

In conclusion, we are privileged here today to advance the legislative process that enables a settlement, an enablement that apologises, an enablement that acknowledges, an enablement that advances the hopes and aspirations of Ngāti Kahungunu, and the National Party wishes them well. Kia ora mai tātou.

Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa, ngā uri o Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa. Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou.

[Greetings to you all, to the descendants of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa. Warm greetings to you all.]

I rise to speak in support of this settlement and of this legislation, but also, as the deputy chair of the Māori Affairs Committee, to report back to this House on the extra work that the Māori Affairs Committee undertook to make sure that we were finding the right balance in reaching a supportive position of this legislation and taking into account the 173 submissions that the committee received on this bill since May this year.

First, I want to congratulate the members of the settlement trust who have represented their claims with a great deal of dignity and ambition for their people, and to thank everyone here who has come to listen to the debate today and to support those members who have done this bravely and should be proud of the result that we will celebrate later this evening.

First, let me just canvass the hara that has occurred that the Crown has come to the table to address with the settlement trust: the forced cession of tens of thousands of acres of land at Maungaroa through threats of armed violence; the Crown’s failure to obtain the consent of key rights-holders when purchasing land in the Wairarapa and Tāmaki nui-a-Rua regions; and the purchase of more than half of Wairarapa and Tāmaki nui-a-Rua, which virtually destroyed what was the base of Ngāti Kahungunu in that area. But not only that, it has considered, in this bill, the failure to address and provide for many of the education, health, and economic benefits which Ngāti Kahungunu had been led to expect as true payment for their land, and the failure to give suitable lakeside reserves in exchange for the tuku rangatira of Wairarapa Moana in 1896. Those are grave breaches of the expectations of the iwi and of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and it’s right that in this Treaty settlement process the Crown has come to understand the cost to the iwi of that, and what it means to right this in the future.

Treaty settlement bills are important because they don’t just go to the issues of land, the issue of a quantum of the settlement, they also go to the future relationships. Things in this bill, like the taonga tūturu protocols, for example, are important to enact today because they create a package of rights for the iwi to claim kō, and things which are discovered in land, that are taonga that should be protected by the iwi. It’s important that that set of protocols, which is given effect in this Treaty settlement bill and is often not discussed in the Treaty settlement process, is put in place today so that that cultural, that artistic, history is able to be celebrated from now, and that it’s not put off.

I also want to touch on the work that the Māori Affairs Committee did to understand the purpose of what was joint redress for Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa and Rangitāne in Te Rohe o Rongokako Joint Redress Bill. That was a separate bill that this Parliament has been considering, and it gives effect to specific cultural redress shared by Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua and Rangitāne o Wairarapa and Rangitāne o Tamaki nui-ā-Rua, and it’s provided in specific deeds of settlement. That was considered separately by this House because the nature of that joint settlement is that there does need to be agreement around that, and that all through that process the committee heard from the two groups about the aspirations to work together. We worked through areas which were still under discussion, but I absolutely have faith that today and in the coming years the leadership of both iwi will be able to come together on that joint settlement redress that has an impact also on this settlement.

Now, Madam Speaker, if you’ll let me talk to the two claims, Wai 85 and Wai 429, which the committee looked into really carefully. We sought further advice from our officials, we sought further comment from the parties involved, and we did really listen carefully to the oral submissions and carefully consider the written submissions of those parties.

Wai 85 and Wai 429 claims are within the Waitangi Tribunal. Wai 85 is the claim about Pouākani in Southern Waikato, and it was brought on behalf of the Wairarapa Moana Incorporation. Wai 429 involves Ngāumu Crown Forest land in Southern Wairarapa, sought on behalf of Ngāi Tūmapuhia-ā-Rangi, and both claims were at issue right the way through the select committee’s process and have been before the courts.

I raise these because I want to be really clear that the committee’s extra work in these areas was about not only really understanding any rights which might be affected by this bill but also about providing an opportunity for committee members to come to a degree of consensus and a degree of shared understanding about what this legislation would have an impact on for that discussion of what rights might exist, and it was important for us to be able to go through that process. And I think that my colleagues around the committee did a very careful job at examining on behalf of the House what those rights were, and we came to a view—which is within the select committee report—that the most important thing for us was for the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations to be very, very clear with Parliament about the reasons that he and his Cabinet colleagues might make a call to proceed with this sort of settlement. And that is what he has done in no uncertain terms today.

So let me take you through those reasons that we heard. The Minister said today that he made that call, and the understanding of the select committee was that one of the reasons it was done was that the settlement trust made an informed decision to proceed to settlement and continued to support this settlement legislation being introduced before the hearing, and that a clear majority of the Ngāti Kahungunu claimant community who engaged in the vote on the enhanced settlement package voted in support of proceeding to settlement. Those are important considerations when we consider those who would lose out of Parliament delaying a decision around this settlement bill. Further to the point of delay, there has already been a three year delay since progress with the deed of settlement was deferred to allow the Wai 85 and Wai 429 claims to be heard by the tribunal. This was also really important to the committee when we consider both what is lost in the return of the cultural assets and in the value of the commercial redress.

Particularly important to me and one that I had plenty of questions for submitters and counsel on was the tribunal’s preliminary determination that it should not recommend the return of the land to the two claimants—Wai 85 and Wai 429 claimants. Instead it preferred an iwi representative group, and further to that, there was no challenge seeking a judicial review of that determination, and the High Court expressly noted the continued relevance of the tribunal’s preliminary determinations on both of those claims. My point there is to bring the House’s attention to when we think of how these claims might progress in the courts in future and who might lose and who might gain from that. The tribunal already made determinations which found that it was very unlikely that resumption of the value of the assets would be returned to that one particular incorporation.

I think, as well, it’s useful for the House to have on record some of the committee’s discussions around the process of settlement for the Crown. The Crown here needed to balance a range of often competing interests, including the prejudice that further delay would cause to the interests of the broader iwi who support the settlements, and Rangitāne and others such as Raukawa who are affected by the ongoing litigation. And I come back to the comments of Shane Reti at the last reading of the joint redress bill, which I very much support, that we are looking to reach a position where we can enjoy the peace and prosperity for this iwi that settlement would bring. I think it’s really important for the Crown here to be able to step back at this point, to hand over this settlement and this process to the people who it is for. And I thank them for their leadership. And that’s why I support this bill.

Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare. Tēnā rā koutou i raro i te mana o Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki-nui-a-rua, ngā hapū, ngā whānau, te iwi whānui hei hāpai i tēnei kaupapa. Kāore e kore, he huarahi roa, he huarahi uaua tēnei, engari kua ea, kua tae te wā hei whakatā.

[Greetings to you all under the authority of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-rua, the subtribes, the families and the wider tribe who support this issue. Undoubtedly, this has been a long and difficult road, but you have succeeded, and the time has come to take some rest.]

I rise on behalf of the Green Party to support the Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua Claims Settlement Bill in its third and final reading. It gives effect to the final settlement of the historical Treaty of Waitangi claims between Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua and the Crown.

We heard how the succession of Crown actions over nearly 180 years have left them virtually landless and impacted on every aspect of their lives and development ever since. A fulsome apology from the Crown is the absolute minimum that should be expected for everything it has done and failed to do. Unfortunately, the Crown has not stopped causing harm, and it has meant that Kahungunu has also been subject to dealing with claims within its claim.

Now, the Greens—we have struggled with how to position ourselves here. We are always here to stand on behalf of the most marginalised in our society amongst our people. And while we have supported the need for Kahungunu to settle, we have also spoken to the issues raised by Rangitāne Tū Mai Rā, Wairarapa Moana ki Pouākani, Ngāi Tūmāpuhi-a-rangi. I know that has not made us popular in some circumstances, and if people still want to have hui and discuss those things that have been said, I am absolutely up for that, but kei te mamae mātou mō ngā hohounga i whati i tēnei mahi [we are hurting because of the broken connections caused by this process].

The Crown has long maintained that Wai 85 had no legal pathway for its claim—and that’s the claim taken by Wairarapa Moana ki Pouākani. However, the Waitangi Tribunal and now the Supreme Court has begged to differ. In a different world, the Crown perhaps could have taken that section in much the same way as the Te Rohe o Rongokako Joint Redress Bill was done: to have all those parties together, including Ngāti Raukawa, and just sort that out in a way that did not affect or did not in any way slow down the passage of this bill. They could have allowed that due process and natural justice and the time required to do it properly without affecting the settlement of this.

In that world, though, that did not happen. In this world, the Minister and the Crown have decided to extinguish the rights of Wairarapa Moana Pouākani. Not only that, it appears that he has made this bill contingent on it—so that was never an option. There is such a clear conflict of interest: moving the bill forward in this way saves the Crown millions and millions of dollars. That is really worrying—worrying implications for some constitutional arrangements for every other hapū and iwi who has yet to settle. But that is why the Greens have abstained on this bill so far: in response to the behaviour—the astounding and dangerous behaviour—of the Crown.

So having said all of that, we are supporting this bill today because this is Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua’s day. Finally, after all of this time, after over 180 years, 33 years since the first historical Treaty claim was lodged—so much work; so many people lost—the claim is settled. In a few short speeches, this bill will be done. The Greens have always said that we support Kahungunu settling, along with the appropriate cultural, financial, and commercial redress that is meant to come with it to enable the uri of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua to start rebuilding and creating a better future for them and their mokopuna. And this is not to say that this is not what you are already doing. This gives you more resource, it gives you the whenua to build, perhaps, your own houses for your own people—it gives you that resource to go bigger, to build things so much more long-lasting.

So do I believe this redress is the absolute best the negotiation team could negotiate? I have no doubt—I have no doubt—that those negotiators bled, as all our negotiation teams across the country have bled for our people. Is the redress appropriate? Absolutely not. It is a tiny percentage of what Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua is owed and deserves.

During the select committee process, the Settlement Trust spoke on how this bill will allow them to achieve many aspirations for their people. From Turakirae in the south, to Dannevirke in the North, to Cape Turnagain in the East, it will enable them to care for the taonga on their spiritually significant whenua, and protect those taonga for their tamariki, for their mokopuna, now and into the future. It will lead to that enhanced sense of pride that comes when you have your own whenua. They look forward to growing their working relationship with the Crown while always remembering the path their tūpuna forged for them. The Greens wish all of this.

Kei te tūmanako ka whakatinana i ō moemoeā katoa mō te oranga o te iwi o Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki-nui-a-rua, tēnā rā koutou katoa.

[It is hoped that all your dreams will be fulfilled for the benefit of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-rua. Greetings to you all.]

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s a pleasure to stand and take a short call on the Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua Claims Settlement Bill. I’ve stood a few times when it comes to settlement bills and stated that these are not really my areas of expertise, and my understanding of the processes is very limited. But what I do understand is that they are a necessity to help people move forward and have a better future. So ACT is supportive of the settlement processes.

I would like to just put forward my admiration at the absolute commitment that the elders and the generations that came after have stood firm and fought for what is right, and I hope today, when this settlement is full and final, that you can stand with pride and say that we have done right by those who have passed and those who are to come. And I hope that that is a possibility after today.

This bill addresses in good faith the repeated breaches of the Treaty by successive Governments. Governments in the 19th century failed to ensure that the core lands of the Wairarapa Māori were protected. An especially egregious breach was on property rights and the rangatiratanga guaranteed to them under article 2. Wairarapa moana, an important source of food for Wairarapa Māori, was taken from them. Wairarapa Māori fought through the courts and the political system to have the roles put right. But a deal between the Government and Wairarapa Māori for compensation of Lake Wairarapa was not honoured, and that is not good enough and that needs to be addressed. It needs to be stated here that that was not good enough, and I hope that the apologies that you’re hearing today from those of us here are helpful for you to move forward.

The Ngāti Kahungunu settlement trust, or the settlement trust, and the Government began negotiations a long time ago, and I’m actually quite hurt myself seeing how long this process has taken. I think I have stated a few times that when you’re a victim and you’ve been wronged, having to go over and over and over how you’ve been wronged can actually be harmful and hurtful in itself, and each time we are re-traumatising ourselves with the stories of the past and with that hurt. I really, really want to stand here—and it may not be my place—and say “I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. You should never have been put through that, and I hope that some peace can come from this.”

Now, the settlement process started and both parties deserve credit for negotiating good faith in the beginning. And, from what I understand, a settlement deed was agreed to in 2018. A majority of the tribe agreed and voted and agreed upon that, but, unfortunately, some groups did not agree and sought their own settlements, from my understanding. But, as a result of this, a new settlement was negotiated and there was an increase from the $93 million to $115 million and an offer of a further $5 million for enhancements of the lake’s environment, and this was ratified, again, by the majority of the settlement trust members who voted.

So, today, I would just like to say I kind of find that the courts process that has happened recently—ACT finds it to be quite unhelpful, because we want to in good faith make sure that we can move forward and we can allow Ngāti Kahungunu to take ownership and control again over their futures and not have to worry about this carrying on and on and on, and re-traumatising this generation and future generations to come if it continues.

So I would like to just finish by saying, if this settlement has produced an apology, we must have an apology from the Crown for the breaches, cultural redress, and protocols with the local government, a return of a number of blocks of land in the Wairarapa, including the Remutaka summit and blocks of Lake Wairarapa. More than $115 million, and other redresses not in the bill—and I’d just like to say, hopefully the people sitting here today and listening today can agree that this was made in good faith, and I wish Wairarapa and Ngāti Kahungunu a blessed future for your next generation and generations to come. And I know that the future will be bright. Thank you.

Tēnā koe te Māngai o te Whare. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou ngā whānau o Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-rua, e mihi atu nei, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou.

[Greetings to you all, the families of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-rua. This is my acknowledgment to you.]

It’s an absolute pleasure to be in the House for the third reading of the Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua Claims Settlement Bill. And can I just acknowledge the Minister, the Hon Andrew Little—I know, even at the last minute, our kōrerorero around ensuring that today happened in an appropriate and peaceful fashion, and in the spirit of the Treaty settlement process, we can come together in the House today and ensure that this piece of legislation is passed through the final barrier.

I’m a member of the Māori Affairs Committee, and every settlement claim that comes to the committee has its own mamae; its own reflection of a process or a time line that, in this case, stretches decades back, and I’m reminded of the mamae for this Treaty settlement. And I look back to when they first lodged their claim in 1989—years later, the claim was presented to the Waitangi Tribunal, and so on and so on. I stand here today and look through and read back on some of the information about the time line and the process to where we are today, and I reflect on the other settlements that this committee and this House has been part of, and unfortunately it’s all too familiar, in terms of—and the previous speaker, Karen Chhour, I thought captured it well: having to go back and retell your story in the same levels of detail, to a different group of people, to a different group of decision makers, all in hope that someone, somewhere, one day is going to say, “Yes, we can proceed”. And the good news—and that’s why today is a great day—is there’s only a few speakers to go, whānau, and your settlement is there.

💬 Rawiri Waititi: Hurry up, I’m waiting my turn!

I know what you mean—the chief whip said 10 minutes, I’m trying to cut a deal on two!

💬 Hon Member: Or eight.

Or eight. But what I want to say is, we give this the dignity of the House and acknowledge the process—and I think, after all of this time, we need to take the time to acknowledge such a process. Today, the package includes the Crown apology redress, the cultural redress, and the commercial redress of some $150 million that others have talked through, and so that’s the package that others have also expressed. But I want to just pick up a couple of things that have been spoken about, and that’s that one of the key bits of information or one of the structures of the cultural redress that I’m a real fan of, is the protocols—the Crown minerals protocol and the taonga tūturu protocol, and I find that these will be the sorts of mechanisms that, in the future, Ngāti Kahungunu will be able to carry out the work, when they interact with agencies and consult on those statutory duties and functions in a way that gives this the mana that it deserves. Because I know that too often, sometimes these sorts of protocols and the way people work together—which is essentially what a protocol is—are quickly forgotten about, but this installs it into the settlement and ensures that the way that people interact and behave and work together in the future on addressing some of the issues that have had many years of mamae are done in a way that gives this the mana it deserves.

The other thing I wanted to talk about was place names. I know, in the patch of the world that I look after—which includes the Chatham Islands—place names are important, and I’m really glad that this bill talks about 30 place names that are listed in the bill, because I think we must get that right. There are place names, and too often these come up—and we’ve seen it in media recently, even with street names in major New Zealand cities—but I think getting place names right and using this process to recognise these is really important.

I want to just finish now by looking at the commercial redress. I think, in terms of giving the right of first refusal to land within the area is important; I know that these mechanisms will come in handy for the post-settlement or the commercial arm or the asset holdings company of this—that these mechanisms enable those transactions to take place.

I’m going to finish there and wish our whānau all the very best as we count down—literally—to the final speakers, and say well done to Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua. Kia ora.

Ka meahia taku pōtae ki runga i te tēpū a David Seymour kia ngū ia!

Tēnā tātou. Tēnā tātou Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki-nui-a-rua kua whakawhāiti nei ki roto i tēnei Whare o tātou i tēnei rā.

Tangihia ō tātou mate, ngā mate putuputu o te wā, rātou ngā kaipīkau o tēnei kaupapa i roto i ngā tau maha kua hipa ake, kāore i konei i tēnei rā. Kei te tangi tonu, kei te poroporoaki tonu, kei te mihi tonu. Nō reira ngā mate putuputu o te wā, ki runga i tēnā marae, ki tēnā marae o tātou, haere, haere, whakangaro atu rā.

Ki ngā pakeke kua tae mai nei i tēnei rā, tērā pea, tamariki tonu ana koutou i te wā i heipū nei tēnei kaupapa ki runga i a koutou, ā, i tēnei rā kua hinahina te māhunga, kua wherū ki ngā taha, kua mamae ngā waewae, engari kei te koi tonu te hinengaro ki te kite i tēnei rangi mā koutou, haere mai, haere mai. Ā, ki ngā kaiwhakahaere o tēnei kerēme, ki ngā rangatira o ngā hapū, ngā upoko ariki kua tae mai nei i tēnei rā, e te whānau e ngā hapū e te iwi o Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-rua, nei rā te mihi atu ki a koutou.

[I will place my hat on David Seymour’s table to keep him quiet!

Greetings one and all. Greetings, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-rua gathered in this House of ours today.

We must grieve our dead, the frequent deaths of the time, those who have borne this issue over the many years that have passed and who are not here today. We grieve you still, we farewell you still, and we acknowledge you still. So, to the frequent deaths of the time on each and every marae of ours, go, go to the unseen realm.

To the elders who have come here today, you were possibly still children when this issue came to you, and, today your hair has greyed, your flanks are weary and your legs are aching but your mind is still sharp to see this day of yours, welcome, welcome.

And to the people who have managed this claim, to the leaders of the subtribes, to the paramount chiefs who have come here today, to the families, the subtribes, to Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-rua, this is my greeting to you.]

I want to acknowledge the mamae that the Crown has caused throughout this process, including their steam train on their train tracks that made you late today. We know too well the divide and rule tactics of the Crown, ignoring the sidelining of whānau and attempting to pit them against one another. There is only one party to blame for the division caused among our people, and that is the Government. Whether successive or current, how dare the Government divide our people? How dare the Government continue to create more hurt and pain on our people? How dare the Government create breaches well after 1992 and expect to get away with it? How dare the Government create division between the relationships and whakapapa of our people? Whakapapa is about connection. Hapū and iwi boundaries are about connection, but this Pākehā process is about division. It’s absolutely racist.

Kahungunu, your loss of whenua, loss of culture, and the severing of whakapapa has only been further entrenched in the Treaty settlement process. This mamae has only intensified in the last two years. Te Paati Māori will always maintain that Treaty settlements are never full and final. Your people have waited 180 years for justice, only to be repaid with further injustice that is deeply entrenched in the settlement process. This injustice rests with the Crown, and the Crown alone. They rendered your tīpuna virtually landless, leaving less than 1.5 percent. They abused your moana, and have continued to abuse your mana and that of your whanaunga who were displaced and moved to another iwi entirely, which created trauma and breaches to that iwi, as they lost iwi land.

I have likened it to the trail of tears, the genocide and displacement of the First Nations people at the hands of the United States Government, Government to Government. Even the Waitangi Tribunal were in disbelief at your treatment, stating, “So much that took place now seems barely credible, so manifestly unfair was it to tangata whenua of the region, who, by contrast, seem to have conducted themselves throughout with remarkable restraint, dignity, and honour.”

Nothing can take away the pain, the suffering, and the trauma that your people have endured and still endure today. No settlement will right the wrongs of State-sponsored terrorism at the hand of the Crown and the Government. Te Paati Māori does not accept that the settlements are full and final. Our trauma does not lie in the past, and today’s settlement is a clear example of that. Inequity, poverty, and the desecration of whenua and the separation of whānau and whakapapa is happening in the present and will continue to be our future if we continue down this track.

Te Tiriti o Waitangi is not for settling; it is for honouring. Full and final settlement is not what Te Tiriti is about. Te Tiriti was signed before it was breached. Our people had tino rangatiratanga before Te Tiriti o Waitangi arrived here. After 34 years, we celebrate this day with you, but there should not be winners and losers today. Instead, it is a shameful day for both major parties who have been part of this process based on intimidation and Crown-engineered Treaty exhaustion.

The Government can solve all of these problems by adopting our mana motuhake policy. This would include establishing a Māori Parliament and implementing Mātike Mai recommendations for constitutional transformation, and I acknowledge Moana Jackson today. Now, if the Government adopted our mana motuhake policy, there wouldn’t be an issue today with the parties, because we would establish our own Māori Parliament. Pākōwhai, tēnā koutou.

[Pākōwhai, I acknowledge you.]

Implement all Mātike Mai recommendations, overhaul the Tiriti settlement process, and end the fiscal envelope. How dare we still be tied to the fiscal envelope, which was based on the fiscal numbers in 1992? This is 2022. Insert relativity causes into Te Tiriti settlements to ensure all iwi have parity with Ngāi Tahu and Waikato-Tainui. We mihi to them for opening the door for us, but it should be open to all of us. Make Waitangi Tribunal recommendations binding on the Crown and implement all unaddressed Wai claims recommendations. Abolish full and final settlements and the large natural groupings approach to recognise mana whenua groups. Return conservation land to whānau, hapū, and iwi. Introduce a first right of refusal policy for mana whenua when private land of historical significance comes up for sale. This would fix everything, and we invite the Government or any Government in the future to adopt that policy. This can only happen if our people stop putting their faith in Pākehā parties, but put our faith in ourselves to ensure we are in a stronger position to fight these racist processes. It’s time to decolonise ourselves, jump off the Endeavour, and re-indigenise ourselves back on the Tākitimu, eh Auntie Frances?

Te Tiriti o Waitangi is not for settling; it is for honouring. Full and final, like we said, should never ever be the be-all and end-all. You get 1 percent of your total due. Our tamariki, mokopuna should be fighting for the rest of their lives for the 99 percent that we are owed. The only way this nation can work is when Māori assert their rights to self-management, self-determination, and self-governance over all of our domains. It’s time to ditch the Treaty settlement process and give mana back to tangata whenua so that we can set up our own processes for getting our land back.

We will never ever settle, like we said. Te Paati Māori will not stand in the way of our people’s development today, but we sympathise with all the parties for the continued breaches the Government continued to endure on our people.

Ngāti Kahungunu, nā koutou tēnei rā, engari kei te aroha tonu ki te noho wehewehetanga i roto i a koutou anō. Ehara nā koutou te hē. Nā te Kāwanatanga, nā te Karauna te hē. Te whakawehewehe i a tātou, koinā hoki tā rātou mahi i ngā wā katoa. Kia kaha ki a koutou ki te whakawhirinaki i a koutou. Kia kaha ki a koutou ki te whakatōpū i a koutou. Kia kaha ki a koutou kia tū māia i roto i tō Kahungunutanga, kia māia, kia ngāwari te hīkoinga o āu mokopuna ki roto i tēnei ao hurihuri.

[Ngāti Kahungunu, this is your day, but I sympathise with your having been separated. This was not your fault. It was the Government’s fault, it was the Crown’s fault. Divide and separate—that has always been their modus operandi. Be strong in your support of one another. Be strong in gathering together. Be strong in standing confidently in your Kahungunu-ness, so that your grandchildren can be confident and relaxed in their journey in this changing world.]

I acknowledge the National Party for giving us an extra five minutes. They may have regretted it after that speech, but we only get five minutes; we had 10 today. Because of the importance and the highlight and the spotlight of this particular Treaty claim, we wanted to give it some due time. So anei, like we said, you can see the House is partly empty, e hika mā, but there’s only one party here 100 percent in attendance today and that is Te Paati Māori.

Nō reira, e hika mā, kāore tēnei e whakatōroa i ngā kōrero, kia kaha ki a koutou. Anei rā tō mokopuna, anei rā a Kahukura Mihiata i moe i a Apanui, anei te mokopuna e tū nei, e mihi nei, e tangi nei, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, kia ora tātou katoa.

[And so, friends, I don’t want to prolong my speech; be strong. Here stands your grandchild, here stands Kahukura Mihiata who married Apanui, here stands your grandchild acknowledging you, grieving. Greetings to you all. Be well, one and all.]

Tēnā koe e te Mana Whakawā. E koa ana te ngākau e tū i konei kōrero ai ki te Pire Whakataunga Kēreme a Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-rua. Tuatahi iho, me mihi ki ngā uri o Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-rua, he mihi aroha ki a koutou i tēnei rā.

[I am pleased to stand here to talk to the Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-rua Claims Settlement Bill. Firstly, I must acknowledge the descendants of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-rua. This is my compassionate greeting to you today.] And I’m real pleased that your train made it here on time today.

As I’ve learnt about your history—as I’ve learnt about your claim—through the process of this bill proceeding through the House, through being on the select committee and hearing submissions, it has brought home sharply to me that the actions and the wrongdoings of the Crown not only harm and damage relationships with Māori and the Crown but also harm and damage relationships between Māori and Māori, and that is sad for us and our country.

I would like to acknowledge the fact that we have reached this far in the House today, and I would like to acknowledge the fact that all parties in this House are voting for this bill. It’s an important tradition that we have had in Treaty settlement bills that we all support, and it’s really good to see that continuing today.

The Treaty settlement process is imperfect. But sometimes, on afternoons like this, when the House sits and has a Treaty bill, where we have te reo Māori, where we have waiata, where we have karanga coming out, and where we speak to the gallery and not to the Speaker, it feels just a little bit more like a marae and not so much like a Pākehā institution that it is. I wish that change to keep evolving and keep changing as we continue to adapt and change as a country, and we continue to reaffirm our Treaty partnership.

The Ngāti Kahungunu settlement package will finally and comprehensively settle all remaining Ngāti Kahungunu historical Treaty of Waitangi claims. The settlement package includes a Crown apology, the redress and cultural redress, and financial and commercial redress of $115 million plus interest.

The Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua legislation will settle all historical claims. The Te Rohe o Rongokako Joint Redress Act will give effect to the specific cultural redress shared between Ngāti Kahungunu and Rangitāne o Wairarapa and Rangitāne o Tamaki nui-ā-rua, and provide for their respective deeds of settlement.

Ka hoki au ki aku kōrero i te pānuitanga tuatahi mō tēnei pire. He roa, he kōpikopiko te huarahi ki te whakataunga, ā, he huhua hoki ngā tukituki i runga i tēnei huarahi. E rongona tahi ana tātou i ngā nawe e whakapā tonu ana i te mamae i te kinikini i te rangi nei.

Koia tēnei ko te hiahia o te Karauna kia tohua ki te whakataunga kei te aonga o tētahi rangi hou mō te whakahoanga o Ngāti Kahungunu me te Karauna. Ko te kaupapa o tēnei rā ko te mihi i te onamata me te tahuri ki te anamata. He roa te haerenga, āe, tae noa ki tēnei rā. E kore e ea i tēnei mea te whakataunga ko ngā mahi hē a te Karauna ko te mamae rānei e pā ki a Ngāti Kahungunu. Engari e tūmanako ana taku ngākau ka noho te whakataunga nei hei tīmatanga mō te whakahoanga pakari kē i waenga i a Ngāti Kahungunu me te Karauna, he whakahoanga e takea ana i te whakapono o tētahi ki tētahi, te mahi tahi me te whakaute i te Tiriti me ōna mātāpono. Ka tautoko au i tēnei pire ki te Whare.

Nō reira, e te iwi, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa.

[I return to what I said during the first reading of this bill. It has been a long and winding road to reach this settlement, and there have been many stumbling blocks along the way. Together we have heard about the grievances that still cause pain and gnaw away to this very day.

The desire of the Crown is this—to indicate by way of this settlement that a new day dawns with this partnership between Ngāti Kahungunu and the Crown. Today’s purpose is to acknowledge the past but turn towards the future. Yes, it has been a long road to arrive at this day. This settlement will never take away the deceitful actions of the Crown or the pain felt by Ngāti Kahungunu. But it is my heartfelt hope that the settlement will stand as a beginning to this strong relationship between Ngāti Kahungunu and the Crown, a relationship stemming from trust of each other, one of collaboration and one focused on upholding the Treaty and its principles. I commend this bill to the House.

Therefore, to the tribe, greetings to you. Greetings, greetings one and all.]

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s a privilege to take a call on this bill. I’m not going to replicate the election speech of my colleague down the front here, but I’m going to congratulate him and also Ngāti Kahungunu on the importance they must have in this House because the Māori Party have full representation here this afternoon.

But aside from that, it is a privilege to take a call on these Treaty bills. I often get to speak on Treaty bills in the House; never having sat or having the privilege of sitting on the Māori Affairs Committee. I think it’s a particularly difficult issue, really, for the House to deal with. Also I think it’s extraordinarily difficult for those people who, effectively, are negotiating away not their rights so much as negotiating away the challenges of almost 200 years in this case, and in many other cases, where, effectively, you’re coming to an agreement on some issues that have occurred over virtually 200 years, and settling, I suppose, in the best interests of both the iwi and of New Zealand in general, because we need to find a way through this.

When you look around the world—and there’s been some reference to this in the House already this afternoon—these challenges are almost universal around the world in one form or another. I think, as the Minister said earlier, there’s no perfect way of getting to the end of a Treaty settlement. It’ll never be perfect and we can’t expect it to be perfect, but at least those people who put their energy and effort into trying to make it perfect, I think, are pretty special. They’re taking quite a risk, when you think about it, because, effectively, they’re committing future generations of their whānau, their family, their iwi to, I guess, resolve a piece of history that’s gone before them.

I want to talk about one of those people very briefly this afternoon, because I had the privilege of sitting beside him this morning. I just want to speak about the Hon Ron Mark, who might not be the biggest man who’s ever existed in this House, but none the less in many ways he’s very large. And the reason I want to talk about him is because he makes quite a mark on New Zealand history, when you think about it. He’s intimately involved in this agreement today. This morning we welcomed the Poseidon P-8s to Ōhākea, which is actually my neighbour in the Rangitīkei, and he was there. He, of course, was the Minister of Defence at the time those planes were ordered. And tomorrow morning he’ll be back in the Wairarapa as the Mayor of Carterton; he’s been the Mayor of Carterton before. I think that’s typical of the type of people who get involved in these processes. Right throughout New Zealand, and particularly in the north of my electorate, you see many people who have a lot of influence not in political life so much as community life in New Zealand who are involved in these Treaty settlement negotiations, and I think that reflects to a large extent the importance that is placed on these negotiations.

I just want to speak very briefly about some issues that Dr Reti raised earlier in his speech, and we spoke about it in a bill last week in the House related to Ngāti Kahungunu and Rangitāne in the Wairarapa, where there’s some disagreement on a number of issues. There’s always going to be disagreement on these in the back of these negotiations. It’s inevitable because, as I said earlier, we’re dealing with 200 years of history—very difficult to deal with in any other manner. And so I think it’s important in this instance that Ngāti Kahungunu had the right to settle this process and get it out of the way—not get it out of the way from their perspective but get to a resolution in it, because I think my friend from the Māori Party mentioned earlier that every day you delay these things devalues the value of the settlement to some extent. And I think that’s a challenge for us all as well.

I just wanted to read two things out of a media release, or a release that came out at the time of the bill coming to the House for its first reading, and it typifies almost every Treaty settlement bill that I’ve been part of. It seems extraordinary to me that Governments of the past did what they did, and I think it’s also extraordinary that we continue to do these things today. I suppose in 50 years’ time we’ll look back and think what we did today wasn’t right. So you can never be right, but I just want to read this very quickly: “In 1853, the government promised Ngāti Kahungunu that it would set up a fund with the profits made from land sales. This, it said, would provide education, health and economic benefits. The fund never arrived, and neither did any benefits.” And the second thing I want to read is: “In 1896, to protect and preserve Wairarapa Moana, Ngāti Kahungunu gifted the lake to the Crown on the promise that it would create a reserve surrounding it. But this promise was also never fulfilled.” Of course, that was part of last week’s discussion and the bill we dealt with last week.

So I think that it’s a pretty special day in any of these Treaty settlement processes when we get to the third reading. And I want to congratulate Ngāti Kahungunu and their negotiators and the people involved with them on getting to this point. I think, as I’ve said, you go into these things with significant trepidation, and that’s where we get to.

I just want to very briefly mention one other point of these settlement bills, which I think are quite special and have a lot of opportunity, and I’ll quote a little opportunity out of the Rangitīkei in a minute. But I noticed that part of this settlement are two Landcorp farms: one is Range View, which my own family farm very close to. And that farm is now in trees. I’m sort of hoping that Range View won’t end up all in pine trees one day too, because it’s some beautiful farmland on Range View, and I would hope that that doesn’t happen to it, as has happened to some of that country in that part of New Zealand. The reason I quoted that is because in my very own electorate Flock House, which also was part of my family historically, is now called Te Hou and is a beautifully farmed farm. And it was part of a Treaty settlement process—came out of AgResearch, actually. The Hon Chris Finlayson negotiated that with Ngāti Apa. But the reason I use that example is because it shows the advantage that can be gained from these Treaty settlements if suitable land is made available through them. And Range View, in my view, is the one I know a little bit about, and I think that’s certainly suitable land.

So I just want to commend the way that this negotiation has taken place. Despite what some members of the House have said, I hope that at least it provides some resolution to Ngāti Kahungunu and I have no problem commending this bill to the House.

Tuku whakarererere

Ngā roimata i aku kamo

Rite tonu ki te rere

O te awa o Ngaruroro

Kore rawa e mutu

Te āroharoha i a au

Haere rā ai e ngā mate

Āroharoha nui

Anei rā te whānau

A Hineahuone

E mihi tangi atu nei

Ki a koutou e te iwi.

Tānenuiārangi

Te Whare Tūpuna

Anei rā ngā mokopuna

Āroharoha nui

E ngā mana, ōku rau rangatira mā, e kui mā, e koro mā, tēnā koutou. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou i runga i te kaupapa whakahirahira i te ahiahi nei. Anei ngā aroha ki a koutou katoa, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

[Just like the flow

Of the Ngaruroro River

So flow the tears

From my eyes.

My sadness

Is never ending

As I farewell my dead,

With deep sadness.

Here stand the family

Of Hineahuone

Grieving and weeping

For your tribe.

Tānenuiārangi

Is the meeting house

Here stand his descendants,

With deep sadness.

To all authorities, to all chiefly peoples, to the elders, I acknowledge you. Greetings, greetings and welcome to these important discussions this afternoon. I greet you all with compassion and love.]

The significance of that waiata was that it was penned by my great-grandfather Ihakara Rapana—or, to the Pākehā—Ike Robin. He wrote that lament because he lost his younger son, my grandfather, at the age of 42, and it talks about losing his son. He was proudly Kahungunu, from Wairoa but raised on the banks of the Ngaruroro River, at Kohupātiki marae. I share that because my cousin, his mokopuna, Hayden Hape is one of the negotiators who has been acknowledged in this. So I mihi to my cousin and to my Hape whānau of Tāmaki nui-a-Rua. The second part of that song was penned by my grandmother Ruruhira Robin, who was the daughter-in-law of Ihakara Robin, and I frame that because she is also one of many large shareholders in Wairarapa Moana.

So I stand here proudly in acknowledging this significant day. It has been a hard road, it has been a complex road, but we are here today, and I want to honour all those who have come to pay witness to this third and final reading; to all those who are no longer here with us, who know that we are doing the right thing. So I want to acknowledge not only my cousin Hayden but also Ron Mark. I want to acknowledge Uncle Haami Te Whaiti, Robin Potangaroa, Marama Tuuta, Ra Smith, and, of course, Ian Perry and all those who have guided our people over these trying years of final settlement. It is not an easy road. As a former negotiator, you get knives in the front of you, you get knives in the back of you, you get knives on all sorts, but you’ve got to trust that, at some point, we as a people have to move, and in celebrating and acknowledging the third and final reading I am being quite honest that it is not a fair deal—it is not; it is fraught with a whole lot of challenges—but it is something the iwi themselves want to proceed with. And who are we in this House to stand in opposition to that desire, knowing that we have our own whanaunga taking claims to prevent this progression. I want to acknowledge that, and I said that because my grandmother is a shareholder and I have been asked to help and try and stop the claim, and I did actually say to this one person who asked me to stop the claim, “It’s a brave person that tries to get in the middle of a Treaty settlement.”

So I want to make sure that those here in the House acknowledging this third reading know it wasn’t an easy undertaking, and I want to acknowledge my colleague the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations, the Hon Andrew Little. He has been steadfast in supporting the process of this Treaty settlement bill despite, like we all, getting letters from—I’m being very careful in choosing my language. You have major players, and then you have side players, and it’s amazing how, in Treaty settlements, all the side players all determine that they need to be major players when, really, when you strip it back, in Treaty settlements, there are major players—they are the affected iwi and the Crown. Those are the major players, and in this settlement it was very clear that the iwi was represented by Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua. That was the iwi, and they were mandated to go to negotiate with the Crown. And of course you get others, and of course it wasn’t their doing that the Crown gave them whenua in Pouākani. It wasn’t their fault; it was the Crown’s. And so it was the Crown’s obligation to rectify it. So with the blessing of the iwi, who wanted to proceed with this third and final reading, despite all the challenges, despite all the hiccoughs, I actually think it’s the right thing to do.

So to all the parties in this House, who have unanimously stood up in support of the third and final reading of the Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa Tāmaki nui-a-Rua Claims Settlement Bill, it gives me great honour as the local MP for this electorate, for the final Kahungunu settlement bill—because we’ve got six; we’ve got six, proudly six—that this is the last of a suite of the Kahungunu large natural groupings that cover the Wairarapa into Tāmaki nui-a-Rua. And it gives me real pleasure to stand and say a few words in support of the people in the public gallery, those watching at home, those who are no longer here with us, on the significance of this final chapter and the exciting journey that I know they’re already embarking on. This legitimises who they are—who they are in Wairarapa and who they are in Tāmaki nui-a-Rua—to continue the good work that I know those negotiators have laid the platform, and the leaderships that are yet to come through, to ensure that the settlement today is not only for the living now but for our future yet to come, and it is an exciting time to stand in support 100 percent with this settlement.

So, Madam Speaker, with those few words, can I say thank you to all those that have been involved, thank you for the perseverance, thank you for the sacrifice, because it isn’t everything that got taken from us. I want to pay tribute to our whānau in Pouākani. I want to pay particular acknowledgment to our whānau in Pouākani that we have not forgotten them, and we will continue to embrace them as we go forward, because they are us and we are them. And despite us being apart, many, many kilometres away, through no fault of our own, it is incumbent on us, as we pass this final bill, that we extend that arm of aroha to the many Kahungunu whānau that still live in Pouākani. They are Kahungunu and we are Kahungunu, and with this passing of the bill, I commend it to the House.

Motion agreed to.

Bill read a third time.

Waiata