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Billed enacting treaty settlements for Ngai Tuhoe and Waikato tribes Ngati Haua and Ngati Koroki Kahukura were read for a second time this morning.
The Tuhoe Bill came back to parliament substantially unchanged after a select committee dismissed as unfounded the objections of neighbouring iwi and hapu, who feared it could affect their own settlements.
Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples says after reading the historical background of the Tuhoe settlement, no fair-minded person could deny or dismiss the need to resolve the injustices that ensued.
The Crown apologises to Tuhoe for the indiscriminate raupatu, wrongful killings and years of scorched earth warfare; denying Tuhoe the self-government it was promised in 1896, excluding Tuhoe from the establishment of Te Urewera National Park over their homelands; and wrongly treating Lake Waikaremoana as Crown property for many years.
He says the bill gives the crown a second chance to bring honour to its ongoing relationship with Tuhoe.
It will give Tuhoe responsibility for its own Health, Education, Housing, Planning, Justice and other infrastructural needs.
Copyright © 2014, UMA Broadcasting Ltd
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