CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (National) : I am conscious of the time, but I want to emphasise on behalf of the National Party that we will be supporting the Waikato-Tainui Raupatu Claims (Waikato River) Settlement Bill. The process of reconciliation with Tainui was started by National in the 1990s, with Sir Douglas Graham and Sir Robert Māhuta, and this led to the very first settlement—the Waikato Raupatu settlement—in May 1995. In that settlement certain claims were excluded and were to be dealt with later, and this was one of them. The other two relate to the west coast harbours and to what may loosely be called the Auckland lands beyond the river to the north.
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