The long-fought Waitangi Treaty settlement for a central Auckland hapu has had its final reading before Parliament.
The $18 million settlement was initially signed between the Crown and Ngati Whatua o Orakei last year.
The Treaty bill includes an official apology from the Crown, and the return of, and the opportunity to buy, coastal land in several Auckland harbours.
Ngati Whatua o Orakei Maori Trust Board trustee Ngarimu Blair says an agreed historical account of the Crown's wrong-doing, as part of the settlement, is one of the hapu's most significant achievements.
He says it helps to right some of the wrongs committed by the Crown during the 1978 Bastion Point protests and past Treaty transgressions.
Mr Blair says Grant Hawke, the chairman of the hapu's trust who collapsed in the public gallery during Thursday's final reading, is recovering well in Wellington Hospital and remains under observation.
