Coffey TamatiTAMATI COFFEY (Labour—Waiariki): It's been a fascinating afternoon I've got to say. I stand here to give a contribution to this particular bill Electoral (Entrenchment of Māori Seats) Amendment Bill not just as a member of Parliament but actually as the only other Māori electorate MP that has stood and contributed to this debate today. So I look at this with a unique perspective that while it's so easy for others to stand around the outside and share their thoughts on what they think it's like to be a Māori electorate representative they have absolutely no idea about the pressures that fall on to Māori electorate MPs.I want to start my contribution by giving absolute props to my colleague over here Rino Tirikatene because that's what we do—being a Māori voice in this very esteemed Parliament. We are actually charged with the job every day every hui every select committee meeting to actually raise the flag up and fight for the rights of Māori. It is people like Rino people like myself people like my colleagues that have that responsibility to constantly be putting our hand up and saying Where do Māori fit into this? What about tikanga Māori? What about Reo Māori? How do we make sure that we address that balance that was done so wrongly back in 1840 when the agreement was signed when Te Tiriti was signed?"Ever since then we've been just trying to right the wrongs. That's what we've been trying to do and even today as we debate our Treaty settlement bills here in Parliament all we're still trying to do is right those wrongs and we continue to do it with this particular piece of legislation. This is an attempt for us to address the balance. This is an attempt for us to actually make sure that we don't constantly have the knife swinging over our heads as Māori saying "This bill—we might take away Māori seats we might not we might we might not." That's the constant kōrero that has come up time and time again. Every election it gets bandied around by the other side and sometimes by people a little bit closer to us but this is the constant pressure that we have to deal with: should we have the Māori seats? The most galling part of it is that it is often being talked about by people that aren't even Māori—nothing about us without us.Whilst the Māori seats started off on a very different pathway actually over time Māori have fallen in love with our seats. We had the Māori electoral option just recently where Māori were given the opportunity around the country to be able to jump off. You know we got given the opportunity: if you didn't want to be on it you could take yourself off it really quickly. But actually Māori chose to stay on the Māori roll. Why? It was because they feel represented by the people that are in those seats but also by the actual structure itself. It's taken us a while but Māori have got confidence in this system.So the Māori seats are integral to the way that Māori see themselves represented here in Parliament and how many more elections do we have to go through where we have the knife waving over us again saying "We're going to take them away we're not going to take them away."? Who knows? But I commend absolutely my colleague Rino Tirikatene over here who despite the fact that it might not be a plain sail through has actually brought this up because that's what we do as Māori electorate MPs. We stand here. We say "We don't know how this is going to go but actually it's kaupapa Māori." It's what our people want us to do. It's what they would expect us to do. It's why they show up every three years and vote for us—so that we can actually push kaupapa Māori in this House.Over the House one of my Opposition colleagues Nick Smith talked about how the general seats weren't entrenched. I had a word with a very learned colleague over here Kiritapu Allan who told me that actually under section 268—in fact the general seats—the mechanisms are there so that the seats are actually entrenched. But that doesn't actually apply to Māori seats.So what we're looking for—what we've always been looking for as Māori—is equity. What we're looking for is our share. What we're looking for is our part in the debating chamber our seat at the table making sure that our voice is being heard making sure that the New Zealand that we're building is always going to be cognisant of Māori from a Māori point of view not necessarily from a member for Rodney's view from up in the North or wherever other well-intentioned people might want to have their opinion. Actually it's Māori voices that count the most in this and that's why we've been mandated to show up here to commend this bill to the House and to hopefully see it through."