Parmar ParmjeetDr PARMJEET PARMAR (ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker for this opportunity. I would like to start by congratulating the member Teanau Tuiono for his member's bill being drawn from the ballot. I know it's quite exciting to have a member's bill drawn but it also brings a bit of nervousness until you know which way different parties are going to vote.So this bill is the Restoring Citizenship Removed By Citizenship (Western Samoa) Act 1982 Bill. So basically this bill is to repeal that 1982 Act and I want to just ease that member's nervousness by saying that the ACT Party has decided to support this bill to select committee. Yes I know some members are looking quite surprised but this is what the ACT Party stands for: we believe in equality; we believe in fairness. So we want to really assess this bill on the basis of these two things equality and fairness and I think we will get this opportunity to do that in the select committee process because we would like to hear from submitters—what submitters have to say on this bill. We would also like to see what advisers have to say on this bill.But I also want to point out this: while I acknowledge the community leaders from the Samoan community here in the gallery—thank you so much for taking the time out to be here today—in the select committee process we expect that the Samoan community leaders and Samoan community members will support this bill. I'm assuming all of them will support this bill. But it will be important for us to hear from other people as well overall like from New Zealand to see what they think about this bill. And our support is at this stage only for the first reading. So we will decide how we will vote on this bill after we get the opportunity to see what the select committee process looks like and what submitters have said and what advisers have said.I also want to acknowledge the member for reaching out to me and some of my caucus colleagues as well advocating for his bill. So thank you for that. Clearly this bill is—overall when it's looked at—something that is to look at a historic matter. And when we look at that historic matter—this is my view—which obviously we want to explore in the select committee process at the time the citizenship of those people was revoked because those people acquired Samoan citizenship. And they acquired Samoan citizenship because Samoa became—at that time it was Western Samoa— independent in 1962. So it was considered that people—those who acquired Samoan citizenship—chose their allegiance to Samoa over New Zealand and that was the reason why their New Zealand citizenship was revoked in that 1982 Act. So it's very important for us to note this. I would also like to bring to everybody's attention that our view is by passing that legislation what New Zealand did was perfectly fine within the legal framework of that time. So New Zealand was within its rights to do what it did at that time. And referring to the member's letter that was attached to the email that came from a member the member has listed various reasons why this bill should be supported. One of the reasons that is listed in the letter which I want to talk about is the member says that this bill will address the racist origins of the Act. We want to say that we do not see that that 1982 Act was about being racist because if it was about being racist then we know that even in 1982 there were people from so many different parts of the world; the citizenships of all those people would have been revoked if it was based on race. But the basis was because Samoa became independent and people decided to acquire Samoan citizenship and because they had acquired Samoan citizenship their New Zealand citizenship was revoked.So this is really important to note. But as we have said we want to go with a very open mind to the select committee process and see what submitters have to say. And as I also said it's not just about one community what they are saying but we would like to hear from the wider community—whole of New Zealand—and also advisers to see where this bill sits for going forward. And with that Madam Speaker I would say that we are supporting this bill in the first reading. Thank you.