Horomia Parekura: Oaths and Declarations (Upholding the Treaty of Waitangi) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Horomia Parekura: Oaths and Declarations (Upholding the Treaty of Waitangi) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 07 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6403. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon PAREKURA HOROMIA (Labour—Ikaroa-Rawhiti) 
: 
 E mihi kau ana ki a koe mo tera korero e te whanaunga e Tau. E rekareka atu ki te rongo i te taumahatanga. E Te Ururoa tena koe. Tena koe mo to kaha ki te whai atu a muri i te kawenata mo tatou mai i Aotearoa. 
[ 
To the relative Tau I acknowledge you for that statement. It was really pleasing to hear how serious it is for you. Well done Te Ururoa. Your efforts to follow this up as an agreement for us here in New Zealand are appreciated 
.] 
I have 5 minutes. I could talk for 5 hours on this matter; it is something dear to my heart. I revel having just come back from Australia and seeing indigenous people who struggle and do not have the base—and I can accept some of the things that my learned friend Tau Henare has just finished saying—but we can do better. This is a real test for this country. It is fascinating that we preach nationhood but we dare not play the full game and that we do the haka as the All Blacks and we will play that game but we will not dare let the indigenous people have their say. 
I want to commend Ururoa Flavell for this bill the Oaths and Declarations (Upholding the Treaty of Waitangi) Amendment Bill and for recognising that it is something that is dear to our people’s hearts—the tangata whenua of this land. It was 172 years ago when the ancestors of people in this room promised unification promised nationhood promised joining together promised a better life and rights recognised. What a whole lot of teka; that is what is was. And then we get to this stage and there is no compulsion in this bill. 
This is not like these new ideas that he has on the warrant of fitness. It is not like a whole lot of stuff that is coming out of the Government benches. There is no compulsion in this; it is choice. We have gone so crazy that we want to even deny choice. That is really out of the fear of the unknown. When people do not know about certain things they play the best card that they have inherited. I think it comes through their genes—that we have been conquered and things have happened in the past—but you have to have a smarter brain to recognise that internationally indigeneity has a real place in people’s hearts and that in this country it is growing because of not just the tangata whenua but also the rest of the cultures that we have mixing into our nationality. 
It is fascinating that I am seeing a real rev up by this Government and other organisations taking trade visits overseas and using Maori as the front end to that. Whether it is to sing a song or throw a taiaha around they are using it. So you cannot deny even in the macro in the economic sense that Maori are starting to utilise their assets better. I really wonder why some people are struggling to support this simple and decent bill. It is the way forward. It is about nationhood. It is not just about standing under the Union Jack because that stance was forced upon us by other people. We recognise all of that and we have taken the benefit out of it. 
We will be supporting this bill and it is certainly important to say that because at the end of the day there are some things that politicians should learn—that they do not use their vote because it may make the majority happy and vote for them. If you want to live in a decent society if you want our children to revel in and understand what nationhood means then surely to goodness simple support for this non-compulsory bill is something that could happen. 
Maori are great people. It has been 172 years since the Treaty was signed. It is fixed in other areas. We have a Treaty commission. We have a Treaty process and we are resurrecting and putting right what was wrong. Why cannot we have this bill recognised because it is about choice? A lot of Maoris go to the churches that they never knew anything about. They swear on the Bible because they believe it is good for them. Somebody else taught them that. This is a learning curve and a teaching curve for the rest of the nation who want to stick their heads in the sand. I do feel sorry for people like Tau Henare who really should follow his great-grandfather’s efforts and I would suggest to you that it would be good to cross the floor and vote in favour— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Order! Your time has expired.