Ngarewa-Packer DebbieDEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori): Tēnā koe e te Pīka tēnā tātou e te Whare. I rise to speak to the first reading of the COVID 19 Response (Vaccinations) Legislation Bill. Te Paati Māori will not be supporting this bill. Experts and tangata whenua leaders have warned the Government about imposing one-size-fits-all vaccine mandates; they risk dividing Aotearoa and undermining the public health response. Mandates are an important tool that whānau hapū iwi businesses and communities should be empowered to use where and when they determine a need. We support them setting their own tikanga; rāhui are widely used in our communities. Informed consent must be a guiding principle so that people can make the best possible decisions to protect their whānau from the virus and fully participate in society. Te Paati Māori are opposed to this Government's vaccine mandate system. The Crown does not have the constitutional right to impose mandates on tangata whenua as our tino rangatiratanga to make these decisions for ourselves is enshrined in Te Tiriti o Waitangi.This bill is not compliant with Te Tiriti. The process for developing the traffic light system which received the explicit opposition of many Māori leaders is a breach of Te Tiriti as it does not have the active consent of tangata whenua. Upholding Te Tiriti rights and ensuring we can live together collectively is a fundamental part of who we are and how we live. It is the difference between individualised Westernisation and indigenous peoples. This Government has forgotten tangata whenua are the most protocolled people in this country and we always have been. We understand the need to adapt and evolve tikanga to deal with pandemics.This Government's consistent failings in rolling out an equitable vaccination programme which didn't acknowledge 70 percent of its tangata whenua were under 40 years has us now 20 percent behind the general population. This Government's failure to provide data that it gives to Pākehā organisations is another reason why we had to go to court to get it seen and to get it out. This Government's failings to protect its most vulnerable community in tangata whenua as warned by health experts now has us making up nearly 50 percent of those infected with the Delta variant despite only making 18 percent of the population. We make up the highest numbers of cases 50 consecutive days. We are now past the 3000 mark. Six Māori deaths three Māori men between 40 and 50. All this was unnecessary and now due to your failings we have mandates. And then we add we are forced into this urgency while you continue to scapegoat Māori; to divide marginalise and indeed demonise our communities and whānau.A much fairer durable vaccine system that fully acknowledges Māori public health models would have included: requiring hospitals and medical clinic workers to be vaccinated; requiring all front-line health workers not in hospitals and medical clinics to declare their vaccination status to patients and provide a negative test to patients upon request; requiring all unvaccinated front-line Government workers to do the same; supporting mandates put in place by tangata whenua organisations and businesses; strongly opposing any moves to impose sanctions or penalties on workers or beneficiaries who are unvaccinated; requiring all businesses organisations and schools to publicise their vaccine rules on the vaccine passport application and across a range of other platforms.There will be other opportunities to delve further into the detail of this bill but I want to close my call today by saying how completely unacceptable it is that the Government introduced this bill today barely hours before it had its first reading. I understand they intend to pass this bill into law this week under urgency without even a shortened select committee process. The Government has been talking about mandates and the traffic light system for a long time and yet here we have this shocking process. We will continue to hold you to account and remind our whānau that this Government ended elimination knowing Māori were 26 percent behind the general population just as they opened up traffic light system knowing Māori are still stuck at the roadworks they set up. Shame on you Labour for undermining the democratic and tino rangatiratanga process of tangata whenua in this way. Nō reira nō reira tēnā tātou katoa.