Bennett David; Tisch LindsayDAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East): Talofa lava malo e lelei bula vinaka namaste faakalofa lahi atu kia orana fakatalofa atu malo ni mauri bonjour. Welcome everybody. Hon Member: Bonjour.DAVID BENNETT: Yes bonjour to our friends who have a French background in the Pacific region. I would just like to thank the organisers of this event my colleague Alfred Ngaro and his team who have done an excellent job in making people feel welcome here but thanks also especially to all those people who have travelled from the Pacific and the wider region to be here and to engage in this weekend of discussion and dialogue and hopefully to have the ability to look forward as a region together. New Zealand is a very fortunate country in that we have a very strong Pasifika culture and tradition and large Pasifika populations. That means that our country is blessed with a variety of languages people music culture religion and also food which make our country much stronger and are things that we all treasure as a big part of the New Zealand culture going forward. I wish to focus just on culture today. Earlier this year I went to Niue. It was a fantastic experience. It was my first time going to a Pacific Island and it is a beautiful island—beautiful people and food and culture there. The thing that I really took away from that trip apart from the beauty and traditions and welcome and friendship is the fragility of the Pacific. In those Islands we have small populations and it is difficult to maintain those cultures and traditions going forward especially as a lot of the young people leave those Islands and come to New Zealand and Australia to make their home and their future and especially as those Islands will face increasing competition from people wanting to go and live there who come from different cultures and traditions. I think that the culture and traditions of the Pacific is something that we need to make sure we have some structures and processes around to enhance and maintain because we do not want to lose that. It is so vibrant and so important to New Zealand what Pasifika brings to us. We do not want to lose the home of those Pasifika cultures and their traditions. So from a New Zealand Kiwi I guess my message is to be proud to be a Pacific Islander. Be proud of your individual countries and your heritage but maintain them. Take the necessary steps to ensure that your people have a future in your land or wherever so that those traditions and cultures are maintained and that they enhance the wider world as they do at this stage in New Zealand. I think that is the biggest challenge for Pacific Island countries: how to actually maintain what you have and to share that with everybody and not lose it.In New Zealand we have had that issue for many years and the Māori Party members and now the Māori Party MPs in this Parliament have been great advocates for their people over many years. One of the big things that they have always pressed is that language is the first stage of retaining a culture. So please treasure what you have. It makes us stronger and richer. Please do not lose it. Take the necessary steps you need to make sure that the culture and traditions of the Pacific endure for us all to benefit from. Thank you.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): The next call is a split call. Kris Faafoi—5 minutes.