Prasad Rajen: Debate On Pacific IssuesText is incorporated into the Bound VolumePrasad Rajen: Debate On Pacific Issues[Sitting date: 18 April 2013. Volume:689;Page:9577. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr RAJEN PRASAD (Labour): E ngā rangatira katoa o Pasifika ka nui te mihi ki a koutou nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa. It is a pleasure for me to take a call in what is a historic debate in this Chamber in the presence of our Pacific politicians participants and political leaders. It is especially significant for me as a Pacific-born Indian as a Fijian person who lived there grew up there received the wisdom of the people of Fiji and being from a family with a long history and tradition in Fiji. That is what I brought to New Zealand years ago and it is what sustains me here. Those of us who are from the Pacific can never be from anywhere else. So for that reason it is a special pleasure.I want to acknowledge all of you who are here welcome you warmly and add my weight to others who have already welcomed you. In particular however I want to acknowledge the five participants from Fiji. These are young people and they represent the future of Fiji. They will be the new leaders and I know your task is more difficult than those whom you sit alongside at the moment but know that you in this Parliament and in the time you are here are warmly welcome and will be as warmly supported as you need to be. I know that you will pick up much to take back to our homeland and contribute to what needs to be done there.I also acknowledge all those who have worked hard to make this particular forum possible—those who started in 2006 and those like John Hayes and the present Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee who have made this possible together with the officials who have made it possible as well.What I value most as a member of Parliament and as a New Zealander is the ability of citizens to decide who is going to govern them and then to change them if they are not performing. Sometimes that is called democracy. But it is the ability of people who are ruled to decide who is going to be their Government. I have heard it said sometimes that democracies are a Western concept designed for a different environment and not relevant everywhere. I do refute that. The system of people deciding who will rule them and when to throw them out belongs to the people. There is much more that goes alongside a democracy. When a democratic system does not work we try to find out what the reasons are for it not working and change them. We do not change the system. There is no other system that I know of that produces the kinds of results that democracies produce that enable people to access their rights etc. So for that reason I support democracies and I support a system where people rule.Some democracies are confused with the workings of Government. The workings of Government are not necessarily equal to democracies. They are quite different concepts. If Governments do not work then change the Government. It does not mean that democracies have not worked.Democracy represents many things but certainly it is the sum total of all the institutions that have been developed to enable the people to choose a Government on the basis of the policies and manifestos they have put forward. It includes a clean electoral system a system of voting where all votes are equal a predictable transition when Governments change a free media an independent judiciary proper separation of powers a military that is totally subject to the will of Parliament effective agencies to provide public services and a system for people to access their rights. Those are the tools and when these things work together which is the case in New Zealand then in this Chamber we can debate any issue. We can argue with each other and we can go out and still be friends but knowing that the Government is being held accountable. The Opposition has a role.So the gift of democracy is a huge one and if there is a gift that New Zealand has to offer it is to demonstrate this democracy. And today tomorrow Saturday Sunday and Monday that is what we will be doing—demonstrating our democracy to you. What I regret is that the county of my birth is still struggling with this—not through the actions of the people who elect Governments nor—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): I am sorry to interrupt the honourable member.