Davis KelvinWEDNESDAY 20 MARCH 2019The Speaker took the Chair at 2 p.m.Prayers.MOTIONSChristchurch Mosques Terror Attacks—CondolenceHon KELVIN DAVIS (Minister of Corrections): I move That this House express its sorrow to the victims families and communities of the terrorist attack on the Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch promise to protect Muslim New Zealanders and their right to be safe from fear assert that they are us and acknowledge the effect of the tragedy on the whole of New Zealand. Assalamo alaikum. E tika ana i te tuatahi kia huri ki tō tātou reo rangatira kia tuku atu ō mātou poroporoaki ki a rātou kua tangohia e te ringa kaha o aituā. Nā reira e ngā tini mate kua hinga atu i tērā Paraire haere haere haere atu rā. Ko rātou ki a rātou ko tātou ngā kanohi ora huri rauna i Te Whare nei i te motu nei tēnā tātou katoa.[It is fitting in the first instance that I engage our senior language to properly farewell those who have been cruelly cut down by the Grim Reaper. Therefore to you who were taken last Friday I bid you a sincere and heartfelt farewell. Let us now leave them in the realm of the recently passed and return to the faces of the living here in this House indeed around this country as we formally acknowledge one another.]The 15th of March is New Zealand's day of infamy. We experienced an unprecedented act of violence hatred and sheer evil that will be carried in the hearts and minds of New Zealanders for ever. As the Prime Minister has said this act of terrorism committed by an individual spreading a message of hate is not who we are. To the families and friends of those who lost their lives to the Muslim and wider community and to all who have been affected by this as we say in Māori ehara i te mea ko koutou" ko "rātou" engari ko "tātou" [it is not about "you" or "them". It is all about "us"]. It's about all of us together. Your loss is our loss. We all grieve with you. A week is yet to pass since the attack on New Zealand. We still stand in the long shadow cast by our darkest day. To emerge into the world of light kia puta i te ao pōuri ki te whaiao ki te ao mārama [that we might emerge strongly from a place of dark despair towards a world of joyous enlightenment] as we say in Māori we must follow a path opposite to the one the terrorist wished us to follow and instead go down a pathway of empathy compassion and love tētahi ki tētahi—to one another.It would be easy to talk of leadership based on empathy love and compassion as soft and weak and fluffy but in the last few days we have seen the opposite to be true. Love and compassion have been the most prevalent leadership traits demonstrated at our highest level and it has been proven that those traits are able to coexist alongside clarity of thought decisiveness and steely resolve. If we men are to be honest the leadership our country has seen since 15 March—that is love compassion and empathy alongside decisiveness and resolve—is the mix of leadership qualities best demonstrated on a day-to-day basis by mothers around the world. We can learn from this. Many of those taken from us are from our refugee and migrant communities. Christchurch was their home. They are us but the individual who carried out this act of terror is not. I want to share some words that stuck out for me when I was in Christchurch with the Prime Minister's delegation the day after our darkest of days. These are the words of the Ngāi Tahu rangatira Matiaha Tiramōrehu written in a letter he sent Queen Victoria in 1857. These words are now etched on the glass windows of the Christchurch City Council. They are powerful words speaking of love justice spirituality safety and security equality and peace. They were written 150 years ago in a bilingual context and they are equally as relevant to our multicultural New Zealand of today.Matiaha Tiramōrehu said—translated from Māori—"This was the command thy love laid upon these Governors. That the law be made one that the commandments be made one that the nation be made one that the white skin be made just as equal with the dark skin. And to lay down the love of thy graciousness to the [people] that they dwell happily and that all men might enjoy a peaceful life". I think these words serve as a poignant message now—a message from the city of Christchurch to itself—a message from our past to our present that in these sad times the community has come together to embrace one another to show strength to defy hatred and racism and to mourn and show unity with our Muslim brothers and sisters; indeed that all New Zealanders have drawn closer together in the face of this assault on the values we hold dear: community tolerance and compassion; and that the New Zealand of more than 200 ethnicities and 160 languages utterly rejects the values and ideologies behind last Friday's attack.I must commend the dignified response Ngāi Tahu has shown in the days following this tragedy. I believe some of their staff are Muslim and were directly impacted by the attack. Ngāi Tahu's wishes were twofold: one to dignify the dead and two to support the living in whatever way they are required. As we walk out from the darkness of the shadow of last Friday's events towards the light we must walk together as New Zealanders acknowledging embracing and celebrating our differences but still New Zealanders all the same so that we are one and they are us."