Halbert ShananSHANAN HALBERT (Labour—Northcote): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Thank you for the opportunity to speak on Rawiri Waititi's Electoral (Right to Switch Rolls Freely) Amendment Bill. E mihi atu ki a koe e te tuakana e Rawiri.[Thank you to you my brother Rawiri.]Thank you for the work that you've done behind this. It was only a few weeks ago that Rawiri and myself Rachel Boyack Nicola Grigg and Simon Watts travelled across to Canada as a delegation on behalf of this Parliament to meet with First Nations people to meet with parliaments in Canada and I guess to share some of the work that we've been doing in Aotearoa New Zealand. When we came to meet with different groups in every meeting that we had groups were interested in our democratic system and how well our First Nations indigenous people were doing it in Aotearoa New Zealand. We spoke openly about the progress that this Parliament has made in representation and we started talking about the appointment of our new Speaker the Rt Hon Adrian Rurawhe. We talked about the number of Ministers in this House now that have an indigenous background through to the 20-odd members that are indigenous in this House and then Rawiri would jump in and include as well as—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Could you just respect Mr Waititi by using his surname please.SHANAN HALBERT: Thank you. Then Mr Waititi would jump in and talk about the only indigenous party in the world and in Aotearoa. While I was challenged by that point at the time it does reflect the evolution in our representation of our indigenous people in this country. Fundamentally when we look at this bill what Mr Waititi and I agree on is better representation and participation for Māori in our democratic system.The second part in this discussion is how we achieve that. What's important here is that most of all the thing that we want to achieve is to increase Māori to turn out and vote come election time. For me the steps that we make to ensure that we get the best number of votes from Māori in each election whether that be central or local government is fundamentally what is important for me in the decision making in such bills.Yesterday we went through the Government's bill and we talked through the opportunity that that presented in a larger scale than Mr Waititi's bill in front of us the opportunity that that presents to Māori and the opportunity that that presents to our democratic system. So tonight I won't be supporting this bill on the basis that—Hon Members: Aw!SHANAN HALBERT: Tata—tata. I want to acknowledge the work of Mr Waititi of course and our goals are the same. I opened with the whakataukī Nāku te rourou nāu te rourou ka ora ai te iwi"—that with my food basket with your food basket our community and our people will flourish. The work that we do to achieve the goals for Māori is—you know one way we can go is via a member's bill the other way we can go is via the Government's programme of work. On this one my friend we will be going via the Government's programme of work but the important thing is that the outcome and the achievements for our people fundamentally the same.Just to finish off as somebody with indigenous whakapapa in this country—to Ngāti Whitikaupeka and to Rongowhakaata— I am on the general roll and it's a decision that I made for myself to be represented in that particular space. I also have European whakapapa and that was the right place for me. But for my father and my cousins I fundamentally believe that they have the right to decide which roll that they sit on who best represents them. But most of all the thing that really counts for me is that they turn out in local and central government elections and that they make their vote count.So I just want to acknowledge finally my friend my tuakana Rawiri Waititi my kaihaerenga and a wonderful gentleman to travel with and I look forward to having KFC with you after this but unfortunately I'm unable to support this bill tonight."