Ngarewa-Packer DebbieDEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Pāti Māori): Tēnā koe e te Pīka. Tuatahi ngā mihi ki a koutou kua tae mai ki te kawe ki te tautoko i te kapua pōuri. Koirā te āhua o te hui.[Thank you Mr Speaker. Firstly I acknowledge you who have come here to carry to support the cloud of sadness. That is the nature of the gathering.]Arrive here and unshackle the weight—unshackle the weight—of the trauma of everything that you have carried and had to listen to. This is not the place for your rongoā. The place for your rongoā is in your moana by your maunga by your awa by your hapū by your marae. This is the place where you lay your mamae and you leave it here. You leave it here with those with a forked tongue. To those watching this do not leave here—do not leave here—without dumping that mamae that you have had to carry and pass on.Our State care system had 655000 children rangatahi and pāhake go through it. Over 200000 were abused that we know of—that we know of. I want to mihi to Whanaketia. I want to mihi to what it is that you have left us for those who are brave and left us this for those who represent us who could not contribute to this. We will hold this and we will never let this place of trauma forget it ever because that is what we fight for. I've had to listen—and I'll try and hold it back. I've had to listen to the fact that those who targeted our people because they were Māori they were takatāpui they were tangata whaikaha they were tangata turi and they were poor—that's why we were targeted. What the hell has changed—what the hell has changed? You listen to all the richness of the kōrero today but what the hell has changed for us?Bernie Ruru" O'Donnell said it: I get really tired of seeing the looks at the horror stories that he has to repeat. The Crown must be held accountable to the abuse and for the abuse because it was criminal. And it is criminal negligence. E te w'anaunga ka tautoko au. [To my relative I support you.]There must be consequences. There is no time to digest. We needed time to digest but they were quick to uplift quick to move. Quick to ruin us. Quick to displace us. Quick to forget article 2: undisturbed access and rights to all our whenua our taonga to us being Māori—quick to do that. Do not leave here accepting that this report must be digested slowly. For Christ's sake my mokopuna can see what's needed.I want to share some words that we were we were exposed to during the hearings so that this place becomes about you and not us politicians saying "I" 500 times.Tupua Urlich who's from Ngati Kahungunu ki Heretaunga shared the experience of being in State care from the age of five. He was placed in multiple foster homes and attended nine schools in 12 years. He missed school so many times because of his bruising and the injuries that he was he was enduring—by a State-approved caregiver. Hooked in the head at five years old by a fully grown man crying and bleeding on the floor told that his father had just passed away knowing that that was his only source of justice that was ever going to come and save him. A child at the mercy of a monster. No one checked in on him but he was quick to be uplifted and slow to be checked in on. What's changed? Terrified having to attest in the CCTV against a defence lawyer. And what happened? That caregiver got 13 months of community service. What have we learnt? Ihorangi Reweti-Peters of Ngati Tūwharetoa Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāti Tahu - Ngāti Whaoa descent placed in State care at a very young age shared his lived experiences of physical and mental abuse. While he's ended up in some really great situations to get there was horrific. Seven placements in six years. Using his experience to ensure rangatahi don't endure what he had to bravely fronting a call to action to improve access for mental health and counselling support. What's changed? Are we there?Glenda Maihi of Te Arawa descent placed in foster care by the Department of Social Welfare from the age of five. She spoke about the physical and psychological trauma she experienced during these placements. She discussed recommendations. She does not want any other child to endure what she went through. Do we listen?Tumohe Clarke Ngāti Hauā and Ngāti Koroki Kahukura shared the experience of abuse in State care he had what he suffered and the impact that it's had on his whānau across generations.Te Aroha Knox of Waikato-Tainui and Ngāpuhi went into care at 10 years old because of abuse at home went through foster homes and different institutions. She shared how Te Whare Tapa Whā model has helped her in her journey of healing.Karanui whānau Kuini was placed in State care at the age of 11 due to truancy. She was sexually abused in two of her three homes she was placed in. As an adult she used her Māori values to care for other tamariki. She cares and she shared her story so the Government can better understand how to look after our tamariki today. What's happened?Paora Sweeney grew up in a loving family but suffered trauma through the loss of his parents. He had multiple experiences of being placed in care and custody facilities as an adolescent and experienced being abused in care. He talks about the clear link of that experience between being placed in care and ending up in gangs and adult incarceration. How do we treat gangs today? Do we understand how they got here?Wiremu Waikari of Ngāti Porou descent reclaimed his ingoa as a form of rejecting the abuse that he experienced in care and turned to his taha Māori to help him recover from the physical psychological and sexual abuse and racism. He is now a qualified social worker. He works as a Māori consultant a Māori adviser. He found rongoā in his taha Māori—in being Māori and not having to defend being Māori.Harry Tutahi taken into care as a young boy. He shared his experiences and all the time he spent in prison as a teenager as a young adult.Waiana Kotara of Māori and Scottish descent shared her lived experiences of abuse the pathway that she chose and the way that she thinks that could be used to actually help and re-navigate other children and tamariki in care.Nothing learnt—nothing learnt. All of these experiences have been shared with the rongoā of how taha Māori helps them. Yet here we are in the Government—they're saying how sorry it is but it continues to create mega-prisons removes section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act and experiments with our rangatahi and justice in boot camps. Everything that you have told us in this has been ignored. Every experience that you have asked us to think about continues to be perpetuated by this monstrous system that you've talked about. The system that continues to protect the system that perpetuated and created harm isn't held accountable. This is on your head Government. This is on all your heads Governments.We cannot leave here have rich words and then tomorrow we go back to having to defend why tikanga Māori why Te Tiriti o Waitangi why Māori rongoā why our own solution of by Māori for Māori works because in here [Member holds up report] they are telling us—they are telling us—how we fight the trauma. They are telling us what it was that they had to do to get over it all. We cannot continuously pretend to have all these ideas of what it feels like when in fact the first thing we've done is ignored every experience that was shared with us to 1999 and we do know—we've got Ministers standing up saying that they can't say hand on heart that this isn't still going on today. I'm sure as hell bloody concerned because we do know.As long as we're here Te Pāti Māori will hold the ground and fight against the trauma that we have to keep explaining why we have inequities and explaining why we should not be attacking gangs and explaining why Lorreta and why Eugene—why we must have brave faces that hide broken faces. We should not be attacking—we should not be attacking—why we've ended up in the situation. We should be working with the lived experiences and learn from it. Otherwise all of this is just lip service. It looks really great for the international Governments—it's really great.So we will not stop until the last of our breath goes out and I can sit here and I can say that this place stops creating harm for not just our people but all of our people and all of our mokopuna. Kia kaha whānau."