McCallum GrantGRANT McCALLUM (National—Northland): Thank you Madam Speaker it's a great pleasure to rise and take the final call on the Regulatory Systems (Education) Amendment Bill. There are three main parts of the bill in the sense that we're looking to firstly preserve the legacy and the mana of the 28th Māori Battalion into the future we're looking to support the work of the Pacific Education Foundation and to ensure that education regulatory systems are fit for purpose.But I would like to focus my contribution today on the first part of this which was about focusing on preserving the legacy and mana of the 28th Māori Battalion. I've spoken in some ways on this before but from a slightly different angle. This time I'd like to talk about not only the lead up to the Māori Battalion itself but Māori contributions to the wars of New Zealand over time—the wars that New Zealand has partaken in over time. Going back to the Boer War and into World War I they often went as volunteers and served our country and it was with great honour that they served our country. It was when they went to the World War I that we had such great Māori leaders as Harding Waipuke Leaf who's from my part of the world up in Northland from Hokianga. He was a great leader of men and he really contributed to our efforts in World War I. At one point he was told he wasn't allowed to actually fight he had to go and dig the trenches and so forth. But then he got sick of that. So at one stage he just simply picked up a rifle grab and made the battle cry Fight like the Ururoa fight to the death." The Māori contingent has then gone on and contributed in such an amazing way.Then along came World War II and the formation of the 28th Māori Battalion an amazing battalion made-up of four companies: A Company was from the Northern tribes my part of the world and were known as the Gum Diggers; B Company were from the Bay of Plenty tribes and they were known as the Penny Divers; then there was C Company from the East Coast who were known as the Cowboys probably something to do with the horses they all rode around up there and probably still do to this day according to Dana Kirkpatrick my colleague from the East Coast; and of course then there was D Company which was from the rest of the country and they were known as Ngāti Walkabout.They went off to war and actually Ngāpuhe at one point weren't going to go because Sergeant Leaf—Harding Leaf—wanted to go back to war but he was too old. So Ngāpuhe simply sent the message down to say "Look if Sergeant Leaf can't go we won't go." So guess what? Off they went. But unfortunately Sergeant Leaf was killed in action in—I believe it was Crete—in the first battle of Crete in 1941. A true hero.As we progressed through the war the 28th fought in many places and fought Rommel's Afrika Korps and the Italian forces. Battles followed in Egypt El Alamein Tebaga Gap and Takrouna. During the Battle of Medenine in Tunisia the 28th suffered 22 casualties—right? One of these was Second Lieutenant Te Moananui-a-Kiwa Ngārimu the man this scholarship is named after which I thought was quite appropriate as this inspired leadership obviously earned him a VC. Then they went on to fight in the big fight of all which was of course Monte Casino—that was in Italy. In here we can find the names of all the battles; you'll find the battle of Casino. The Māori Battalion suffered the heaviest losses of any of the battalions that fought there on our behalf.Then as the war came to an end and we came back—hold on I've got to find my place. Here we go—I got a bit lost. As the war came to an end we came home. The final command of the Māori Battalion—Sir James Hēnare sent the members of the battalion back to New Zealand and said "tu Māori mai" "stand as Māori" as he dismissed his troops.It was then actually when we talked about the mana of the battalion preserving it—I think we need to reflect on when they came back the lack of mana and respect that was shown to the Māori people when they returned to New Zealand. For example they were not entitled to the same service rate when they came back in terms of pay. They were not entitled to enter into our ballots for farms.But then there was something that I discovered with the help of my colleague across the floor Peeni Henare. He told me the story of the local RSA in Kawakawa where after the war the only Māori allowed into the RSA were the officers—and that was Sir James himself. But he refused to go in because his troops weren't allowed to. That was not reversed until—I believe it was 1985 which is a long time. That's only very recently. So it's one of the things that really did trample over the mana and I think it's important that we recognise those things. That was an injustice that was undeserved because they all went to war as volunteers. I think we really need to respect that contribution to our people and people need to acknowledge that history.Finally as we come to the conclusion I'd like to thank everybody who's contributed to this debate. It's been a great debate and I'd like to by saying is what the battalion would have said as they went into battle:Mō te Atua! Mō te kingi! Me te whenua!Auē! Ake ake kia kaha e!For God! For king! And for country! For ever and ever. Be strong. Thank you Madam Speaker.Motion agreed to.Bill read a third time."