Wall Louisa: Te Pire mō Te Reo Māori / Māori Language Bill — Recommittal In CommitteeCWH Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWall Louisa: Te Pire mō Te Reo Māori / Māori Language Bill — Recommittal In CommitteeCWH Third Reading[Sitting date: 14 April 2016. Volume:713;Page:10636. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]LOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa): Kia ora Mr Assistant Speaker. E ngā mana e ngā reo rau rangatira mā tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa. Last week a few of us—Jo Hayes Poto Williams and I—were in Samoa. One of the issues that we discussed over there actually was the use of Samoan in the Samoan Parliament and whether or not bills could be and should be written in Samoan. The reality for that Parliament is that at the moment the members write only in English. We had a member of the Fijian Parliament with us and they are not allowed to speak Fijian in their Parliament—they can speak only English.While the bill was being debated over here and we were having that kōrero over there it was actually a time for celebration because we today have a bill that is in English and Te Reo. Most of the debate today has been in Te Reo and actually it speaks a lot about our society our Government and our progression in terms of Te Reo and our use of Te Reo here in Parliament.I really want to speak to a couple of Supplementary Order Papers and I have to because one of them was in my name and I was not here. So I want to acknowledge that the Minister for Māori Development said on Te Karere that the members of Te Mātāwai should be those who are knowledgable and most experienced at managing language programmes in the community and they have to be fluent.I just want to highlight that the reason I put in Supplementary Order Paper 166 to ask the Minister to make sure that there are women on Te Mātāwai is that I hope that of those seven iwi representatives there will be a woman and of the four clusters there will be a woman. If there is not because we have processes that for whatever reason do not allow Māori women to be on that board the Minister has two appointees.So I just wanted to put it out there that if we are looking at who has managed those language programmes in our community it is Te Kōhanga Reo National Trust. I want to take the opportunity to mihi to whaea Druis Barett and her whānau in Waitomo. I was at the tangi of her husband Jim on Monday with members of Te Rōpū Wāhine Māori Toko i te Ora. It was a very sad time but it was also a wonderful opportunity for us to be together and to hear all the reo and to hear how much love there was for matua Jim.The other Supplementary Order Paper I want to highlight is Supplementary Order Paper 165 in the name of my colleague the Hon Nanaia Mahuta. I think the apology that she proposed really was an opportunity for the Government to say sorry—because actually that is what it is all about. If you look at the reference that Nanaia made to suppression by the Crown and our inability to use Te Reo we really need to look at the Waitangi Tribunal hearing in 1985 that basically stated that Māori who spoke Te Reo were punished. So the Crown failed to uphold Treaty of Waitangi obligations to protect the language.In response we have an acknowledgment in the bill that the Crown supressed Te Reo Māori. What does that actually mean? Well it actually means that the Crown by its authority abolished and stopped our ability to use Te Reo at school—because we were talking about the Native Schools Act. We were not allowed to use Te Reo. Every one of us in our whānau has got stories about that. In my case it was about my father and my uncles being strapped. They were not allowed to use Te Reo. We did not use Te Reo at home. Some of my uncles did but in our particular whānau my father just said: “You’ve got to get an education. Forget about the Reo—get an education.”I think the acknowledgment of suppression actually puts a huge onus on the Crown because if our inability to use our language was because of the Native Schools Act then actually the solution lies in making sure that every single Māori kid at school has an opportunity to learn Te Reo. So if this piece of legislation takes us to a place where every Māori kid gets to learn Te Reo in school then that will be an amazing day. And it will be a day to say hallelujah which is my middle name by the way Marama Fox—Hareruia. So that is what I hope for this piece of legislation. That is what we all hope for this legislation. Nō reiratēnā tātou katoa.