Naylor Jono: Te Pire mō Te Reo Māori / Māori Language Bill — Recommittal In CommitteeCWH Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNaylor Jono: Te Pire mō Te Reo Māori / Māori Language Bill — Recommittal In CommitteeCWH Third Reading[Sitting date: 14 April 2016. Volume:713;Page:10637. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JONO NAYLOR (National):Tuatahi he mihi ki Te Atua nāna nei ngā mea katoa. Ngā mihi ki ngā manuhiri o Te Whare Pāremata kua tae mai nei i tēnei wā tēnā koutou katoa. Ngā mihi ki a koutou ki ngā hoa o Te Whare Pāremata ā tēnā koutou. Tuarua e hiahia ana ahau ki te tautoko i Te Minita e kōkiri haere ana i Te Pire mō Te Reo Māori. Tuatoru e mihi atu ana ahau ki a Nuk Korako i te komiti mō ō rātou mahi ki te whakarite mai i Te Reo Māori mō ngā tāngata katoa o Aotearoa. E whakamōwai ana ahau mō ngā kōrero i tautoko mai i taku kōrero i te pānuitanga tuatahi o te pire nei.[Firstly a tribute to God; it was he who provided everything. Acknowledgments to the visitors to Parliament House who have arrived here today I salute you all. Salutations to you collectively fellow colleagues of Parliament; hello there. Secondly I want to endorse the Minister for Māori Development who is driving the Māori Language Bill along. Thirdly I congratulate Nuk Korako and the Māori Affairs Committee for their work in preparing the Māori language for all of New Zealand. I am put at ease by the supportive comments to my contribution in the first reading of this bill.]I am humbled by the response that I got to my speech in the second reading of this bill not simply because the post from Facebook went to over a million people or that the video was viewed by over 100000 people because I am not humbled by that at all—I am just showing off. I am humbled because of the responses that I got from both Māori and non-Māori in response to that. I do not think they responded because of my witty repartee or my good looks or otherwise; I think they responded because they heard of something in my journey that touched their hearts. They heard something in the story of my whānau and my whānau’s journey with Te Reo Māori that meant something to them. Because it came from someone who was non-Māori they were touched because here was a middle-class middle-aged white guy from the National Government talking about the importance of Te Reo Māori.Some of the things they said included this: “E Jono tenei te mihi i to mihi tautoko......o Te reo Maori tenei te mihi tenei te mihi MAURI ORA!!!!!!!! thank you for your wonderful speech”. “Thanks for your support in recognising our well-being.”Marty Toto said: “I remember my Dad saying he got caned for speaking te reo at school growing up [and I] wish he was alive to hear this”. People spoke to me about the support for their language their Reo and how it was important to them. So I am humbled to stand in this House as a non-Māori one of the few non-Māori speakers to this bill because I think it is incredibly important for us if we are going to follow through on that phrase that is contained within this bill that I think is incredibly important which is “reo hoki ka kaingākautia e te motu”—this language is valued by our nation.I am encouraged by what I see as the Māorification of New Zealand English. When I grew up in west Auckland in the 1970s the only Māori words that we ever used were the words for which there was no English word. So we knew what a hāngī was and we knew what a hongi was but we did not know words like whānau and kaupapa and kai—those were not words that we used. We are now growing up in a New Zealand where some of those words are starting to take a place. But if we are going to see New Zealand English develop to incorporate and envelop more Te Reo Māori then Te Reo Māori must not continue to decline; it must continue to grow. It must continue to grow because of what this House is doing and the example that it is setting. It must continue to grow because our Government reflects the importance of Te Reo Māori right through our Government departments and otherwise. As a culture of New Zealanders we continue to embrace this language because as this language grows we as New Zealanders will grow and this country will be a better place.I was reminded today by my colleague Peeni Henare that I should finish this speech in the same way that I finished my maiden speech which was to quote his grandfather Sir James Hēnare: “Kua tawhiti kē te haerenga mai kia kore e haere tonu kua tino nui rawa ōu mahi kia kore e mahi tonu.” [“You have travelled a great distance to get here so you will not have to carry on; your workload has been excessively huge so you will not have to work.”]—we have come too far not to go further. I commend this bill to the House.