Tangaere-Manuel CushlaCUSHLA TANGAERE-MANUEL (Labour—Ikaroa-Rāwhiti): Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare. Otirā tēnā rawa atu tatou katoa. Aue te moumou taima me te moumou moni o tēnei pire e te Māngai o te Whare.[Thank you Speaker of the House. And greetings also to everyone present. Heck! What a waste of time and a waste of money this bill is dear Speaker of the House.]I cannot believe that in this day and age we're standing up to debate this topic. While I am extremely proud to come from a district who has gone through the correct process to establish Māori wards Te Tairāwhiti—so I guess that means Rehette if you're watching you are an activist mayor".Kua kōrerotia e rātou e te Māngai o te Whare mō tēnei mea te democracy. [They spoke dear Speaker about democracy.] It's very hard to be inspired by that word "democracy" when we are in fact the minority in our own country as Māori. There has also been kōrero about The Voice. Actually I want to go back to the other one. There's been kōrero about keeping promises. If promises were kept we would not have needed to establish Māori wards. Yes I am talking about Te Tiriti o Waitangi. While we're talking about that and we want to talk about partnerships and voice it seems that the Government is happy that we are partners that our level of participation is to bless chambers but not to have a seat or a voice in them.Hūhana Lyndon: "Kia ora mō te karakia."CUSHLA TANGAERE-MANUEL: So—ha ha! Yeah kia ora mō te karanga me te karakia. Haere ki waho ināianei. [Thank you for the call and the prayer. Go outside now.]We've also talked about the vote the general vote and absolutely there are Māori sitting in general seats around obviously in here but around councils all around our country and there will continue to be. That shouldn't be a surprise. There are highly educated intelligent capable Māori in every industry in this country. However what we also have is some Māori purely want to be the Māori voice voted for by the Māori people and that has been supported by many councils. We're talking about respecting local voices? We are disrespecting the people the councils the mayors the chairs who have already written in to say "We've been through that process." [Interruption] Yeah. Kua ea kua ea. [It is satisfied it is satisfied.] It has been done. Why are we undoing yet another thing in this country which particularly impacts Māori?Now the other quote that came up just now was "This shouldn't be a surprise or a threat." Well why are Māori having a seat at councils; is that a surprise and why is that a threat? On that note I just want to present a quote from one of our very intelligent young wāhine who has now secured a seat on a council: "The opposition of Māori wards is entirely fear-based. It's the fear that we will use the seats this representation this power to further a Māori agenda at the expense of Pākehā of Kiwi New Zealanders that call this place we love home. That fear is absolutely misplaced and unfounded. It goes against all the values we are taught from birth and that have been handed down from generation to generation. Māori want what is best for everybody what is best for our taiao. We want everyone to have good jobs successful businesses and we want people to live where they want to be in their homes in the city off the grid or on their whenua in papa kāinga."I acknowledge the acknowledgments of our smaller communities where Māori representation is high and echo her sentiment about the value of having tangata whenua knowledge in our houses connection to the whenua connection to the taiao from whom we come and will return. But there's also huge benefits of having these in urban centres of having Māori representation. Because having lived in a couple of urban centres we're not always privy to having access to our tikanga or indeed see faces that look like ours. So having access to this representation in councils around the motu is only beneficial to us all.Hei whakakapi [in closing]—oh I had more to say. Heoi anō [However] I'm sure there's going to be a second reading and we'll have a lot more to say then.Tēnei te mihi atu ki a koe Nanaia mēnā kei te mātakitaki mai koe.[I would like to commend you Nanaia if you are watching this.]I commend Nanaia for having the courage to bring these changes to our fine country and I commend our pāti Labour te Pāti Repa for supporting it and allowing a strong Māori voice in our councils around Aotearoa whānui and to the councils also who have had the strength and courage and wisdom to do this. Tēnei te mihi atu ki a tatou [Thank you all.]"