Potaka TamaTAMA POTAKA (National—Hamilton West): Hine tū hine ora; hine noho hine mate. Talofa lafa. Taeao manuia aiga. Happy Samoan Language Week.Look there have been a few winners this week. Speakers have reincarnated themselves using wondrous fiction and weird hashtag bluster to persuade us of unconvincing statute making - based whakapapa profiling. Aotearoa New Zealand is not built on unbalanced leanings which the Government seeks to reshape currently using cultural orthodoxy through legislation. No whānau it is built on personal responsibility and an absolute aspiration for safety prosperity and success—including around accident prevention. Requiring agencies to and letting departments pick a specific group in society based on one whakapapa profile and then report on it no matter how worthy that group is seems to be a step—nay a stumble—too far at this point of our young country's catharsis.Thanks to my taokete Minita Henare for presenting this bill which the National Party and I continue to respectfully oppose. Since my last comments on this matter I've been lucky enough not to be involved in any accidents and complete more ACC claims—no injury visits to Peter Hunt physio at Central Physiotherapy Clinic on Pembroke Street in Hamilton West; no acupuncture treatment over madam Su's in my Chiefs brother Jamie Strange's electorate.This run of good luck has been enhanced with me declining the recent parliamentary rugby team's invitation to play the South African Buffalos or avoiding buffaloes and potholes laced across Whatawhata Road in Dinsdale. Barbara Kuriger: Hard to avoid the potholes.TAMA POTAKA: That's right. The bill seeks to legislatively require the ACC to report annually—yes annually—on how Māori and other populations are accessing the scheme and on identified disparities and barriers to access. Why? Why not trust the ACC management team or do it by ministerial directive or good governance rather than legislation? We could even match it up with the census—if it was reliable.I wonder how much resource is required—how many more bureaucrats are needed—to run this work stream. Maybe we get one of the big four to provide a framework a recruitment agency to find more staffers and a PR company to run a barbecue down at Mount Smart to ask accident questions of Māori punters attending the next Warriors game. The resource implications of the proposed legislation are unclear.As you know as one of the few Māori here in the House today—I see Soraya over there; e mihi ana ki a koe te tuahine—I feel like the last butter chicken pie sitting in the BP warmer on a beautiful Te Kūiti afternoon. Everyone's looking to me to see if I've got enough pastry; enough chicken. Or am I dry and pasty instead? Is there something wrong with me? Why force an agency or department to legislatively report on something they've previously reported on voluntarily between 1982 and 2006 and can do so again with ministerial directives or trust in the actual ACC governance team to do the right thing?It goes against limited government it goes against the principle of free and frank advice and it demands further resource across the whole of Government that is now carrying a very growing and heavy debt burden. Demographic projections reinforce that that debt will be borne disproportionately by the very Māori and their mokopuna who apparently this legislation seeks to protect. Every fanciful idea like this costs money that is funded by more debt or tax that the Government is scheduling—say a levy on whānau trusts and the very iwi trusts who woke up last week; they're facing 39 cents.Folks I won't repeat but can reiterate: I don't need another statistics inquiry about my life when I get injured or about how long my showers are taking—albeit I did have a cat wash last night in the parliamentary gym and missed all the hazardous moments drifting in through that facility. Uncles Woodhouse and Watts refer to this being a well-meaning waste of House time and I can't do anything but tautoko that view.It's yet to be evidenced that we require a special report but apparently we need one. Yet women transgender people and other population groups do not need a special demographic inquiry and reporting through this legislation. But Māori? Yes we need a new report. I feel like I'm starting to be a caged animal at the Hamilton Zoo in Rotokauri—studied researched and assessed on a regular basis by bureaucrats and perhaps more consultants.At this moment—in the year of our multi-lingual atua 2023—spending more money on gathering statistics for statistics' sake is not good enough. We don't need another clunky effort to count Māori. What we need are better outcomes by encouraging community-driven efforts through Whānau Ora and other programmes originated through National or events like Iron Māori or the national Waka Ama Championships or ACC's investment arm looking at social bonds based around injury prevention.I honour my admired and esteemed peer the Minister for ACC the Hon Peeni Henare for his dynamic and honourable vigour in presenting this bill—but oppose it today. As Scribe would sayYou pick me up every time that I fellWhen I was going through hell you told me that I would prevailIn a world of slip trip and fall we don't need whakapapa profiling legislation to make us better; we need good investment and good governance to prevail. Tōfā soifua. Ka kite.