Waititi RawiriRAWIRI WAITITI (Co-Leader—Te Pāti Māori ): Tēnā koe e te Pīka. Otirā tēnā tātou e te Whare. Wow! That was entertaining. You're asking us to compare CVs with somebody who's been here 50 decades. You know that's a long long time and a long long time in a House that has done a lot of damage and he admitted to that. He admitted to being here and damaging a whole lot of things—for tangata whenua—as we've moved on in this democracy. Anyway you're going to see this moko and his hat for a long long time there Winston and you're going to get used to it—you better get used to it.So anyway I stand in this House to give a speech from the throne of Kīngi Tūheitia. I stand here to speak on behalf of tangata whenua of Aotearoa. The true mana of this nation does not live in this place; it resides on marae and papa kāinga right across this country. It resides in the hearts and the minds of te Iwi Māori.To our people thank you. Thank you for believing in yourselves. Thank you for believing in your own mana. Thank you for being magic people. Thank you for being proud to be Māori. You have elected the largest Te Pāti Māori caucus in the history of this Parliament and may I remind Winston: you only won five seats; we won six. The largest contingent of fighters for mana motuhake and tino rangatiratanga. From Te Tai Tokerau Mariameno Kapa-Kingi. From Tāmaki Makaurau we have Takutai Tarsh Kemp. From Hauraki-Waikato the youngest MP in many many years we have Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke. In Te Tai Tonga we have Tākuta Ferris and in Te Tai Hauāuru we have Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. The kōhanga reo generation is here and we will carry your dreams and aspirations in this place. We will continue to be unapologetically Māori—thank you Chris for using our words. We will always remember why you put us here ahakoa te aha [no matter what]. This is our pledge to you.As our tīpuna remind us ours is a struggle without end. Against all odds tangata whenua have resisted colonisation and imperialism for more than 200 years. We are the descendants of navigators who traversed the largest ocean on the planet. We are the innovators who have time and time again proven to be cultural social and economic leaders in Aotearoa. We are rangatira who never ceded our sovereignty never bowed down to a foreign power.The Government's agenda is a flashback to the 19th century. This Government's agenda for the first hundred days is taking us back a hundred years. The coalition documents read like a manifesto of white supremacy and cultural genocide. There are attacks on Māori and Te Tiriti right across health education welfare employment justice the environment and the economy.Repealing section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act will undo all the progress that has been made to try and fix a systemically racist organisation that over generations has stolen our kids.Removing the prison reduction target and cultural reports in the justice system proves that this Government is intent on locking up more brown people and throwing away the key.Scrapping Aotearoa's world-leading smokefree laws will sacrifice Māori lives to fund tax cuts for the wealthy. Repealing fair pay agreements and bringing back 90-day trials will guarantee that whānau are stuck in low wages and our rangatahi are exploited in insecure work. Rolling back progress on climate change and taiao protection is co-signing our mokopuna to a future of chaos and instability.Leaving the door open to a referendum on Te Tiriti—the constitutional right for this Parliament to even exist—highlights just how extreme and dangerous this Government's policies are.But if all of that wasn't bad enough it goes even deeper than what is written on paper. The racist signals that the election of this Government has sent are so strong that Public Service departments are pre-emptively wiping te reo Māori from official documents and rolling back years of progress overnight. This Government has opened the floodgates of hatred towards Māori. You have given all Government departments the permission to hurt our people. White supremacist radicals who sent Māori leaders death threats are celebrating. They are over the moon that their political champions now hold the levers of power. It is disgraceful. These attempts to erase our people and our culture from public life hark back to the colonial philosophy that tried to smooth the pillow of a dying race.To this Government my message is simple: you will not succeed. Māori will not be assimilated. Māori will not be subjugated. Māori will not be silenced. Māori will not be erased. We will not cede. Your weaponising of racism and prejudice will be resisted with the full force of the Māori nation. You have been put on notice Mr Shane Jones. Ka whawhai tonu mātou āke āke āke. [We will continue to fight for ever and ever and ever.]This coalition presents the last gasp—Rt Hon Winston Peters: This is pinko rubbish.RAWIRI WAITITI: —Mr Peters—of a generation and demographic who are terrified of no longer being the majority; terrified of being treated the way they have treated us. But what they don't realise is our tikanga informs us to rise above hate rise above division rise above radical supremacy and rise above imperialism.The 21st century will be remembered for the rise of generation Tiriti—Gen T". It will be remembered for the kotahitanga of tangata whenua tangata moana and tangata Tiriti unifying to forge a nation that honours Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It will be remembered for the treaty revolution. It will be remembered for the rise of an Aotearoa hou. Our Aotearoa hou gives us space to realise how things should be; an Aotearoa hou that makes you feel like you would when you come on to our marae. We will welcome you. We will feed you. We will house you. We will connect you. We will educate you. We will care for you. We will hear you. We will love you. And yes Shane Jones we will farewell you.Our Aotearoa hou looks like every whānau in Aotearoa having a warm secure and affordable home. Not just a house but a home. An Aotearoa hou looks like future-proofing our communities protecting our pepeha protecting the whakapapa of Papatūānuku. An Aotearoa hou looks like whānau being able to swim and drink from their own local awa without getting sick gather kaimoana from their local pātaka without worry and not having to deal with flooding week after week. An Aotearoa hou looks like taking climate change seriously. It means investing in clean energy and restoring our taiao protecting and preparing communities for climate adaptation transitioning to regenerative and organic culture banning seabed mining. In an Aotearoa hou everyone will know their rights and everyone has a right to know their whakapapa. If you don't know your whakapapa you can rest assured that your whakapapa knows you. If you do not know your maunga your maunga knows you. If you do not know your awa your awa knows you. If you do not know your marae your marae knows you. If you do not know your reo your reo knows you. We are the solutions to be realised. In an Aotearoa hou no one is left behind. Whether you are tangata whenua or tangata Tiriti; tangata hauā takatāpui wahine tāne rangatahi mokopuna—you are whānau. You are good enough because your tīpuna made it so.While Te Pāti Māori will resist the racist agenda of this Government at every step our core mission remains the same and that is to realise this vision of an Aotearoa hou. It is the manifestation of the dreams and aspirations of our tīpuna who signed Te Tiriti o Waitangi and laid the foundation for peace and prosperity in this country. Te Tiriti is not to be settled. It is not to be rewritten. It is not to be questioned by referendum. Te Tiriti is to be honoured. We are the movement that will fight for Te Tiriti - centric Aotearoa. In the words of the black American author Toni Morrison "The function the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining over and over again your reason for being." And that's what I heard in the last speech.As tangata whenua we cannot allow the racist agenda of this Government to let us lose focus from what matters: the realisation of our tino rangatiratanga. As Moana Jackson laid out in the Matike Mai kaupapa we must strive for self-determination self-sufficiency to be implemented by 2040 on the 200th anniversary of the Treaty of Waitangi. That must remain our steadfast goal our guiding light our pae tawhiti. We must make mokopuna decisions. How best can we create an Aotearoa hou that will ensure my mokopuna—whom I will never meet—are able to thrive and live in abundance? How do we maximise the opportunity for success and prosperity? Those are the questions that we must grapple with as tangata whenua. Colonial Governments come and go but we remain. Racist policies come and go—and then come again—but we remain. We will continue to stand as the unbreakable force of mana motuhake. This will not allow Pākehā to determine our rights as tangata whenua. This Government must prepare for a Māori revolution if a referendum ever does go ahead. Every Government has the right to govern but they do not have the right to undo 30 years of progress for Māori. Te Pāti Māori will fight on all fronts to protect our people from policies that seek to erase our whakapapa and whitewash our history—policies that privilege the wealthy and punish the poor. We will fight against the short-sightedness of a Government that would allow oil and gas exploration during a climate crisis—absolute foolishness. We will ensure this Government's reign is short. Te Pāti Māori are calling on our nation tangata whenua tangata moana he tangata Tiriti to stand as one to protect what it is that makes us Aotearoa. We need not fear what we might lose but have the courage to stand for what we might gain. Toitū Te Tiriti. Kia ora tātou."