Kanongata'a-Suisuiki AnahilaANAHILA KANONGATA'A-SUISUIKI (Labour): Kia ora e Te Mana Whakawā. It's a privilege to stand here to represent people who disagree with this bill. So this bill is called the End of Life Choice Bill 2017—is that what it is? Yes; End of Life Choice Bill. I want to speak in support of the Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 396 by the Hon Tim Macindoe and Chris Penk's Supplementary Order Paper 264 and I want to explain the reasons why I am standing in support of those. But before I get to that—in terms of the End of Life Choice Bill report by the Justice Committee on page 19 it talks about Cultural considerations". It talks about the many submitters; "Many submitters are concerned that the bill is based on a Western philosophy of valuing individual autonomy. Some opponents consider that the bill is ignorant or dismissive of other cultures and their values. In particular some submitters are concerned that the bill is inconsistent with the values of non-Pākehā cultural groups within New Zealand. Submitters described these groups as being more collective with an emphasis on family community and valuing life." That is the end of the passage that I've read from page 19. I've read that because I am a Tongan-born New Zealander so I'm a Tongan New Zealander and in Aotearoa New Zealand we put Tongans together with a lot of—a group called the Pacific peoples of Aotearoa New Zealand. I was consulting people in terms of translating the End of Life Choice Act of 2017—if this goes through. And there were difficulties—what the experts in the Tongan language said to me was: this is against the collective belief of life. When a Tongan is born it is the most sacred time of their life; when they pass into the next journey of their life we believe and Christians believe that there is a certain passage of life. But before Christianity arrived on the shores of the Pacific there was an afterlife where we pass into; so our spirits ended somewhere. In that journey it belongs to the collective. So I actually couldn't get someone to help me interpret what this is. So what they said to me closely was it is about to'o 'eku mo'ui teu to'o 'eku mo'ui; take my life or help me take my life. And I think—in terms of my English as a second language—where the Hon Tim Macindoe's SOP refers to euthanasia and assisted suicide; I think we just call it what it is. It is that. It is in the Tongan language about help me take my life help me end my life or you take my life for me because I can't. I think if we go to research in Canada—in Canada the majority of people that chose to take this way actually only a small percentage chose suicide. The rest have asked someone else to take their life.In the Tongan belief it is most unnatural. So the reason why I also support the SOP 264 by Chris Penk in terms of the term of this bill to replace in clause 2 "12 months" with "3 years" is because this is a foreign idea—taking a life—to most Tongans or most in the Pacific Polynesian community of New Zealand. It needs that long to actually translate this belief of autonomy over your life into the many non-Pākehā or non-English populations of Aotearoa New Zealand. As everybody understands the majority of New Zealanders have elected 120 members of Parliament to make this decision. In June 2017 we started this journey where this bill was introduced; it was in 2017. It's almost two years now and I think we have spent—New Zealand has spent a lot of time listening to members of Parliament speak our communities speaking on behalf of each of their community groups. It is time that this Parliament makes the decision and I am against the SOP by Jenny Marcroft."