Davidson MaramaMARAMA DAVIDSON (Co-Leader—Green): It's Christmas next week a time for many New Zealanders many people in our country who like to acknowledge and spend time with loved ones and families and friends. I haven't been able to let go of the fact that I know that many people won't be spending a happy time next week at all. That's actually a reason for us to take advantage and celebrate that precious time even more so in the knowledge that we've had some tough times this year in Aotearoa and around the world. There are many people who are suffering loss at this time and that is actually why we those of us who can take our time seriously acknowledge and have gratitude for what we have for the loved ones that we get to spend time with. I wanted to start off on that note because all week as I've known I've had to stand today in this House and speak and acknowledge the end of this year as the co-leader of the Green Party it's been genuinely challenging trying to find the tone trying to acknowledge the highs and the lows and recent tragedies and tragedies of this year. Something I'm really proud of is that just before this adjournment debate started we all here in the House witnessed an incredible display of strength and resilience from ngā uri o Rua Kēnana. Just before this debate started we had a rousing haka and a beautiful waiata that acknowledged the pain and the celebration of this historical day where this House declared a pardon for their tupuna Rua Kēnana who had been wronged alongside the community of Maungapōhatu by a Crown invasion in 1916. I thought that was a most excellent way to start this debate off in the House to acknowledge the place of tangata whenua and the space that tangata whenua hold for all of us to model dignity and survivability in the face of incredible challenge and injustice. And I thought what an excellent way to start this debate in the House today. What I know from my work my travels around the country this year talking with people meeting in communities and talking with stakeholders of all backgrounds and all types of work is that it is clear that when people have a warm secure affordable and healthy home when people have enough money to put healthy kai on their table and feed their whānau when there is enough income left over to pay all the bills that need to be paid when people can seek help immediately when they need it how they need it when our schools and our health systems and our justice services can cater to everybody equally can help people as soon as they need it and that we step up and show that help—this is what makes communities and families strong. This is how we build the strength of our Aotearoa nation our beautiful country with its beautiful people. This is how we provide a platform of enduring justice and wellbeing for our communities for our people for our water our soil our trees our birds our oceans. This I know is the work that we have to be doing here in this House. Last Thursday morning at an early dawn ceremony we were hosted by Taranaki whānui to receive the big cruise ship Ovation of the Seas as she came into the Wellington Harbour from Whakatāne. Taranaki whānui and mana whenua held the space as is their kaitiaki responsibility for us down on the water's edge in Seatoun here. And I was very privileged to attend that karakia and the karanga that were gifted to all of us who wanted to go and support their place in role modelling and leading through loss and receiving the big ship which had lost many people and whose many people had been hurt at Whakaari.I wanted to mention that because that is an example of the richness of what tangata whenua offer us all in this work of repairing the injustice and inequality for our people of repairing the degradation of our plants and our animals and our living systems of repairing the broken relationships between us so that we can work genuinely together to build what I know can be an incredible nation that welcomes and supports all of us that makes decisions with our long-lasting environment at the core of everything we do that understands that uplifting everyone is the richness for all of us. Mohi Apou that morning who administered the karakia said that what happened in Whakātane happens to us all. This is the collective care responsibility that I live for. This is the leadership in our grassroots community that I see every day that it is simply a duty and responsibility to step up not just because it was your family or your community but because as humans as decent human beings we all have the opportunity to share our humanity together and that is for everyone to enjoy and uphold. So I wanted to mihi to Taranaki whānui and to Ngāti Awa in Whakatāne also for holding this space for us to allow a healthy way through loss and grief in a way that will hold us together better. We also had the Christchurch attacks of loss—big internationally known loss. We've recently had measles killing many of our families and babies especially in Samoa and here in Aotearoa. I am going to think of all of those losses and the grief that is being held when I hold all my babies when I get out of this place very soon and am able to return home. Today in the House—well he said he was going to come and sit in here my son my beautiful 14-year-old teenager who I was able to bring with me and I'm never able to do that. Immediately he reminds me about what is good. And I need to be able to—when I ask for everybody to have the same opportunities when I ask for our rivers and our soils and trees to be put at the heart of our decisions—and have to be able to acknowledge that the National Party cannot simply stand up and pretend that all of the issues they raise the problems that our people and our planet are having just started when we got the reins in Government and acknowledge that they actually handed over after nine years degraded health and education and justice and environment departments and systems. I can't let that stand because I have to name the barriers and the impacts that our people and our earth have been feeling with them at the helm. And yes we have got more work to do but I am proud of the essential direction change that this Government has worked together to do—essential direction change. At least we can say the words housing crisis" because we are not afraid to confront it and deal with it. And yes I stand here as the co-leader of the Green Party knowing and pleading to my Government colleagues "We need to do more. We need to do it faster. We have to raise core benefits so that everyone has the chance to live their lives with the dignity that we all deserve."Lastly I do wish everyone in this House a very merry Christmas and a close loving time with your precious-held ones. I absolutely acknowledge that the demands of working in this House—and I want to say very clearly I absolutely support all of the well-wishes to our incredible staff across the whole place that humanise this place for us every day. It is not always a human place but our people on the doors our people working everywhere our people in the cafeteria the lovely cleaners I get to acknowledge—merry Christmas to all of you. Kia ora koutou katoa."