Willis NicolaNICOLA WILLIS (Deputy Leader—National): Today we have the grovelling back-down but the stain on our democracy the damage to our constitution will remain. And that must sit on the conscience of the members opposite who sought under urgency in the dark of the night to entrench a policy position against all constitutional norms against all democratic norms. Not content with confiscating community-owned water assets not content with introducing a Byzantine co-governance structure without the support of the people not content with riding roughshod over the hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders who have spoken out against three waters reform of the councils up and down the country who have begged to maintain ownership and control of their assets this Government thought it would push its votes even further. And it took the extraordinary unprecedented non-constitutional step of entrenching a matter of public policy. Hon Chris Hipkins: It's not non-constitutional otherwise it wouldn't have passed.NICOLA WILLIS: And these are not my words Minister Hipkins. These are the words of the New Zealand Law Society who said that it was undemocratic constitutionally objectionable and inappropriate. And be that on the conscience of the members opposite that when given the opportunity that is how they sought to abuse their seats in Parliament.Rachel Brooking: Then why are we here?NICOLA WILLIS: And it's fine for Rachel Brooking to shake her head but she should answer this question: who was it that directed that the whip vote in support of this measure? Because there's been a lot of ducking and diving on that one hasn't there? First we had the Prime Minister trying to blame Minister Mahuta. Then we had Minister Mahuta let the media know that in fact this had been discussed by the caucus. Now we learn that actually it was the responsibility of the Labour members on the Finance and Expenditure Committee.Now I think my colleague Simon Watts has been charitable. He's accepted that this was a grand and incompetent mistake. I'm inclined to see something a little darker going on here which is that the members opposite thought they could get away with it—they thought they could get away with it. That is the arrogance that has set in to this Government—that they are prepared to thumb their noses at basic principles of our democracy if they think they can get away with it. Well they got caught this time. They tried doing it under urgency they tried doing it at night and they got caught. And I say thank you to the constitutional experts and lawyers across the country who raised the red flag and said No not in our New Zealand." because we can too easily take for granted the principles that have underpinned the continuous democracy that we have in this country the unwritten constitution which has been respected by blue Governments red Governments and all the bits in between. But it took a Labour-led Government with its majority to abuse those principles.And today in the House they attempt to turn back the clock. Well New Zealand will not forget because those who are prepared to act in an anti-democratic way when they think people aren't watching they are people that can't be trusted. And this is not the first step. First they came for one person one vote with the Rotorua bill. Then they decided to push on with three waters without public mandate or council consent. Then they went for entrenchment. New Zealanders will remember. And when you've woken up and decided who you're going to blame they'll be listening and they will remember that the only people to blame are the Labour Party its leadership and every member opposite."