Waititi RawiriRAWIRI WAITITI (Co-Leader—Te Pāti Māori): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise for a second time in this debate. I just want to acknowledge Mr Bayly who is still here. Not often does the Minister stay to listen to the debate so I want to just make mention of that and for giving us the opportunity to eyeball you in this debate and have our points accepted by the Minister. I'm sure you're here to ensure that you take all of the information that's provided from this side of the House and make the changes that need to be made to ensure that this is an awesome bill. Anyway I feel for our small businesses at this time because unfortunately this particular bill favours corporations over small business. Like I've said 97 percent of small businesses here in Aotearoa are small businesses. That's 546000 small businesses that are affected by this particular piece of legislation. The majority of Māori businesses are small to medium sized enterprises and so this will really affect our Māori small businesses who we know firsthand have problems with ensuring that those people that they provide services and goods for pay their part of the bill.This is not about online invoicing and manual invoicing; this is about paying on time. This piece of new legislation allows big businesses a four-month period to pay those bills. Small businesses don't have four months—they don't have 120 days—but they need to have those bills paid on time. If you've got a company that has 20 people or less they need to ensure that they can pay those whānau because the trickle-down effect and the impact of not paying those bills means that people cannot pay the rent. Look we're in a cost of living crisis as we speak. It means that people cannot pay their bills cannot put food on the table cannot get those kids to school and now they're having to pay for their lunches because they're taking lunches away from those particular tamariki. This is the trickle-down effect. It's not just the impact on the small businesses but those who work for those small businesses. So we need to make sure that we put belts and braces around legislation so that it ensures that the safety of all of those people who live in Aotearoa that work for those 546000 small businesses here in Aotearoa is not impacted. But they will be impacted because that side of the House—the Government—want to ensure that they look after their corporate and rich mates. That's just the way it is. The between 2 percent to 10 percent that control 50 percent of this country's wealth—that's who they're protecting in this particular legislation. They don't give a damn about those small-business owners. They don't give a damn about those people who work for those small businesses—this is what the issue is.We've got in 2023—according to Centrix figures—35 percent of companies having filed for liquidation year on year with construction among the worst. Māori make up most of the construction businesses in terms of being labourers and workers in that particular field—Māori and our Pacific brothers and sisters. This is where the issues are and so we need to make sure that those companies are being paid at the right time. This is not about invoicing. This is not about a data matrix. This is about ensuring that people can pay the bills that people can feed their tamariki and that people have the dignity of a living wage. This is what this issue is about. Let's not tinker around the sides let's not decorate this Christmas tree with a whole lot of lights and glittery balls—this is not about that. This is about ensuring that small businesses have the mana and the dignity to be able to survive but also to be able to pay those who work for them. We do not commend this bill to the House. Kia ora.