Coffey TamatiTĀMATI COFFEY (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. Crocodile tears—crocodile tears are something that I heard about learnt about when I was very young and actually that is what I hear when I heard that previous contribution from that speaker Paul Goldsmith because it was that party that brought this arrangement in the first place. At that time they weren't standing here calling for equal suffrage. No not at all. They needed innovative solutions that suited them politically at the time so they voted this in. In 2016 you had National Party member after National Party member talking about the great relationship that was going to be formed between Environment Canterbury (ECan) and Ngāi Tahu. And you know what? It worked. It really did work. It worked so well to the point where we heard in select committee submission after submission from people who are close to the fire who are close to the action and they were saying We had this taken away from us. It worked for us. We had representation at the decision-making table and we want it back." So to the National Party members who are standing here crying foul I say: take a look back in history read the history books read the Hansard because you guys started this one. They started this Madam Speaker. They started it—not you. Not you at all. Look I want to point out—well first of all I want to thank those people that turned up to the Māori Affairs Committee to give their contributions on this. The tone was set right from the start when Ngāi Tahu actually fronted up to the committee and they talked about their settlement. Because in their settlement there's a new age of—Rino Tirikatene: New age of cooperation.TĀMATI COFFEY: What's that?Rino Tirikatene: Cooperation.TĀMATI COFFEY: A new age of cooperation is what they talked about in their Treaty settlement. That's right. The landmark Treaty settlement that Ngāi Tahu went into talked about a new age of cooperation and that's what this bill is. That's what this arrangement is. It's a new age of cooperation. It's what the Crown signed up to in their Treaty settlement back in the day and it's what they take pains to explain every time they come to a committee of Parliament. They say "We signed up to a new age of cooperation and we need the Crown to remember that." Unfortunately in this House there is a huge amount especially among elected politicians of political amnesia. There is absolute political amnesia in this House and it's beholden upon organisations like Ngāi Tahu to actually come to the House to remind elected politicians who are newly washed in—and some have washed out at the time—and to be able to say to them "We signed up to a new age of cooperation and we're here to get our dues." This bill gives them their dues. This bill gives them the opportunity to participate in a meaningful way to be able to address their Treaty of Waitangi commitments that this Crown signed up to that elected officials in this House must adhere to. That's what they signed up to. In the select committee process we heard about a couple of key differences between this bill and the bill that went through in the last Parliament which was defeated. That was that they took the time to actually point out that if a Māori constituency by nature of the Māori wards that were allocated at the start of last year—if the iwi wanted to be able to work with council to establish Māori wards then they shouldn't be prevented from being able to do that. And we stand here and we say we support that idea and we also support—Hon Gerry Brownlee: What? Both?Hon Member: Yeah you're allowed both.TĀMATI COFFEY: Absolutely—absolutely. Because and this is the reason people just take it at face value. But actually what Ngāi Tahu are doing here is they're making sure that they've got Ngāi Tahu representation on ECan; Ngāi Tahu representation not Māori representation not any other Te Arawa person that's living down in Christchurch but actually Ngāi Tahu representation. And there's something in that for other councils around the country that actually by nature of Te Tiriti o Waitangi there is an obligation that the Crown have to follow. Absolutely. And we discussed that in select committee and I completely support that recommendation. There was also conversation around the issue of remuneration and whether or not they should be paid or not whether or not they should be paid from the existing pool. You see for a long time Māori that have advised on regional councils on local councils have been there by nature of the cup of tea and scones that happens after the meeting. They're milked for all of their information their historical knowledge their mātauranga Māori and what did they get for it? For many years they got a cup of tea and some scones. Long are those days gone. They are well gone and it's time to start remunerating Māori that are sitting around those decision-making tables over and above the tea and scones that for so long our people had to put up with. This bill changes that. There were a lot of submitters that came through and they were very worried about this bogeyman called co-governance. They said the co-governance it's the start of the end it's the slippery slope and that's what their side of the House actually purport to agree with. But if you just have a look at a few of the Hansard debates from the time that this first bill was put into place back in 2016 you'll find that members that are sitting on that side of the House today gave speeches absolutely in favour of this absolutely in favour of this.Hon Gerry Brownlee: Not this; quite different.TĀMATI COFFEY: And this country—"It's different—it's different." he says. Right oh! OK we'll take your word for it. You can wait for your contribution and you can have your words then. But this is a really big issue. No not you Madam Speaker. Never you—never you. Never you Madam Speaker. You see the country—we have come a long way. We've come a long long way. Every year we get better at this stuff. This stuff won't go away. Co-governance Māori looking for meaningful engagement and partnership at the decision-making table will not go away. And if that side of the House don't understand it they should probably listen to the words of their ex-Treaty negotiations Minister the Hon Chris Finlayson who only a very short time ago wrote a media article actually just calling out some people—some of those people that think of co-governance as the bogeyman. He said this in his article dated 29 May 2022 authored by Chris Finlayson—the article was titled "Co-governance should be embraced—not feared." He says "'Co-governance' has become a term that [many] people don't understand. They think it means co-government. People who are frightened by co-governance think they'll be locked out of access to our natural resources for example. When what it really means is that involving iwi in a myriad of decisions can actually result in a better country." How about that—how about that? His words and I quote "The people I call 'the KKK brigade' are out there. They dream of a world that never was and never could be. They are the people—and these words" he says aren't his "but are taken from a former British foreign secretary—that you can call the 'sour right'"—call them the sour right he says. "They don't really understand tangata whenua. They don't really like change." So I stand here having been through a select committee process having listened to the various people that are very nervous about what co-governance looks like are very nervous about what this means for ECan. I also listened to the very supportive mayors of the Canterbury region as they sat there and told us that they absolutely supported this and they wanted to have Ngāi Tahu representation not Māori representation but Ngāi Tahu representation on Environment Canterbury. They sat there they talked to the committee and they told us that this is what they wanted. As elected officials we need to listen to them. As elected officials in this House we have listened to them. This bill will pass and it comes with my absolute commendation. This is something that we absolutely must do. And what it will do is actually set a precedent for other councils around the country who are looking for ways that they can give effect to the Tiriti of Waitangi partnership in their own part of Aotearoa New Zealand. And if this sets the way then that's great. If they choose to take up Māori wards as many councils around the country are doing because this Labour Government put them in place then that's a great thing too. Let's make sure that it never is put at risk by an incoming Opposition who are all fired up about this bogeyman called co-governance and make sure that they do everything that they can to undo it and to put race relations in this country back another 183 years because they still don't understand what the meaning of te Tiriti o of Waitangi is; they don't understand the partnership. They need to be held to account for that and they will be held to account for that. An Opposition that thinks that they're going to stand in the Māori seats really needs to have a think about what their position is when it comes to things like co-governance. I commend this bill to the House."