Lubeck MarjaMARJA LUBECK (Labour): Tēnā koe Madam Assistant Speaker. First off I would like to say thank you to Rino Tirikatene for giving me his slot to speak on this really important bill because I've been sitting here getting absolutely wound up about people not understanding the importance of this bill. The last speaker Nick Smith who said that he doesn't believe New Zealand is not respectful to other cultures has just filled five minutes with absolute disrespect for the other cultures that we have here in Aotearoa New Zealand. First of all Anahila Kanongata'a-Suisuiki I congratulate you for this bill. When I first saw it I thought Damn I wish I'd come up with that." What an awesome thing to put in here because this is a lost opportunity for New Zealand. We have an opportunity here to be front-leading and to show the world we are such a modern Government and a shining example for the rest of the world. I recently visited Holland. In fact I'm still jetlagged because I only arrived yesterday morning. But I was talking to some local government reps about the fact that I had been given the privilege in the House to take my Oath of Allegiance in Dutch. They were blown away. They said that would never happen in Holland and the reason for that is that our people are very conservative even though people have this idea that the Dutch are so progressive.The whole missed opportunity is twofold. First of all—and this is something that only people who have a first language that is not English can understand—when you do something like giving an oath or swearing allegiance and you do it in the words of your mother tongue it makes a connection with your heart. It doesn't come out of your brain. It's not something that you read out from a paper you've read or you're doing a speech on a topic that you've learnt; it comes out of your heart. So when you are doing it in your own language you actually 100 percent commit. I can say anything—I can swear like you wouldn't know it—in your language English because it actually doesn't really mean anything. If I say those same words in Dutch it actually makes a connection. Now I have to disagree with the member Darroch Ball from New Zealand First. This is not about two or four or six MPs; this is about the cultures that we represent in this House. We are supposed to be an inclusive Parliament. We are supposed to be representative of the nearly 5 million people that we have in this country. We heard from the Minister Aupito William Sio that we have nearly 400000 Pacific people now in New Zealand so for them to be able to hear that this House recognises them in that respectful way is absolutely priceless. We have a problem here where people don't make a connection with this institution because it's so far removed from real life. We complain about people not turning out to vote. We say "Look why are they not watching Parliament TV?"Hon Dr Nick Smith: And changing the oath is going to change that? Give us a break.MARJA LUBECK: It's because they see boring old-fashioned back-to-the-1950s people like Nick Smith giving speeches that don't touch people's hearts. Nick Smith gave a speech that to me was in a history book of the 1950s. In the 1950s the New Zealand Parliament actively encouraged the Dutch settlers to disperse all through the country—not to stick together in their communities but to learn the English language forget about Dutch and try and assimilate into New Zealand. So does that sound familiar to anyone? Does that sound like any of the other groups that have gone through the same thing? We should be setting an example here of being inclusive and of taking people with us into this House and we cannot do that by just doing things on the go. So Mark Mitchell made a comment about the fact that these are not official oaths and you know the words that are used may not be right—and that's exactly it. If this was an official process we would be able to get our oaths translated. There would be processes for it and we would be using the correct wording. I had to go to the Dutch Ambassador His Excellency Rob Zaagman whom I'd like to thank very much for helping me with the translation of "swearing allegiance" because those are words that mean nothing to me. But actually saying them in my own mother tongue did. So I do support this bill. I commend it to the House with my whole heart. Thank you."