Waititi RawiriRAWIRI WAITITI (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori): Tēnā koe e te Pīka. Tēnā tātou e te Whare. I'm going to be on the right side of history in this debate and I will not wait for a valedictory speech to apologise to the rest of New Zealand. It is probably not often that politicians get up and admit in this House and freely that there is stuff they don't know but I'm going to do that today. I have a lot to learn from our takatāpui community as a straight man. Their experience is not my experience; it would be wrong to pretend that it is. What I do know and have always known is that takatāpui are whānau. End of story. No ifs no buts no maybes. I'm on a journey to deepen my understanding so I can support all of our whānau as a political representative of tangata whenua and tangata Tiriti in this place. Our people always celebrated our diversity as Te Ao Māori. We each come with our own whakapapa our own upbringings and our own identities but at the end of the day we are all whānau.It was colonisation and the imposition of European ideas around gender and sexuality that started criminalising and oppressing people for being who they are; turning us against our own whānau. My language tells me this. Our language is non-binary. Ko ia ko koe ko au ko koutou ko mātou ko tātou. We need to decolonise ourselves and maybe we should put some kind of therapy law to start decolonising ourselves and reaffirm the tikanga of our tipuna.Conversion therapy is a direct attack on our whakapapa. It fails to uphold our mana motuhake to be who we are and does not meet our aspirations of mana orite—equality for all people. We will always support whānau to be who they are. Conversion therapy which tries to stop takatāpui from being who they are has no place in Aotearoa—maybe in New Zealand but not Aotearoa!Te Paati Māori wholeheartedly support and welcome this much-needed overdue bill. In our 2020 election campaign we committed in our policy manifesto to ban conversion therapy. We are the movement that leaves no one behind. But just as I recognise that I need to learn more so does our party. We humbly ask our takatāpui whānau and kaitautoko to support us on this journey.I want to acknowledge the Government for bringing forward this bill but more importantly the leaders advocates and allies of the takatāpui community who have pushed for so long to see legislation of this kind before the House. Today is your day. Ka nui te mihi ki a koutou e hika mā.[I acknowledge you all very much.]I strongly believe that banning conversion therapy is a necessary step to addressing the larger issue of the dire state of our mental health system in Aotearoa. We know that young Māori takatāpui are one of the most at-risk groups of mental illness self-harm and suicide. Many of our mental health services are rooted in harmful colonial values that hurt our people especially our takatāpui whānau. We oppose all of these backward colonial practices and ideas and laws and practices which cause our whānau to feel shame and guilt for being who they are.We are looking forward to consideration of this bill at select committee and I encourage our takatāpui community to make submissions and ensure your voices are heard in the process. It is important that we make sure the wording of the legislation is right and that provisions are strong enough to keep our people safe. The successful passage of this bill through the House will put us one step closer to an Aotearoa hō where all of us—tangata whenua tanga Tiriti and tangata moana—feel empowered and liberated to be who we truly are.As a minister of Te Ringatū church I leave you with these three lines: he Hōnore he korōria ki te Atua. He maungārongo ki te whenua. He whakaaro pai ki ngā tāngata katoa. Honour and glory to God peace on earth and goodwill to all mankind. Kia ora tātou.