Ngarewa-Packer DebbieDEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori) (remote): Tēnā koe e te Pīka. Tēnā tātou e te Whare. It's a pleasure to speak to the second reading of Te Kāhui o Matariki Public Holiday Bill. Te Paati Māori is of course proud to support this bill. We acknowledge the leadership of our people including Dr Rangi Matamua who have offered their time. Many have offered their time energy and mātauranga to advance this kaupapa. We have spoken with and been met by many kura many kaiako many mokopuna who are already celebrating this and asking us to support this call. It is long overdue. And it is long overdue that the Crown officially recognises our indigenous New Year traditions in Aotearoa. It is long overdue that we have in fact an indigenous public holiday. As Rawiri said in our first reading contribution Matariki did not mark the new year for all hapū and iwi in Aotearoa and we maintain many traditions across the country. Rawiri acknowledged also the tradition of his people Autahi while my people of Taranaki and Whanganui and others acknowledge Puanga. Puanga for people of Taranaki especially is about the recognition of lost ones who have passed beyond the veil during the year gone. Puanga also acknowledges the environment and ecosystems of our land and our water. It would traditionally be a signal of time for our people to get their crops in order and to hunker down for winter. It now also is a time for planting and sowing the soil for preparing for the coming year and for strategising and planning as a people. It represents change that is needed in Aotearoa especially now we have left what was the new old norm to go to a new norm. According to a whakatauākī E rua tau ruru e rua tau wehe e rua tau mutu e rua tau kai."[Two years of wind and storm two years when food is scarce two years when crops fail two years of abundant food.]In recent years we've seen the strong revitalisation of our Puanga traditions across Taranaki and beyond. Parihaka now hosts an annual Puanga Kai Rau festival which celebrates our land our people our uniqueness. This serves to strengthen our collective bounds as a people and honour our whakapapa and our tūpuna. The passage of this bill will enable the continued growth and revitalisation of our many traditions across Aotearoa and we acknowledge the submission of Dr Matamua who confirmed that this is not about celebrating Matariki to the exclusion of our other traditions. We also acknowledge all those who submitted on the bill. This should be only the first step. We should see this moment in time as an opportunity to reindigenise the way we live in Aotearoa. We have seen a recent widespread restoration in the use and understanding of maramataka. Now we should affirm our maramataka as the foundation for the way we do things: holidays calendars ways of working ways of how we look after each other. We know that the maramataka is intrinsically derived from this whenua from this climate from these ecosystems here in the Pacific. The Gregorian calendar has no such relevance for all of us at all. Shifting away from that just makes sense. It's actually what the next generation are already doing; we're just catching up. Recognising Puanga and Matariki makes sense. Let's not make any delay. For Te Paati Māori we say "Let's get it done." Nō reira tēnā tātou katoa."