Allan KiritapuKIRITAPU ALLAN (Labour): I want to acknowledge the remarks that have just been shared in this House by my colleague across the aisle the Hon Alfred Ngaro and in particular the significance of that sacred covenant which is the Treaty partnership and I want to acknowledge those in particular a number of incidents which give rise to some very poignant considerations for this House this afternoon. My colleague raised the 1881 invasion of Parihaka. We've heard today and we've not long ago had those descendants of Rua Kēnana who endured the invasion in 1916 up in Maungapōhatu and more recently in our modern history in 2008 with Rūātoki. There are significant and real concerns that have been expressed about the use of coercive force by the State against our people and I want to thank the honourable member for raising those considerations in this House.I too though want to put things in context for right now. There have been two significant issues that have been raised by Māori over the last 36 hours in particular as the passage of this bill has been considered in this House. One has been the inclusion of marae in particular to clause 20—which was the original—subclause (3) and I want to acknowledge the Attorney-General in particular for his considerations about where marae rightly sat. I want to acknowledge that in particular when that was included into this bill the intention was to do the least harm possible and ensure the most protections that could be afforded under this piece of legislation which as the section 7 New Zealand Bill of Rights Act advice rightly acknowledged is the most significant Act that passes powers to the State. So I want to acknowledge the intentions and the work done by my good friend the Attorney-General.I also want to acknowledge that in turn this side of the House heard the concerns expressed loudly and up and down the country by Māori that there was a real fear about the inclusion of marae our sacred places into this legislation. Accordingly after the original Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) was tabled in this House by the Attorney-General last night he introduced an additional SOP to address that specific point this morning and extracted that term marae" from clause 20(3) and that has been left to the side and reverted back to the original state of play the status quo of where marae currently sit right now.I also want to acknowledge the particular grief that has been shared in this House by our whānau up and down the country who have expressed the desire to mourn for our people in the way that our tikanga would permit or suggest we need to convene to mourn the loss of loved ones. There have been concerns raised with me that there is a targeted provision that excludes or precludes Māori from being able to exercise our tikanga. That is not what I read in this bill and that is not what I understand the intention to be but I do acknowledge that there have been significant amendments just announced today to enable the balance of striking the correct public health considerations with people's ability to grieve—that that has been amended today. Whilst that isn't specifically needed to be addressed in this bill I think it's important to note here because these issues have been condensed together.Over the last seven or so weeks I know that our executive on this side of the House have worked tirelessly to ensure that at every single juncture the decisions that they are exercising as an executive are done with the best intentions of our people at the forefront that the public health considerations have been at the forefront and that as we transition to level 2 this evening at 11.59 the bespoke legal framework that will be put in place at the conclusion of this debate will be ready to go by tomorrow.I want to particularly acknowledge a raft of amendments significantly the reduction in time from two years to three months that this bill now applies and acknowledge the Attorney-General and all of his team who have been working tirelessly to make sure that the settings for this bespoke piece of legislation are in place. And without further ado I commend this legislation to the House."