Macindoe TimHon TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West): Madam Assistant Speaker may I start by saying what an honour and a delight it is to have Prime Minister Puna the high commissioner and other representatives of the Cook Islands Government with us today. It is a great privilege to have you here and we are thrilled that you are here to witness such a historic moment in our Parliament. At the risk of being admonished I shall look in this direction and may I also say how appropriate it is that you Madam Assistant Speaker are presiding over this debate and also to have had as the first speaker from the Opposition the Hon Alfred Ngaro to lead off as the very first person of Cook Islands descent to be an MP in this Parliament. We are very proud of that. May I say to the Prime Minister and his delegation that we are very proud of both of these MPs who are very dedicated and effective members of our Parliament and who also I believe are inspiring to migrant communities in New Zealand from many different countries. I acknowledge the fact that ours is now a very diverse Parliament. We are much stronger for that. We are proud of that and as I say it is a great inspiration in my own community and right around the country. I acknowledge all of our MPs in this Parliament who were not born in New Zealand but who have made this their home and I thank you for the way in which you enrich our country. The purpose and the implications of this bill have been well traversed by most of the previous speakers and in particular I acknowledge the Hon Carmel Sepuloni who spelt it out in great detail as did the Hon Alfred Ngaro and most others. Notwithstanding the very churlish and ill-informed contribution that we have just had to listen to most of the speakers have acknowledged what a proud and historic day this is and in particular have acknowledged that it was the Rt Hon Bill English who made the commitment while he was Prime Minister last year that has led to us coming to this point. I thank the new Government for continuing with the measure and I would like to feel that the bipartisan spirit that had prevailed until the last speaker made his contribution might be resumed because this is a day for us to be magnanimous to be proud of what is happening to acknowledge the fact that it is a measure whose time has come and it is I believe widely supported right around the country. I certainly believe that it is widely supported in my own community in the fine city of Hamilton New Zealand's fourth-largest city where we have a vibrant Cook Islands community and also smaller communities from Niue and Tokelau. I thoroughly enjoy and appreciate my association with all of those communities and again acknowledge how much they can contribute and how much they enrich our community. I appreciate their values. I appreciate their dedication particularly their love of family their valuing and appreciation of education and the many skills that they bring into our workforce. I also acknowledge however the great lure of home. In fact having had the delight—probably the greatest family holiday that we've ever had in my family was about four years ago spending a week in Rarotonga—Matt Doocey: Oh where are the pictures?Hon TIM MACINDOE: The pictures are on the desk in my office Mr Doocey and I'd be delighted for you to come and see them. In fact I have one photo in a frame on my desk just because it's such a wonderful memory of a very happy family time in such a beautiful and welcoming country. I have to say that our man from Aitutaki here has yet to extend the invitation to me to take me off to his island and I look forward to that. I'm determined to return one day and to enjoy his hospitality.But because time is short I'm going to leave it at that point but will just say again how proud I am that we are making this big step today—the first step in an important piece of legislation that will make a huge difference a huge difference in the lives of many many people who are currently living in our country who also have New Zealand citizenship but the ability to return to their homes. This is a sensible pragmatic and I believe compassionate measure. I also am proud to support it. Kia manuia.