Hayes Joanne: Māori Language (Te Reo Māori) Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHayes Joanne: Māori Language (Te Reo Māori) Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 09 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9565. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JOANNE HAYES (National): Kia ora. I stand proud to take a short call on the Māori Language (Te Reo Māori) Bill in its second reading sponsored by the Minister for Māori Development the Hon Te Ururoa Flavell. I want to acknowledge before I start my contribution the late rangatira and Māori Language Commissioner Ērima Hēnare for his leadership and his contribution to the health and growth of the Māori language in our country. Moe mai moe mai e te rangatira [rest and sleep esteemed one.]I also want to acknowledge the former Minister for Māori Affairs Tā Dr Pita Sharples for the work that he began and for leaving so much of the hard yakka really to our Minister for Māori Development the Hon Te Ururoa Flavell who has done I think a fabulous job and a challenging job.I want to take a brief walk down memory lane a little bit mainly because we must not forget the hard work that has taken place to get us here today. I want to talk a little bit about my father because my father was a fluent Te Reo Māori speaker. He hailed from Te Araroa on the East Coast and as the Hon Nanaia Mahuta explained towards the end of her contribution he was one of those kids in the 1930s and 1940s who got whacked for speaking Māori at school. He brought us up in a little place called Rangiwāhia and did not encourage us his children to speak Te Reo Māori at all. At times when we went to our school which was predominantly Pākehā the only Māori that we got was Māori Day where we got to sing a few Māori songs. So as we grew up as adults he was not surprised that his children pursued the learning of Te Reo Māori. There are four of us in our family. Two speak Māori fluently and two do not.I want to note some dates in my contribution. As I was preparing myself for this very important contribution tonight I took a little bit of a look down at whereabouts we have come from. I started with 1980 when Television New Zealand opened up for the first time in broadcasting history a Māori production unit. It was a very good start and 2 years later in 1982 the first kōhanga reo was set up and now we have over 450 kōhanga reo. But that came because in 1930 90 percent of our Māori children—tamariki—spoke Māori but by 1975 it was only 9 percent who spoke Māori.At that time there was a strong view that perhaps our Reo was dying. We all know that the power behind indigenous peoples is our Reo. It is the basis of where we come from. It is our heart.Then following on from the kōhanga reo movement was the first kura kaupapa Māori at Hoani Waititi Marae. It was interesting that our former Minister Dr Pita Sharples was the one who set that up and from then many kura have blossomed. By 1987 Te Reo Māori had become an official language of New Zealand and then 3 years after that we had the very first Māori radio station which was established in Pōneke here called Te Upoko o Te Ika. That was run by Piripi Walker and Tama Te Huki.I am saying all these things because I think that in order for us to go forward and in order for New Zealand to go forward in acknowledging Te Reo Māori and participating in our language we have to know where we have come from. We have to know where we have come from before we know where we are going to. In 1989 we saw the emergence of Te Māngai Pāho through the Broadcasting Act and in 2004 Māori Television went to air.Carmel Sepuloni: All these good things under Labour. Kia ora Labour.JOANNE HAYES: They are good things. It does not matter who did them—they are good things. In 2006 a survey of the health of Te Reo Māori was conducted and we realised that more needed to be done. We might have moved from the 9 percent but we had not moved far enough. By 2013 19 percent of New Zealanders spoke Te Reo Māori so it is no wonder that action is needed today and action needs to be taken fairly quickly to be able to reverse that percentage.My speech is a short speech. It has focused on the past and on my personal perspective. There is a lot of progress that has been made and there is a lot more to go. This bill repeals the Māori Language Act and also repeals Part 4 of the Broadcasting Act. Importantly it establishes the entity Te Mātāwai which has had a lot of discussion out amongst iwi in terms of how it is going to move forward. But the bill also gives to iwi and Māori organisations a pivotal role in shaping the revitalisation of Te Reo Māori in this country and it is right that iwi and Māori should be at the centre of this and not the Government.I believe that it is not how fluent one is in Te Reo Māori but how often we speak it whether it is in total immersion or intermittently with English because as confidence grows the more you speak it—and that is exactly my story. In closing I commend the bill to the House. I strongly encourage all people of Aotearoa where possible to have a go. We should be speaking it singing it praying it and playing it because that is the only way. We can have every bill this side of the black stump but unless we actually do it we will get nowhere and it will go. I know that from this bill and forward it will happen. E Te Mana Whakawā ka mutu tāku kōrero. Kia ora.[My address ends Mr Deputy Speaker and thank you.]