Borrows ChesterHon CHESTER BORROWS (National—Whanganui): This morning we have prepared a number of whakataukī people have made a number of references and here is another one: give him an inch and he will take a mile. It was suggested by my whip that no one would complain if I broke the convention and took the last speech so here goes.I wanted to take this opportunity to look up to the gallery at these people from Whanganui and along the awa and to acknowledge that it is a privilege to continue walking alongside you. Many people talk about members of Parliament who come to Parliament from their electorates and gradually fall under the influence of this place forget where they have come from and forget about the influence in respect of their electorates. My experience has been totally counter to that. I have found that the influence of you people the influence of people from Whanganui has had a greater and greater impact on me personally in my renaissance as a Pākehā New Zealander and bears more influence on the House as that influence has grown.One of the things that has become obvious to me and it has been mentioned this morning is that the river is fundamental to the health of Whanganui and it is testament to our environment and the health of us as a nation. The health of our environment means that we will have a healthy nation. You cannot have an economy without an environment particularly in this country and we should never get that order back to front.My friend Marama talked about talking to the river and not about the river. I think that what we have learnt from the theme of dealing with the environment and our own health is that we should never take things for granted. On a number of occasions I have canoed on the Whanganui River. Just when I have been taking the river for granted it has given me a little flick and I have found myself getting wet. So I no longer do that in spite of the greenery that I left on the right rock to appease the taniwha. Nevertheless that is the way it is. And so it is with people—in the same way we should not take people for granted. People are not a commodity; people are to be respected to be represented to be advocated for to be loved and to be cared for. To neglect that is to incur peril upon ourselves.I also want to remark on the influence that Whanganui people and Whanganuitanga has had on New Zealand as a whole. If we think back to Waitangi Day and the Rt Hon Bill English's speech at Ōrākei he thanked the people for the protest that they had made at what we call Bastion Point the pou that those people put into the ground and the influence that the protest movement has had over those intervening years. So it has been with Pākaitore. When we think about where we find ourselves today I wonder whether we would be here without those experiences at Pākaitore. I am looking up to the gallery at the crowd and the faces that I never knew previous to those events. I hear people saying—I hear Pākehā saying—that you have reinvented yourselves into stateswomen and statesmen and I do not think that that is correct at all. I do not think you have changed a bit; I think that what has changed is us. I think that you have had an influence on us as New Zealanders and the level of expectation that we now have as to the rights and wrongs of the kawa around tikanga.My son is living in Canada. His mate is a schoolteacher trying to teach these little Canucks how to play rugby—perish the thought. Part of their education is to learn about the All Blacks obviously but also incorporated into that is for the children to understand the haka. My son who is Samoan came to me to approach what the protocol is around him talking to Canadian kids about the haka. He never would have done any of that—it would not have entered his mind to even consult on whether or not it was appropriate for him to do it and if he was to do it how he should teach it and who he should acknowledge etc. etc. So it is with us. To think Annette and Ken not long ago we were all arguing about an h" and now it does not have an "f"-ing thing to do with Whanganui.I also want to acknowledge the Hon Chris Finlayson—I have skited about our blood relationship since we discovered it in the early days of our time here in Parliament—and the esteem that we all hold him in and I know that you do too. Today we have heard a lot of talk about this very novel approach of according the river a legal personality. I am surprised that I have not seen more of you scratching your heads just saying: "Oh yeah at last." Here is another whakataukī: back to the future. The fact is that the river has a personality and has always had a personality. Now it is Pākehā who are waking up to that realisation. It is no less sensational though that it was my cousin who got Pākehā to understand what you have known all along.I also want to acknowledge those—I will not try naming them all as they have been many times this morning—who have gone before those people who have made their contributions known and who are not acknowledged for that fact and the legacy that they have left with us not only with you as hapū and iwi and us as the people who live in the location but with us as a nation of peoples.The future health of the river will be self-evident as will the future health of the people. So it will be with the strength of this resolution and the acknowledgment of the personality that is Te Awa Tupua. Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa.Bill read a third time.WaiataThe House adjourned at 12.18 p.m."