Eagle PaulPAUL EAGLE (Labour—Rongotai): Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare. Can I just acknowledge everyone who has spoken on this bill so far and to my colleague Minister Allan for shepherding this through. Congratulations and finally we are here.So I'm delighted to take this call on Te Pire mō te Hararei Tūmatanui o te Kāhui o Matariki the Matariki bill. I wanted to just reflect on how we got here and I wanted to acknowledge those who have helped get here. Fortunately I saw the Minister in the building one evening and she asked me politely Could you please go and accept two petitions from a person from ActionStation?" I knew who ActionStation were. They are a brilliant community organising—well campaigning—and activist group for all sorts of social justice responses. I didn't quite know then that it was going to be to accept a petition from Laura O'Connell Rapira the manager who had with Lewis Holden collected 30000 signatures. It was a cold Wellington night. We were at Te Papa because in Wellington here we take action and they were outside enjoying the light show that was very much activating Matariki for Wellingtonians visitors at the time and those who had come down really to learn more.But in meeting Laura she profusely explained the need for Matariki to me. I'm used to working with both hostile and gentle constituents so I let her go and listened. She didn't know that she did not need to preach to me at all because it reminded me of two years prior when we had already been talking as a Labour Māori caucus about this. For me personally when I was on the Wellington City Council former Mayor Justin Lester had come to me saying "Hey what do you reckon we look at activating Matariki in a way that's never been done?" and I thought "Explain?" He said "How about we pull the fireworks from Guy Fawkes night to Matariki?" and I thought he's a Pākehā mid-30s male who's come to me in a vulnerable manner I would say but also courageous and bold in terms of saying "What do you think? Should we do it? Should we send the first signal up to say 'If we do it maybe this would be the start for Government to consider making Matariki a public holiday.'?" We had a wee chinwag a few laughs about which holiday we should replace and we decided amongst us that Queen's Birthday was the worst. Why? Because it's not her birthday anyway. Two we thought the Monday in early June is pretty miserable and we thought "Why did she allocate her southern subjects this miserable day? Does she not like us?" We were not sure. And worst of all there are no presents on this day. No one exchanges anything. There's no cakes. People aren't really open. And we thought "Hold on a minute. We need a new day. We need to do this properly." So we thought while some will take an economic view and that has been explained while some have an environmental awareness—and I can say ActionStation certainly does—here it was about culture identity and nationhood.On that side of the House they talked flags; on this side we were looking for something far more authentic indigenous and something that celebrated Te Ao Māori. This I believe is it. Fireworks mid-year on Matariki did not have the consequences that those who are against it or are against anything different had warned us about—those who had said this will not look good this will not reflect well this does not come with rationale purpose and a whole range of other things. But what it did come with was as I said courage. It came with the notion that we were underpinning Aotearoa New Zealand with a celebration of our unique identity and as a bicultural nation.So this was the start. So I will be for ever proud of being part of this petition that the Minister allowed me to do but it also fulfilled for me personally a journey first started by Justin Lester and his understanding of saying "We must do things different. It's time for change." and for him to take that bold step and do something that activated the capital city to run the risks and do the things that were a bit different—a bit different—that led to today and helped in terms of engagement. Sometimes it's about trialling things and doing things to see how they roll and this should just be expected. For those in Opposition it is surprising but then it really isn't. So can I say as a member of the Māori Affairs Committee it is a good select committee. We will consider this. I'm hoping for lots of submissions but in many ways I'm not expecting them because the journey of Kiwis understanding about Matariki how it fits into our identity as a nation I believe is well understood much better understood. The timing is right. I'm here to fully tautoko Minister Allan. Her work will be part of its journey. I commend this bill to the House."