Davidson MaramaMARAMA DAVIDSON (Co-Leader—Green): I rise to strongly support the Canterbury Regional Council (Ngāi Tahu Representation) Bill—absolutely—and we would call on other parties to do the same. It is an essential step forward in ensuring tangata whenua representation in local government and giving mana whenua a voice on issues that affect them in their own rohe. I do therefore want to mention that while the bill itself is explicit about Ngāi Tahu representation my understanding is that there is also work that happens alongside other iwi who reside on Ngāi Tahu whenua and that there is an agreement and openness to be able to work with Ngāi Tahu from other Māori representation to also be able to represent and present a cohesive Māori voice on that council. So the Green Party does not have concerns around ensuring that there is also wider Māori representation through having a Ngāi Tahu voice. I wanted specifically in my short time to look at the example of why Māori representation is absolutely to the benefit of everyone. My colleague my tuakana Minister Nanaia Mahuta also referred to this. I have my own examples. For example currently around the country—and particularly in Hokianga where I'm from—people are railing to try and improve waste-water and sewerage systems often alongside Pākehā flax-roots communities and fighting to uphold their responsibilities as caregivers of these living systems. This is also why this is in standing with the Green Party view that this is beneficial to ensure and guarantee mana whenua representation. Hapū and iwi are concerned with the long-term well-being of rivers lakes and harbours and that accountability is not just to those waters but to whānau because it requires hapū to protect that resource as a taonga a source of kai and a spiritual nourishment. Often these decisions made—certainly at local and regional authorities—have been of a cost-cutting short-term nature alongside a reluctance to share power with iwi and with mana whenua. This is a refusal to acknowledge the expertise that has been built up over centuries honed and refined over generations and has been held by local Māori over hundreds of years that is core to the particular living systems in their rohe. There have been economic waste-water decisions—as one small example—that have ended up being quite costly and that have continued to ruin the ecosystem of that rohe as well as exploding wider costs. So having proper Māori representation at local and regional authorities in particular who hold those levers to think about the plans for our infrastructure to care for our natural resources—if we had done that say 30 years ago even for my iwi in Hokianga we may well have seen better decisions about water infrastructure and would certainly have saved some money. There has been expensive litigation in fact from some of those decisions that has led to both a denigration of the voice of mana whenua and a degradation of the environment. So I really wanted to take the time to give a clear outline an example of why the Greens have always stood for ensuring and guaranteeing mana whenua representation at the regional authority level. I wanted to pick up some of the debate from the Opposition. The other side of the House have said that the way we including the Greens—and yes we railed against the anti-democratic decisions that were made by the Hon Dr Nick Smith. This decision to guarantee Māori representation is part of improving the democracy of those decisions. Rather than a trade-off this is exactly how we can improve the democracy of those anti-democratic decisions that were made. Of course we understand that while Ngāi Tahu is at the core of that whenua and while we are still minorities it is not guaranteed that there will be mana whenua representation. So I don't at all buy the rather patronising argument that Oh they're all right they're pretty good—they can do it themselves." This is not about that. It's about ensuring and guaranteeing that there is mana whenua representation and that mana whenua are able to make those democratic decisions for who will stand and be their voice. I strongly support this bill. Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker."