Davidson MaramaMARAMA DAVIDSON (Green): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker whose name is Trevor Mallard. Kia ora. I want to stand and strongly support my wonderful Tāmaki-makau-rau colleague Peeni Henare and this Customs and Excise (Prohibition of Imports Made by Slave Labour) Amendment Bill which basically seeks to prohibit the importation of products—stop getting them in here—that have been made in whole or in part by slave labour.I want to actually pick up on my colleague Rino Tirikatene's speech—where on earth are my words—on the concept of New Zealand as leaders of the global world. Because absolutely the products and the type of work that we are trying to prohibit definitely impacts on indigenous people around the world. So New Zealand can and should—of all the nations we are well placed to stand up and say We do not accept what part we play in oppressing workers around the world. We do not accept that as a country." and we are well placed to do that because we do not need to accept those products that are oppressing entire communities entire nations around the world including indigenous peoples and communities and including poorer communities. As an indigenous rights spokesperson for the Green Party I am pleased to stand up and support the bill including on that notion.I want to go back to some of what my colleague on the National benches Dr Shane Reti was just saying around the difficulties of the law. What is important—what is important? This is human rights leadership legislation. We have to keep taking these steps to uphold New Zealand as a country that upholds human rights. This is what is important about this bill. The very notion of putting this legislation in place makes several statements that are incredibly important. It makes the statement that we will not stand for people being oppressed in terrible working conditions being paid little or nothing and being kept in really oppressive conditions to produce these products. We will not stand for that.But by doing that by passing this bill it is actually about the community discussion that will follow. It is about the discussion that did follow when the Belgian and US legislation similar to this bill was put in place—that is actually what is also important. So we can argue the definitions of slavery and we can argue the details of the bill—and we should—but the principle and the leadership which will then be followed by the community discussion on what we uphold as the direction for our world to go in is what is important. That community leadership is what I wanted to also touch on.As well as being a spokesperson for indigenous peoples around the world and for the changing of power relationships and upholding that the world that keeps a few people really comfortable and a whole lot more—a whole lot more—literally breaking their backs to keep a few people really comfortable is not a world that this nation Aotearoa New Zealand stands up for and supports and that we want that to change. That is an important step for New Zealand to make and it is also because we have prided ourselves as a country upholding human rights. We are proud of our membership in the United Nations as a human rights State—we have done all of these things. So this is an important bill and one that I am very happy to support.The last point I want to pick up on—how much time have I got?The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Trevor Mallard): Just under a minute.MARAMA DAVIDSON: OK. It has been raised by the Government benches about the difficulty of tracing back to see whether products have been made by slave labour. In my research there are ways and steps that we can take to actually do that. We can make proactive steps that are not always mandatory and can help: things for example around social labelling systems. We can support the communities and the industries taking those steps as well. So I just want to finish up by supporting indigenous and poorer working class communities upholding our human rights reputation in this country and getting through the practical challenges."