SpeechANAHILA KANONGATA'A-SUISUIKI (Labour): Thank you Te Māngai o Te Whare. It is a pleasure and a privilege to be able to stand in this House to make my first contribution on the Oaths and Declarations (Members of Parliament) Amendment Bill as a member's bill. I acknowledge the English language is the dominant migrant language of Aotearoa New Zealand society. To the tangata whenua e ngā mana e ngā reo tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa. 'Oku ou fakatapu atu ki he laumalie 'o e 'otua 'oku 'afio 'i hotau loto. Fakatapu ki he hou'eiki mo e tangatawhenua 'o Aotearoa. Fakatulou atu ki he ngaahi ha'a mo e tu'unga kotoa pe 'oku totonu ke fakatapua.[I pay respect to the spirit of god which is within us. I pay respect to noble people and the tangata whenua of Aotearoa. My acknowledgment to the respected tribes and dignitaries that should be mentioned.]Again I acknowledge the English language is the dominant language of Aotearoa New Zealand. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Can I just interrupt the member because she needs to actually need to move the motion. ANAHILA KANONGATA'A-SUISUIKI: OK my apologies. I wasn't—DEPUTY SPEAKER: That's all right. ANAHILA KANONGATA'A-SUISUIKI: It is my first—DEPUTY SPEAKER: It's the first—yes absolutely. ANAHILA KANONGATA'A-SUISUIKI: Yeah so right down the—DEPUTY SPEAKER: If you just read that out and then we've got a motion to debate. ANAHILA KANONGATA'A-SUISUIKI: I move That the Oaths and Declarations (Members of Parliament) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Māori Affairs Committee to consider this bill. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you. ANAHILA KANONGATA'A-SUISUIKI: So should I start from—DEPUTY SPEAKER: No you can take up where you like. ANAHILA KANONGATA'A-SUISUIKI: OK. I acknowledge English is the dominant migrant language of Aotearoa New Zealand society. This is a good time to remember that manufacturing false hierarchies based on language and culture in order to enforce a class system is a very long long long story. New Zealand's modern capitalist economy was formed thanks to two very modern subsidies: confiscated indigenous land and the colonised people. Both forms of colonisation required the creation of intellectual theories that ranked the relative value of people's lives and languages placing English at the top. Indigenous languages are a fair game on an absurd official language status. Therefore today I am asking honourable members to demonstrate leadership and to respect the human rights of all cultures in Aotearoa New Zealand to be able to speak their mother tongue as it's written in the Standing Orders—other languages—when they enter Parliament. The time is right—is it? Is it the right time for indigenous people who reside in this country to use their mother tongue when they enter Parliament? Indigenous peoples of Samoa according to Census 2013 who live in New Zealand—Samoan is the third most spoken language in Aotearoa New Zealand. To the indigenous people who speak Hindi the fourth most spoken language in Aotearoa New Zealand and to the indigenous people of northern China the fifth most spoken language in Aotearoa New Zealand the first—my pages have lost me. But yes to the indigenous people of Tonga who chose to call New Zealand home Tongan is the 10th most spoken language in Aotearoa New Zealand and the seventh most spoken language in Auckland. Standing Order 108 states A member may address the Speaker in English Māori or New Zealand Sign Language." The reference to the Speaker is from Standing Order 107. Its intent however is that members may use other languages only on occasion. Members have the right to use English—as it says—first followed by Te Reo Māori or New Zealand Sign Language in the House but other languages are used from time to time. This is particularly common in maiden speeches and suchlike. I wish to acknowledge the leadership of Dame Tariana Turia—I have lost that page but I will use my memory which has been handed down to me through generations of oratory speakers. In 2004 Dame Tariana Turia was the first member of Parliament to make her declaration in Te Reo Māori despite the fact that in 1867 a law was passed to enable Māori representation in this House and in 1868 four Māori members of Parliament entered this House but unfortunately according to Hansard their oaths or declarations were not recorded. However there are stories about the weather on that day. So the principal Act—let me get to the principal Act. The Oaths and Declarations Act of 1957 passed 89 years after tangata whenua entered Parliament states—I'll cover that in the meantime but I've found my page now Madam Deputy Speaker. DEPUTY SPEAKER: It's always a relief! ANAHILA KANONGATA'A-SUISUIKI: It was in 2004—89 years after tangata whenua entered this Parliament—that we were able to do that as I said before. I wish to now acknowledge the Hon Aupito William Sio who in 2008 wanted to make his oath with the help of God to "be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second her heirs and successors" in the language of his mother tongue Samoan and was not able to do so. The process which the Hon Aupito William Sio had to go through in 2008 2011 and 2014 to get permission to take the oath in Samoan was unnecessarily—according to myself—offensive. He had to repeat in English to ensure a legitimate process was undertaken. In 2017 members of this House—Marja Lubeck and myself from the Labour Party—took our oaths. We have gone through the same process and we have taken our oath in Tongan and in Dutch and of course members on the other side of the House are able to do that in Korean and Hindi. I must apologise to the later migrants since the arrival of Europeans in this country. I have prepared a fact-full speech—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! I must apologise to the member. I'm sorry to interrupt but the time has come for the dinner break. Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.ANAHILA KANONGATA'A-SUISUIKI: The purpose of the Oaths and Declarations (Members of Parliament) Amendment Bill is to amend the Oaths and Declarations Act 1957 to allow members of Parliament to make their Oath or Affirmation of Allegiance in languages other than English. At present English and Te Reo are the two languages that are allowed noting that members can already on request repeat the oath in another language immediately after they have done so in English or Te Reo. As mentioned before—I'll just take a quick run through the history—the principal Act is 61 years old. Te Reo Māori was not allowed to be spoken in terms of oaths and affirmations until 2002. In 2004 Dame Tariana Turia was the first person to take her oath in another language other than English. So the purpose of this bill is to enable the—when we say the words "all of New Zealand" we want to include all its people. I want to refer to the statistics where there's a prediction that in seven years' time Europeans and others will make up 3.82 million of the population 0.91 million will be Māori 0.92 million will be Asian and 0.48 million will be Pacific. Why am I alluding to those people? Because that is the growing population of New Zealand. Can we really afford to say no—to say no to the future of New Zealanders who in 2038 will make up 50 percent of this country? Can we afford in the future to deny them the ability to take their oath or their allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and her heirs in another language other than the dominant migrant—migrant—language English? Then later in 2002 the indigenous language Te Reo Māori was then afforded to tangata whenua to be used in this House. Members make that point today—let our future speak the mother tongue of their country. Malo."