Waititi RawiriRAWIRI WAITITI (Co-Leader—Te Pāti Māori): I do want to acknowledge the Government over the last few speeches—you've gone all the way through to the end of them! I must say under urgency you might have done a minute or not even a minute. But I think that has to be acknowledged that tonight you've gone all the way through to the end of your five minutes or your 10 minutes. Well done—well done.Pō ngā rā pō ngā rā. Ka tataki mai te Whare o ngā ture. Ka whiria te Māori ka whiria. Ngau ōna reiti ngau ōna tāke a ha ha. Tē taea te ueue—The shadows fall the shadows fall. There is chattering in Parliament and Māori are being plaited as a rope. Its rates and its taxes are biting ah ha ha. Its teeth cannot be withdrawn. Alas the kaupapa we talk to this evening.I heard from this side of the House that $2.6 billion will be lost if we were to take GST off food but you want to give $3 billion in tax cuts to landlords—absolutely makes no sense to me. This is a call to those who have voted against this bill this evening to the middle New Zealand that you continue to seek support by. Just remember that New Zealand wouldn't be an isolated case to take GST off food; Canada Australia Mexico Ireland and the UK have all done it. There are examples out there already but let's get down to the nitty-gritty.Our people that walk into those supermarkets are having to return things on to the shelves. They have to choose whether they're going to fill the car up with petrol or to put food on the table or to pay the bill. It's a sad situation out there. Under urgency we have done nothing to close the gap between the rich and the poor. We have done nothing for those who are struggling out there; it's been to undo everything. But what are we actually doing in this House to start looking after people?We did a questionnaire on one of my social media pages where we asked people how much they were paying for GST—what was the average cost that they were paying in a supermarket. The average was $400; $80 a week on GST. That's $320 a month. That's $3840 per year that they would keep in their pocket. That's seven weeks of free food. That's what we're talking about here. This is the reality. You can talk about all the other things you've talked about—administrative costs there's going to be huge tax implications. Rubbish. If you were to put more effort into chasing down tax evaders who are costing this country $7 billion a year you'd make a hell of a lot more money than on regressive tax like GST on kai.What is clear to Te Pāti Māori and our whānau living in poverty is that everybody against this bill is blinded by their privilege. So don't anyone in this House come to us to talk about lifting our people and whānau out of poverty because today you have committed our whānau to it. This was an opportunity for tangata Tiriti to stand with the only tangata whenua party in this House. So will the real tangata Tiritis please stand up?We will remember this; our people will remember this. This is a sad day because this Government has got no legislation coming up we've heard; and that you have an opportunity—you have an opportunity—to start looking at—not you Mr Speaker—we have an opportunity to come up with solutions. Not and/or solutions not either/or solutions; and/and solutions.GST wasn't the only back-breaker for this particular issue on poverty—absolutely not. But it's the beginning to look at resetting what a fairer tax system looks like and not continue a regressive tax system that continues to punish the poor; that continues to allow our mothers and our nannies and papas who cannot afford the food in supermarkets to have to put those things back. It's a sad reality and this House has turned their backs on trying to close the inequities and the poverty gap for our people. Today is a sad day. Te Pāti Māori can unequivocally say that we are the only party in the middle that is willing to run these types of kaupapa up the guts to ensure that there is a voice for those have-nots. Kia ora tātou.