Hayes JoanneJO HAYES (National): Thank you Mr Speaker. It is my pleasure to stand and voice my support for the 100th year of a woman's right to stand for election in New Zealand's House of Representatives. Although it's not possible for us to do this on 29 October it was on 29 October 1919 that this law was passed in this House and I want to say that it is an honour for me to stand here and to pay tribute to the brave women of our past. I want to focus my contribution today on the journey of Māori women into politics. And so I start with the suffragist Meri Te Tai Mangakāhia nō Te Rarawa who stood in the Māori Parliament on 18 May 1893 where she requested that not only should women be given the right to participate in the selection of members but Māori women should be given the right to vote and be eligible to sit in the Māori Parliament thus going a step further in that time than the contemporary aims of the European suffrage movement. Her argument was based on the premise that many Māori women owned and administered their own lands either because they had no male relatives or because the women were more competent. She claimed that although the chiefs had appealed to Queen Victoria over Māori problems she felt that Māori women would have been received much better by the Queen because they got things done. While her drive for Māori women in politics seemed to fade after her speech in the Māori Parliament her legacy has continued on today and I just need to look around this House and see—and I was reminded by the legacy that she left for us all those years ago. For our Māori women our journey into Parliament began in 1949 over 30 years after women were able to stand for Parliament and 56 years after women won the right to vote. Iriaka Rātana we have heard her name placed in this House today won the Western Maori seat from her husband who passed away—along with many other women who stood in this Parliament as MPs taking over the role of their husbands—and she did it in her own right but that's how she came in here. Today we have come a long way with our very first Māori woman Deputy Prime Minister in the Hon Paula Bennett and the very first Māori political woman to establish the first independent Māori political party and lead it to victory the Hon Dame Tariana Turia. Written along with all of this are the many Māori women leaders who have come in and have made their mark; that have paved the way for people like myself and a number of other Māori women MPs to stand for Parliament. These women are Dame Te Atairangikaahu who held the mantle of the Māori Queen; Dame Iritana Tāwhiwhirangi for a strong voice for kōhanga reo; Dame Naida Glavish who greeted a caller with the words Kia ora" and was a fighter for Māori health and so it goes on.The history of political women leaders is not confined to Parliament as we can see. We have Māori women leaders across all facets of our lives. Just recently we have had the voting in of the new Ngāpuhi chair Mere Mangu who is another woman who has stepped up into the leadership role and Lisa Tūmahai from Ngāi Tahu.Yes there have been a number of Māori women leaders who have started their leadership styles in iwi and in hapū and that has led them here today. They have taken the voice of their people into this Parliament and they are the ones that have set the pathway for our rangatahi wāhine to come here and represent their people and their agenda. These are all the women that we celebrate here today. There are many many more I could have mentioned but I'd be still standing here tomorrow and the next day so I will conclude my contribution. I look forward to what the next 100 years of this Parliament has to offer up for women and I too would like to see more women represented in this House to give women a voice that balances out the debate in this House. So without any further ado I close my contribution with a whakataukī and it goes like this: "Poipoia te kākano kia puāwai"—nurture the seed and it will blossom. Kia ora Mr Speaker."