Little Andrew: Royal Succession Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLittle Andrew: Royal Succession Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 10 December 2013. Volume:695;Page:15437. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW LITTLE (Labour): I am pleased to take a brief call in the Committee stage of the Royal Succession Bill noting of course that in addition to this being an important piece of legislation in its own right—notwithstanding our concerns about the monarchical theme of it—it is of course the last day of Parliament sitting for this calendar year. It is not uncalled for in fact on occasions such as this for there to be some cheap and tacky reference to the Zeitgeist. Last year when I was called upon to speak on a bill on the last day of the sitting year at a time when a dance style known as “Gangnam Style” was very popular I managed to weave that into my contribution to a very important piece of legislation. So having now sat through the second reading ofthis particular piece of legislation I am somewhat surprised that when the cultural item that leads our Zeitgeist today is the song “Royals” by our very own Ella Yelich-O’Connor trading under the name of Lorde—all very appropriate at this time for this time of the year and for this occasion—no mention has been made in the debate on the Royal Succession Bill to that very phonetic piece of music. It would be wrong for this bill to pass through this House at this time in our history both constitutional and monarchical but also cultural without an appropriate reference to that very important piece of cultural expression—that is to say the song “Royals”.Hon Maurice Williamson: Please don’t sing it. Please don’t.ANDREW LITTLE: I am going to reassure Maurice Williamson that I am not going to sing it but that is as far as my promise goes. I do however want to say when we are talking about a piece of legislation that is correcting a historical level of discrimination against Roman Catholics and against first-born girls that I think we should note that the lyrics particularly in the chorus of “Royals” would be very reflective I think of Roman Catholic young people who aspire to marry into the royal family. They would have been left saying: “And we’ll never be royals [because] It don’t run in our blood that kind of luxe just ain’t for us. We crave a different kind of buzz.” That is the claim to republicanism that is being made in “Royals”. And of course it would be left to the monarch of the day to have to say: “Let me be your ruler. You can call me queen bee and baby I’ll rule I’ll rule I’ll rule.” Judith Collins finds that very attractive I am sure. I do not want to draw reference to her leadership aspirations but that might be her theme song. When we hear that being played at the next National Party conference we will know that it is all on.But on this occasion I want to say that it is right in this very small funny sort of way at this time in our constitutional history that we should correct these anomalies—these discriminatory practices—within the royal family and it is very nice of the royal family to deign to have us and other parts of the realm pass legislation to remove these acts of discrimination. But it does leave that funny taste in the mouth and we need to say that maybe it is time we need to go a little further and break out on our own. On that note—that musical note in fact—we will continue to support this bill in its final passage.