Kapa-Kingi MariamenoMARIAMENO KAPA-KINGI (Te Pāti Māori—Te Tai Tokerau): Kia ora. Thank you Mr Speaker. Tēnā tātou e te Whare. So Māori wards have counted the crippling lack of understanding that exists within council and local government across the motu.By having dedicated Māori representation in councils we can grow Māori participation in local elections and actually legitimise the actions of councils. This Government goes on about democracy but how democratic can a system actually be if no one is paying any attention to it?Simon Court: Point of order Mr Speaker. Point of order.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): Just before I take that point of order: sorry Ms Kapa-Kingi—Mariameno Kapa-Kingi: Yes.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): I'm going to start—this is a five-minute call. The clock unfortunately went to 10 minutes but I'll allow you to start again. So carry on. So you'll get the benefit of the extra time. [Addresses Court] I presume that was what your point of order was? Right. We'll start from—we'll go back to five minutes. We'll start now.MARIAMENO KAPA-KINGI: All right. Māori wards are a very very good and new idea and applied in such a way that what I certainly heard over the hearings was a huge amount of support for Māori wards. I sat over the three days with Hūhana and others and most certainly what I heard was a full support of Māori intelligence Māori intellect Māori grunt at every single board that they were sitting on. So it was very encouraging. It was positive.So the report that ended up being tabled I'm not quite sure how that happened but save to say that it's—so I'll give you an example. A Te Rarawa kaumātua absolutely wonderful fully conversant in te reo Māori and Pākehā and he delivered a brilliant presentation or submission. He actually had a couple of presentation times which was which was wonderful. At one point he said at the end of his submission Look this feels like Nazis' time and I feel like a Jew." This was his—James Meager: There you go. You say it for me.MARIAMENO KAPA-KINGI: —and I know it is. I know it probably would make people feel a bit nervous. Then of course the chair felt a little bit nervous and then said "Well the first time I've been called a Nazi." and then one of his colleagues decided that he wanted to ask the gentleman to withdraw his submission—that statement particularly.Of course the chair and the select committee—well certainly the coalition side—were having feelings about it because a kaumātua Māori of absolute full—his discussion and his submission was true and honest right? And he challenged the chair and he made those statements in a very honest and clear—but even graceful—way; even respectful you might say. Because what he was trying to prove in that point was that you don't get it. You don't get it; you don't get us; you don't get Māori.There were many a submission over those three days. They were brilliant they were fulsome—you know a group of young Māori students from Waikato University absolutely stunning. They had wonderful wonderful discussion but unfortunately it fell on deaf ears. That's certainly what I'm hearing now particularly when I listen to the rhetoric from across the House because it represents in no way—it represents in no way—what I was hearing from Māori and Pākehā alike over those three hearings. So the nonsense that was provided in the report I'm not quite sure where that came from.So before I came into the House I supported and encouraged a number of young Māori to get into politics and run for these Māori seats and they were successful and they took these roles seriously and they enjoyed and they still to this point enjoy that.So Tai Tokerau of course we have four councils and I think in the end we had about nine that were successful to get in on the Māori wards work. Now every single one of them is very clear that their council and their people and their communities are better off because they're there. Why? Because they know they are their own walking talking Māori solution. They don't need any other Pākehā person—any person—to speak for them. They can bring their own information their own stories their own ideas to the table.Through all of the hearings I might have heard maybe one or two but the majority of what we heard was "It is good to have Māori at the decision-making table. It is important that you have them there. You must have them there. It is good for our communities. It is good for Māori communities." When our whānau see their Māori representatives at the tables they're like "Gee that's great—that's great. There's Phoenix there's Moko." Moko Tepania—wonderful Māori mayor. Fantastic.When we see our representatives there we see ourselves. Then when they talk and they talk like[Authorised reo Māori text to be inserted by the Hansard Office.][Authorised translation to be inserted by the Hansard Office.]When they see that they go "Ah yeah anā [there they are]." That's exactly the kind of thinking and Māori intelligence that's required in our councils. Why would we change that? Just because we're a bit nervous of the word Māori? Is that really what it is?OK my time is up. Thank you Mr Speaker. Kia ora tātou. This cannot get through."