Prime Willow-JeanWILLOW-JEAN PRIME (Labour):Kāore te kī patu te makere no-a i te ngutu-u He pōrutu wai hoe i a Kāwana i runga e-e; Mātau ana roto i te hau kōrero-o e Herengi-a koi-ā te rākau ka whiria e-e; Te ā-ta whakarangona ngā mahi o te arero-o; Ko to-o tīnana rā i waiho atu i tawhiti e-e; Ko tō whai reo kau ka tuku mai ki ahau-u I ahu ai atu e-e aro kau mai ana e-e; ka-a te tiriwa-a te ripa ki a au kara ma-a; ka pu-a te ā te rai ki tautoro-o ka whakamutua nō ngā whata rangi o te whakarongo e-e i![The intent to kill won't necessarily slip from the lipBut merely a splash of paddled water upon the Government indeed; Cleverly within the tenor of the talkThat the tree considered be restricted; And that deeds of the tongue be carefully obeyed; That body of yours was abandoned there in the distance indeed; Your owning a language unreservedlyAnd then submitting it to me; Went elsewhere and then came back directly indeed; Space and boundary back to me glows oh friends; The urge blossoms as do the rye that stretches forth and terminated as an elevated storage of obedience indeed!] The words of this waiata are from a letter sent by Hone Heke to Governor Grey where Heke is reprimanding the Governor for moving the capital away from Ōkiato in the north—away from the people—and where Heke is reprimanding Governor Grey for his messages said from afar. Empty words that fall so easily from his lips.Empty words—that's something I am not here to indulge in. I am here with a purpose. I know why I am here. I know who I represent. I am a child of Te Tai Tokerau the birthplace of our nation where our founding document Te Tiriti o Waitangi was signed. I am the daughter of a Pākehā mother and a Māori father. I am proudly bicultural. I am proudly bilingual. I stand here in the House of Representatives proud to represent all New Zealanders. I am here to uphold Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It is who we are. It is all of us.There is a whakataukī: Tangata ako ana i te whare te tūranga ki te marae tau ana."["A person taught at home is a sheer joy to behold when he/she stands upon the courtyard."] It basically means that a child who is well taught at home stands collected on the marae. Today I stand here in our Whare and I stand collected because of my mum and because I was taught well by my mum. My mum is somebody who has always had the courage to do what is not always popular but what she feels is right. She wasn't afraid of anything. She would chase a dog back down the street to its owners with a stick and warn them if they didn't tie up their dog she would call the pound. She would tell you off for spitting; she would tell you off for littering. She would stop hoons hooning up and down our streets. She would not allow drinking or drugs around children. And she would call the police and report domestic violence. Not even gang members or teens full of attitude could intimidate her. She was not always popular and I was so shame. But this is something I appreciate now as an adult and a mother myself. I now know it was because she cared about our community.Today I stand here in our Whare and I stand collected because I was well taught by my nana. My first memory was of walking up the hill to visit my nana. I just loved visiting her. She'd sit in the corner in her chair and we would talk and talk and talk and talk—and anyone who knows me knows I like to talk. It was she who taught me how to work through my words how to use my words to create understanding and just how important words can be.Today I stand here in our Whare and I stand collected because I was well taught by my people and our history people like our whaea Dame Whina Cooper a woman of conviction whose image and message is still carried deep in our hearts. Slight in frame headscarf neatly tied below her chin thousands of people in her wake. Using her walking stick to hold the ground in place below her one step after the other she walked from the top of the North to the steps of Parliament to deliver a single message: "Not one more acre of Māori land." As I make my own journey from the top of the North to the steps of Parliament I look to this incredible Māori woman from the North as inspiration.Today I stand here in our Whare collected because I was well taught and I continue to be well taught by my whānau: by my dad who is always smiling; by my amazing husband Dion who is always there to support me holding it down at home so that I can do this mahi here—I love you Dion for all that you do for me for our girls and for our community; by my sister Season-Mary and my brother Lloyd; and by my babies my two beautiful election babies Hihana Mairehau-Belle Te Tau o Taku Ate and Heeni Hirere-June Te Kare o Nga Wai Prime. You have taught me so much and we have so much more to learn together. I love you. Mama loves you both.Today I stand here in our Whare and I stand collected because I was well taught by Moerewa. I am really proud to come from Moerewa. Despite our hardships our community has remained strong. We have so much heart. We support each other and we try to lift everyone up. I am privileged to be lifted up here today. As with each and every one of us in this Whare I recognise that privilege and I recognise that when I stand here I stand as my mum my nana my people and my community. This is great responsibility but it gives me great strength. Like I said I know why I am here; I know what I am here to do. In the words of our whaea Dame Whina Cooper and in the actions of my mother: "Take care of our children. Take care of what they hear take care of what they see take care of what they feel. For how the children grow so will be the shape of Aotearoa."But Aotearoa is not in good shape. We have not been heeding this advice. We are not taking care of our children. I have travelled from the top of the North to the steps of Parliament so that like Dame Whina Cooper I can be in Parliament and deliver my message: not one more child should live in poverty not one more family without a home and not one more young New Zealander without a dream.I now want to share a personal story with you—a story that motivated me. Because of it it was probably inevitable that I was going to end up here today. As a student many years ago I opened the newspaper and there was a two-page article on wanted or convicted criminals. Many of them were young. Almost all of them were Māori and Pasifika. Many of them I could tell from their last names were Ngāpuhi and one of them even carried our Ngāti Hine rangatira's name: Kāwiti.I was so deeply saddened angry and frustrated. How could the descendant of an ancestor whose signature is at the top of Te Tiriti o Waitangi whose reputation as one of the most powerful military leaders strategic thinkers and peacemakers be in this situation? This is not supposed to be his destiny or anyone's destiny. I thought to myself: we can't just point the finger and blame. We have to do more. We have to try harder.I believed then that if we just addressed our history our colonisation and the wrongs of the past; if we had a proud sense of identity; if we were more connected and took collective responsibility as whānau and communities; if we were caring and supportive not just of our own whānau but of others; if our children played more sports and had no time and energy to be haututū and get up to mischief; if we could all do well at school then surely—surely—it could be better than this.You know just a few months ago I literally saw the same thing on my back doorstep. The helicopter was circling cops were searching with torches and dogs roadblocks—all for a Māori boy who ended up handing himself in. And you know what? He carried the Kāwiti name too. I was absolutely gutted. We have got to change this. Forty-nine percent of our children in Northland live in poverty. Our youth unemployment rate is over 20 percent. We have one of the lowest average incomes in the country. That is not right.But it's not just Northland; for too long our nation has been shaped to look after the few and it has come at a cost to the many. We have allowed the economy to take the place of the people. It's back to front. I am here with my people—my whānau my colleagues in Government—to change this; to bring people and our communities back to the centre of everything we do. This is our nation. It belongs to us as a people: to Māori to Pākehā to our brothers and sisters who have joined us since the first footprints were laid down in sand.But what does it mean? Well it means finding ways to rebuild the communities we have been losing. It means protecting and growing our rights as people not just as economic units health clients or clients of any kind. It means nurturing our children by nurturing their whānau their mums and dads and their grandparents—all of those around them. It means nurturing them through decent education and health right from the start with a focus on community and not just individuals; to be loved by all of us and not turned into metrics.I want to say a bit here about mental health and suicide here. It touches all of us—my own house; my own street. If our statistics weren't bad enough Northland has the highest youth suicide rate in the country. We have a crisis and this has to stop urgently.This nation belongs to all of us and it should be for all of us. That means good jobs jobs that pay well and give people the freedom to live their lives to take part in their communities and to be part of them—to have warm safe and dry homes. It means finding our way back to who we are as New Zealanders. That's why I could never have been anything but a Labour MP because no other parties speak so strongly to these values and to the way that I was brought up.Just as I bring my people to this Whare with me so too do my colleagues bring theirs. I want to echo our leader Jacinda Ardern. We are a Government for all New Zealanders and we will get this done with all New Zealanders. This is the House of the people. This is not a place for empty words. It is a place to do right for our people with our people together. Kia ora.[Applause]Haka"