Flavell Te UruroaHon TE URUROA FLAVELL (Co-Leader—Māori Party): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Kia ora tātou katoa. It is with a bit of a heavy heart that I take a call today. I have a heavy heart because—Clayton Mitchell: Here we go—here we go.Hon TE URUROA FLAVELL: You know what is coming eh boys? You know what is coming. I thought that tomorrow was going to be a good day. Four iwi tribal nations were going to come to this Parliament and be hugely grateful because the Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations was going to deliver some goodies for them to allow them to go into the future. I come here with a heavy heart because I know many of those people. I know many of those people in Taranaki who are waiting for tomorrow—actually not just tomorrow but for Friday. Actually I have pretty much never been here on a Friday because we go and do business out in the community. What happened was New Zealand First pulled the plug. It pulled the plug on Māoridom—it pulled the plug on Māoridom. Let us have a look at it: 2 weeks ago all parties in this House agreed at the Business Committee that five—five—settlement bills would be brought to this House this Friday.Hon Members: So what?Hon TE URUROA FLAVELL: So what? So what? New Zealand First pulled the plug on it. It pulled the plug on Māoridom to allow them—Clayton Mitchell: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I would just like to clarify for the House's record that we have not pulled the plug. This is nothing to do with New Zealand First—Mr SPEAKER: Order! That is not a point of order. If the member uses a point of order like that again simply to break a speech I will deal with it very severely.Hon TE URUROA FLAVELL: Ngāruahine from Taranaki Te Atiawa from Taranaki my in-laws Taranaki iwi Rangitāne o Manawatu Ngātikahu ki Whangaroa—today they are hugely brassed off. Why? Because over 400 people were coming to Wellington from the Far North from Taranaki and from Manawatū. Why? It was because they wanted their day in the sun. Te Atiawa has been waiting for 30 years to come to this Parliament. I was there. I met the people. I know their pain unlike some of this lot—unlike some of this lot. So it is a huge disappointment that they have been let down and they should never trust New Zealand First to back them—never trust them at all. Hundreds of people made arrangements to come to this House. They paid out of their own pockets. They organised their own transport and accommodation for 2 days. And you know what? They are going to have to pay for it because it has all gone down the gurgler. Why? Because New Zealand First found some sort of technicality to decide that it was going to pull the plug on Māoridom.It could have done a number of things—it could have done a number of things. It could have raised issues at the agreement in principle phase. It could have raised issues before the deed of settlement. It could have raised issues in the select committee process. It could have had a Supplementary Order Paper. And of course it could have gone back to the iwi. It could have done all that long before yesterday. Oh but no no no no—We'll do it 2 days in advance. That is plenty of time for 200-plus people who were coming from throughout the country to cancel their planes." I say that one party in this House should be absolutely ashamed of itself today for what it has done to our people who have so many dreams and aspirations that they want to realise. But it is all held up because it is as if one party has said: "Oh we're changing the rules of Parliament." I do not think so—I do not think so. [Interruption] We are playing with the rules? There is only one party that is playing with the rules and it is called New Zealand First. Why? I will tell you why: because it talks about this vote. It talks about a party vote. Actually pretty much most of us were going to go out and do the community stuff that we are all asked to do including—oh maybe not New Zealand First. But anyway the rest of us work and it is common protocol to follow the course of action that is set out. But for one reason—and Taranaki and Manawatū have not been told yet by New Zealand First why—it pulled the plug. So just to help us I will just take one quote. Here is a quote—this is from Peter Moeahu—"I attended Māori Affairs select committee hearings where submissions were heard all of them in favour of the bill reading. Their member sat through the select committee process and at that time said there were no problems at all. We can have no idea as to why they called late information or where this came from. Frankly we are very disappointed and disgusted at New Zealand First for what they've done." My message is this to Te Ao Māori: Te Ao Māori kia tūpato ki tēnei ngāngara! [Māoridom be careful with this creepy-crawly!]"