Boyack RachelRACHEL BOYACK (Labour—Nelson): Thank you Mr Speaker. May I begin my contribution this evening Mr Speaker on congratulating you on your appointment as Assistant Speaker. I look forward to you remembering all of our names throughout—I'm skating on thin ice already I know Mr Speaker—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Greg O'Connor): That's not a special skill of mine I might say! RACHEL BOYACK: —but I do want to congratulate you and I look forward to working with you and the rest of the presiding officers throughout this term.Can I begin by acknowledging a former member of this House who was also unable to deliver her valedictory speech and that is the wahine toa who is the Hon Nanaia Mahuta. Can I acknowledge the contribution she has made to Aotearoa over many many years the bravery the vision and the foresight she has had and her tenacity quite frankly in dealing with what were some unprecedented attacks on her and her whānau throughout the previous term which was distressing to witness. So I want to thank her for her support of me and many others in this House and for her commitment to the people of New Zealand and to having a better country for all of us. Thank you Nanaia for your service.Can I also acknowledge the new members of this House and in particular a friend of mine—a good friend of mine—from the other side of the House Tim Costley. Now Tim and I have been friends for over 30 years and all I will say about that is that what happens at church youth group stays at church youth group. Hon Members: What? RACHEL BOYACK: I'm not insinuating anything. Let's not have any—Tangi Utikere: Not in Palmerston North? RACHEL BOYACK: Definitely not in Palmerston North. But we now have three members of this House who are proud to be former students of Ross Intermediate: myself Tim Costley—we were in the same class together—and then a very slightly younger member Mr Tangi Utikere who was always called on to give the thankyous to the visiting guests. I just note that Mr Costley and I were not. On preparing for this speech I wanted to reflect on the maiden speech that I gave to Parliament to this House nearly three years ago and to begin I wanted to talk specifically about my love of te reo Māori and my love of Te Ao Māori and Te Tiriti. In my maiden speech I talked about my father Jonathan Boyack who hasn't been back to New Zealand since I've become a member of Parliament because he lives in the United Kingdom but I'm very pleased that he will be here next week to come and spend some time in this House. When I was a child in the 1980s growing up my father was one of a new crop of area health board chief executives and he was the chief executive of the Wanganui Area Health Board. He was part of a crop of young chief executives who began work on delivering Māori health services and I was really privileged as a young Pākehā girl to spend time running around at marae listening to my father speak in the wharenui listening to waiata and being taught waiata by my mother. I reflect on that and I reflect on this new Government's decision to can Te Aka Whai Ora and it distresses me greatly. On the campaign trail I took the then Prime Minister Chris Hipkins in to meet with Te Piki Oranga one of our Māori health providers and here's what they said to me. They said to me and to Chris Hipkins that the new Māori Health Authority was allowing them to get money and services out to whānau who needed it so much faster. One of the reasons was that no longer did money go from the ministry to the DHB to the primary health organisation and then to the Māori health provider; it came straight from the centre to the organisation. It meant they had more money that wasn't being clipped by the tickets of bureaucracy—more money to actually spend on those who need it.I say to the members on the other side of the House why is it that we need to focus on this? This is because Māori as a whole die so much earlier than those of us who are non-Māori and that is a disgrace. That is a shame on our nation. The Labour Government took steps to actually try and address that and it's going to get thrown away on the basis of some kind of idea that somehow other people are going to miss out. Well I'll tell you what Māori don't miss out on: they don't miss out on dying younger because of their ethnicity. That is not OK. That is not equality. That is not equal rights in this country and as a Pākehā I say it is not OK for me to have a greater life expectancy than my youngest brother Piers who is Ngāti Kurī. I don't talk about him much in this House but there should be no difference in the expectations and the life expectancy that he and I have based on our ethnicity. So I am proud of the work that we did and it's work that I think should be continued. There is nothing those of us who are Pākehā have to lose.We've also talked a little bit tonight about kapa haka. I talk about kapa haka because I've had the privilege of being a member of the New Zealand Youth Choir for five years and then been the holder of a music degree. It's one of the reasons I asked to take on the arts portfolio and I'm very very proud to have that portfolio and to finally use the skills that I learnt at university here in this House. I've had the privilege of representing New Zealand all over the world singing kapa haka having been taught by amazing people like Ngāpō Wehi—Bub"—and Aroha Cassidy and I just want to acknowledge their memories and their contribution to our country. Do you know what? When we stood there we sang English cathedral repertoire which is my favourite stuff to sing and we would sing European art songs but do you know what everyone stood up and gave us standing ovations for? It was when we sang waiata. It was when we sang I Te Timatanga and told the story of the creation of Aotearoa. That was what got people overseas talking and it's the story I tell people. In my electorate of Nelson there are people who do not always understand why we are embracing Te Ao Māori in the way that we are but I tell you that when Mr Watts and Ms Grigg and Mr Waititi and the former member for Northcote Shanan Halbert and I were in Canada recently do you know what everybody loved us doing? Finishing our meetings by singing waiata. It is what puts our country on the world stage. It helps our trade. It helps our identity. We should embrace it; we should love it. We shouldn't allow ourselves to be divided in the way in which unfortunately so many politicians have been leading us down that pathway. We have obligations as members of this House—Māori and Pākehā; people who were born here people who are new here—to uphold what is so special: the taonga that is te reo that is Te Ao Māori and that is Te Tiriti. That is my pledge to this House for this term.There are a couple of other things I wanted to mention and I'm going to run out of time which is unfortunate but I'm going to focus quickly on a couple of pieces of correspondence I've had from my constituents specifically about smoking. Now I've smoked cigarettes. I was a child of the 1990s when we could get down to the dairy and get them pretty easily and cheaply without ID and successive Governments over many many decades have worked to make it harder for people to access cigarettes and to make it less of a sexy option shall we say. So here are a couple of emails I've had from constituents. One constituent who wanted to specifically talk to Dr Shane Reti said "Until very recently I saw you as someone with the mana to lead the National Party. This makes me even more disappointed with your complicity in repealing the progressive smoke-free legislation. Are you really OK with people dying in order to fund the party's tax cuts?"Here is an email I received from a doctor in Nelson: "Dear Rachel I am sure you are registering the absolute outrage that front-line health workers are expressing around the prospect of repealing the smoke-free legislation. As an emergency specialist in Nelson Hospital Emergency Department I daily see the damage done and years lost of people and their family both as a direct and indirect result of smoking. To see patients fearfully approaching a premature smoking-related death is an unpleasant and avoidable experience. The tobacco industry has a lot to answer. Aotearoa New Zealand has been a world leader with its enlightened approach toward a smoke-free country. You must do all you can as a member of the Opposition to appeal to the consciences of those on the Government benches to do the right thing for our people." That is what I do tonight. I appeal to the consciences of those on the other side. Every other time we've introduced legislation any colour of Government the next Government has not repealed it when it comes to smoking until now. I began by talking about Māori health and that's where I'll finish because it is our Māori and our Pacific people who will suffer as a result of this. We have obligations to ensure we are making decisions for all New Zealanders and this legislation will ensure that Māori life expectancy increases. Mr Speaker thank you very much for the opportunity. Kia ora."