Davis KelvinGENERAL DEBATEHon KELVIN DAVIS (Minister for Māori Crown Relations: Te Arawhiti): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business.I'd like to start by saying that I acknowledge the contribution of Nicole McKee in that debate and I agree with her entirely except for one point: don't ever think that a party that gets 1.2 percent of the vote actually represents the views of Māoridom.You can tell when the National Opposition is at a low ebb: it's when they're flailing in the polls it's when the caucus is leaking it's when the whispers of leadership coups become a cacophony and it's when you can smell their fear. So their strategy is to create a distraction to draw the attention of the country away from all their problems and to create a problem where none exists. See it worked for Don Brash back at the turn of the century—in 2004 they had a desperate unpopular leader of a divided National caucus; so his tactic was to push the big red race button at that bastion of racial diversity the Orewa Rotary Club!So it's no surprise to anybody that a few weekends ago we saw Judith Collins open the National Party leaders' playbook to the chapter titled What to Do When Your Prime Ministerial Aspirations Go Down the Gurgler" and she read Don Brash's footnotes; after all if it worked for one uncharismatic leader it should surely work for the next one! So Judith Collins dove head first into the politics of division and in doing so she tried to rewrite history: Te Tiriti o Waitangi. You see Judith Collins is opposed to partnership with Māori on our terms. She's opposed to Māori asserting their rangatiratanga in health. She's opposed to Māori asserting their rangatiratanga for Māori to come up with solutions to care for our most vulnerable children. She's opposed to rangatiratanga when it comes to Māori developing ideas to improve Māori outcomes in prisons. She's opposed to Kāwanatanga working in partnership with rangatiratanga. In other words article 1 of Te Tiriti o Waitangi working with article 2 of Te Tiriti o Waitangi to achieve the article 3 promises of ōritetanga or equity.So as Minister for Māori Crown Relations I talk about walking across the bridge that is Te Tiriti o Waitangi from the non-Māori world into the Māori world. I talk about getting to understand why we as Māori think feel and speak as we do because all Māori have already crossed that bridge and we speak the language and know the customs of the non-Māori world. There should be willingness of politicians to cross over into the world of the Treaty partner. But here's the question: does Judith Collins even want to cross that bridge? And if the answer is no I question the place of anyone in New Zealand politics who does not attempt to cross that bridge and understand the Māori world. And I ask this question: aside from the member of Tauranga what other Māori bridges has Judith Collins walked over? You see what disturbed me the most about Judith Collins' speech wasn't the speech itself it wasn't the idiot in the audience who called out "That's apartheid."; what disturbed me the most was that Judith Collins agreed with that idiot.Working in partnership with Māori is not never was and never will be apartheid. It is inconceivable in 2021 that a New Zealand politician can confuse rangatiratanga with apartheid. Apartheid is the oppression of people; rangatiratanga is the empowerment of people and it is a guarantee of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Rangatiratanga is what my great-great-great-great-grandfather Whetoi Pomare signed his hapū and his descendants up to in February of 1840. When Judith Collins later said "Is that what those chiefs thought they were signing up to?" My answer is "Hell yeah. That's exactly what they were signing up to." The disparity between Māori and non-Māori outcomes is a direct result of Te Tiriti being ignored—Kāwanatanga assuming total power and control and rangatiratanga being sidelined.As we heard at the Iwi Chairs Forum at Porirua last week when Kāwanatanga and rangatiratanga work together in true partnership we will see magic happen. That is the spirit of partnership and nationhood promised in Te Tiriti o Waitangi not the divisiveness we hear when political parties are at a low ebb flailing in the polls and there are rumblings of a leadership coup."