Waititi RawiriRAWIRI WAITITI (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori) (remote): Thank you Madam Chair. I too found it difficult to hear the answer of the Minister around our Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 168 to recognise our people's tino rangatiratanga in this particular bill after saying that Te Tiriti o Waitangi plays one of the most crucial parts of making up this particular bill. In that particular area I thought it was—the only word I can find is—caucacity" that my indigenous language is being determined by non-indigenous speakers in terms of rangatiratanga being incorporated into this particular bill. I also find it very difficult that "rangatiratanga" is a key word in Te Tiriti o Waitangi and this Government and the Minister have said how important Te Tiriti o Waitangi is in terms of the articles in the make-up of this bill—being ignored. So I just don't get—this should be a straightforward SOP supported by this Government.I just want to bring to light that in 2017 the Court of Appeal confirmed that it can be stated with confidence that even where the Treaty is not specifically mentioned in the text of particular legislation it may subject to the terms of the legislation be permissible intrinsic aid to statutory interpretation. Further in 2021 the Supreme Court put emphasis on the need for Parliament to be clear if it intends to constrain Te Tiriti. So if the Minister is here to constrain Te Tiriti and not allow it to be the guiding light to the way a Māori health authority is established—the biggest health reforms in a century for Māori—this is going to be an issue.So the biggest issue is we've got Pākehā telling Māori how we see the health inequities and the Māori health index improve because we have not been given the chance. So we just find that Te Tiriti o Waitangi has just been thrown out there. This confirms the Māori Party's perspective on the Budget which was a vanilla cake with chocolate sprinkles—at the moment we're not seeing any chocolate sprinkle on it at all! So we're getting an under-investment and we're getting a watered-down version of what Te Tiriti o Waitangi means in terms of developing the greatest and probably an opportunity for the biggest health reforms for Māori in this country.The courts will not easily read statutory language as excluding consideration of Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles. It is a statute. It is silent on the question. It ought to follow therefore that Treaty clauses should not be narrowly construed; rather they must be given a broad and generous construction in intention to constrain the ability of statutory decision-makers. To respect Treaty principles should not be ascribed to Parliament unless that intention is made quite clear. So we are not clear. We're on one hand saying it is playing an important part of the establishment of the Pae Ora bill and the Māori Health Authority but we cannot include the words in it like "rangatiratanga" and "tino rangatiratanga". It doesn't make sense. It's absolutely glaringly obvious that this bill will continue like many other bills and legislation in this House to neglect Te Tiriti o Waitangi.So Minister I want you to clarify that for me and for Te Paati Māori and the reasons behind our SOP 168 which amends Part 1 to recognise our people's tino rangatiratanga which is a word that is used in Te Tiriti o Waitangi the very Te Tiriti o Waitangi that you said was going to play a big part in forming this Māori Health Authority and in actual fact should not be ignored or neglected any more by this House. So I look forward to your commentary in this particular space. Thank you Madam Chair."