Henare PeeniHon PEENI HENARE (Labour): Small history lesson for the member from New Zealand First talking about the Māori seats: the survival of his own party depended on the Māori seats in the 1990s. In fact it was my cousin Mr Tau Henare who actually won the Tai Tokerau seat that allowed his party the New Zealand First Party to come back in here. That party quickly forgets that—when it suits them they're Māori and when it doesn't suit them That's how we roll." is what we heard on that side. So if they want to talk about democracy they are literally using the seats that we are trying to entrench to keep their voice in Parliament. Now the irony that they're not going to be voting for this particular bill just absolutely astounds me.Rawiri Waititi: Not even Winston could win a seat then.Hon PEENI HENARE: That's exactly right—not even Mr Peters could've won one of the Māori seats. I know that winning a seat is hard. I've been fortunate enough to win the Tāmaki Makaurau seat for three occasions. In fact my family have held Māori seats for 36 years—not quite as long as the Tirikatene family the original holder of this bill now in the name of my good colleague Arena Williams but we have been involved in this Parliament in this democracy for some time.I want to acknowledge my colleague and my tuakana Mr Rawiri Waititi because he's right. It was used to actually push our representation and our voice down. While I heard members on the other side of the House say "Oh well no no that's not what it did." actually one only needs to read the Hansard from the time that bill was passed—the Maori Representation Act to up until recent times in fact in the 1970s and 1980s and some might argue today—to see that that voice has been silenced. In fact many of the Māori members in the late 1800s weren't even allowed to speak in the House—despite having representation despite having been voted into this House were unable to speak. Now we want to talk about democracy and how great it is for our people. That's why this bill is looking to make sure that these seats aren't lost into our future.Let's be very clear: we're not an outlier here. There are other democracies in this world who have done very similar things actually—done very similar things. Singapore is a country that comes to mind that makes an allowance for an electoral option for their people. Now all the way to the other end—and I know my tuakana Rawiri Waititi's going to love this one—I visited the Sámi people in 2017. Under their democracy they've been afforded their own Parliament. Now imagine that—imagine that. That's not our bill here today. So let's start somewhere—let's start somewhere. Let's start by entrenching and making sure we can protect these seats for future generations. Who knows maybe a future Henare might come into the House and continue to extend the length of time that our family has been represented here—maybe I don't know; we'll just leave it there for the tamariki mokopuna.But let's also be clear: that's not just a Māori legacy thing because the second - longest-serving family in this House has been—nobody?—the Nash family. Sir Walter Nash obviously was a member of Parliament for a long long time and my good friend and gym buddy the Hon Stuart Nash obviously held a seat for some time too.The point is in our young democracy where we've been able to be agile and evolve our democracy to better represent our country this is one of those steps that we're giving the opportunity for the House to discuss to debate and to vote on to make sure that we continue to hold our unique space when the world talks about democracy.Now the world has looked at New Zealand as leading in so many spaces. Once upon a time it was smoking; nowadays it's not. Once upon a time we were leading in health initiatives for our people. In fact indigenous peoples around the world came to New Zealand to see how Māori were doing it. Here's another opportunity for us to do that and sadly we've heard from the other side of the House that they won't be supporting this.But I will say this in my final contribution: we will not give up. We will make sure that this conversation continues to be had in order to protect these seats the Māori seats and the evolution and growth of the Māori seats as the Māori population continues to grow into the future. Right now there are seven Māori seats. I have no doubt with the way that—is there any member from the Bay of Plenty? Anyway I can say that for example in Rotorua two out of every three tamariki that are born—two out of every three tamariki—in the hospital in Rotorua are of Ngāpuhi descent. The numbers are only going to increase. That means that the Māori seats will increase. We're offering the opportunity to protect them. I'm sad the other side won't be supporting this but let me remind us: this conversation will never end."