Allan KiritapuHon KIRITAPU ALLAN (Minister of Conservation): I'm going to pick up the wero and not be a tero as put down by our colleague the Hon Peeni Henare. In particular I want to talk today and use this contribution to talk about the vaccinations. I want to acknowledge that there are many of our whānau at home that are still feeling a little bit scared. One of my relations put up a post on social media recently and she said You know look some of us are still pretty scared about the vaccination. Don't make us feel stink about it. Some of us probably have a lot of other things going on in our lives and try to listen to us and listen with wisdom without judgment." My relation and I we had a conversation about her post and she said "Cuz there's just so much information flying around online. One of my cousins is scared about maybe if they get the vaccination it will cause heart attacks;"—that's been some of the information online—"if they get the vaccination they'll become magnetic."—we've seen spoons on the internet sticking to people's arms. Sometimes we have a bit of a giggle about that but the reality is that for some of our whānau this is very very real. So I will pick up Peeni Henare's challenge to us all to pick up the wero and try and put my case as to why it is so important that our whānau right now get vaccinated. Right now in Aotearoa Māori vaccination rates are around about just over 50 percent comparatively to the rest of the population at just over 70 percent—about 74 percent today. In 1918 the Māori death rate from the Spanish flu as it was called then was around seven times that of non-Māori. In 1956 the pandemic that it was then—it was called the Asian flu pandemic—our Māori death rates were around six times that of non-Māori. I look up my coast in my electorate of the East Coast Te Whānau-ā-Apanui. Thirteen hapū that litter that coastline—13 mass graves of people that were buried during that 1916 flu pandemic. I look to Te Whānau-ā-Apanui because they are a tribe that has looked to their history in terms of—those mass graves are so much a part woven into the story of the remembrance of the people up that coastline right now. They have shown incredible leadership to destigmatise the impacts of the vaccination. They have this wonderful doctor there Dr Rachel Thomson who has built the trust over many years working alongside the hapū up there. Their iwi tribal leadership have gone around talked to the whānau delivered crayfish and whatnot. They will have one of the highest vaccination rates in Aotearoa per population because that 1916 memory is so alive in their DNA wiping out almost a generation.We only have to cast our eyes overseas. In particular I'm thinking of just last year at the start of the pandemic when things were really rearing their head—our relations over in North America the Diné population of the Navajo Nation. The COVID-19 pandemic ravaged through that nation unvaccinated at that time. The death rates were immeasurable. I was looking at a report earlier today and it was called COVID-19—The Results by Colour or something like that. It was published in March this year. Again if we look across the ocean to our relations in North America those that have died the most: Native Americans; the second African Americans; the third Pacific Island Americans. It would be wrong if we were to stand here in this House and not deeply be concerned about the impacts of COVID-19 on our whānau and that is why you see so many people on this side of the House pleading for our whānau to go and get vaccinated. The brother talked about the buses and the whatnot. We're thinking about everything we can do because we are fearful that the misinformation being spread amongst our communities will prohibit our whānau from being vaccinated. So with the very brief moments that I have left my plea to our whānau is that our vaccinations protect us and they save lives. The polio pandemic that killed so many people—300 million people in the world—99 percent of that has been eradicated because of vaccination. Please whānau get vaccinated."