Tuiono TeanauTEANAU TUIONO (Green): Thank you Madam Speaker. Happy World Oceans Day everybody. It's important to think global but also act local and that thought came to me when I was visiting up north. Like many urban-born Ngāpuhi I like to go up north to remind my relatives what I look like. I think some of them can't forget me fast enough but I had the privilege of going up there and hanging out with one of my whanaunga Reina Penney. She took me for a bit of a tiki tour around the Hokianga and Northland. If you're looking for a good Green voice to represent you in this place check out my whanaunga Reina—good heart for the environment good heart for the community—and also my other whanaunga standing for Te Tai Tokerau Hūhana Lyndon my whanaunga there from Pehiāwiri Marae. We went for a bit of a wander around and we actually stopped at the Kohukohu Pub—a very classic pub a very nostalgic pub. It was like the hotel in Hotel California"—you can check out any time you like but if you don't leave you might miss the ferry to Rāwene! The locals there were so passionate about the area; they were so passionate about the harbour. I was chatting to one guy; he was rocking his Red Bands and I'd like to have Red Bands myself but I'm waiting for the green bands to come in so I can stay on point and stay on brand! But they were talking about all the sediment that has been going into the harbour. They were talking about the environmental impact and damage done through the years through the decades—the human sewage that has been going into the harbour; really heart-breaking stuff. We went and visited people and they continue to talk about this stuff. It reminded me that actually a few years back I was in Waitangi with the locals that organised the hīkoi on Waitangi Day to protest to push back and to raise awareness about it—to raise awareness about all this tūtae and tiko going into the Hokianga Harbour. Going into the Hokianga Harbour—it's disgraceful. It's disgraceful because it tramples on tikanga Māori. It tramples on the history of that place because there's a really deep deep meaningful history in the Hokianga. It is the place where Nukutawhiti came with the Ngātokimatawhaorua. It's the place where Ruānui came with the Māmari waka. It's the place where the Hokianga got its name—Hokianga Whakapau Karakia. We're exhausted with karakia because of the situation that was happening there—so very very deep deep history there. Also it is one of the places where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed where people gathered together to sign that founding document of our country. So there's a rich history there; there's a rich culture there. Then of course there's the people themselves—the people that love that place that love that area that have been pushing for I understand more than 40 years to stop the practice of putting human sewage or putting sewage into the wai. Places like the Hokianga are like pātaka kai. They are like food baskets for the area and to have human sewage in there is just not acceptable. So I would encourage all the councils—the Far North District Council the Northland Regional Council body—to sort it out and to sort it out now. People have been waiting for long enough to get this situation sorted out. Having said that I do think that there is a role here for central government—there is a role here for central government. We can't just leave it for the affordable water services stuff to roll out and to maybe land and happen. There's something that must be done now. There must be something to do within that transitional phase. You can't just kick the can down to the affordable water services processes when we don't know how the dice are going to end up in October—right? So between now and then it is important that the Government stump up some support to help the transition because they're doing other stuff in other places around Northland and looking at other strategies around finding land-based solutions but also other ways of dealing with waste water within the short term as well while you get to that place. So I would like once again to acknowledge all of the work of the people of the community up in Hokianga and also right across the north there as well people that have been holding e mauri o te wai i te mea ko tērā te āhua o tātou. Kia pai te mauri o te wai e pai ana te mauri o te moana e ora ana te mauri o te tangata. Nō reira Hokianga Whakapau Karakia anei ngā Kākāriki e mihi ana ki a koutou katoa. Tēnā tātou e te Whare.[people that have been holding te mauri o te wai because that is how we are. When the life force of the water is good the life force of the ocean is good and the life force of humanity is healthy. So Hokianga Whakapau Karakia here are the Greens greeting all of you. Greetings to all of us in the House.]"