Coffey TāmatiTĀMATI COFFEY (Chairperson of the Māori Affairs Committee): I move That this House take note of the briefing on the commemoration of the Māori Affairs Committee's 150th anniversary.I mark 150 years of the Māori Affairs Committee in this House of Parliament. It is a significant day but it's also a day that as we look back over our shoulder and figure out where we started and how far we've come over the last 150 years actually we take stock and realise that whilst we've come a long way there's still a lot more to do. The Native Affairs Committee was established 150 years ago on 5 October 1981 by a motion in the House of Representatives. The House agreed to the motion without discussion or debate. There was no reason recorded for its establishment but it was generally accepted that it was probably to meet the demands of a flood of petitions from Māori to the House. The Native Affairs Committee met for the first time on the morning of 9 October 1871 with the first item of business: 10 petitions that had been transferred by the Public Petitions Committee and the committee's first report to the House was entirely about petitions—17 of them in fact. Petitions made up the majority of the committee's work. A lot of our people that were out there at the time were mostly concerned about things like the confiscation of Māori land the imposition of Māori land laws the Native Land Court. All of these played an important role in communicating Māori concerns and by 1900 just 28 years later it had considered around 2500 petitions. That was the size of the problem at the time and the reason for the establishment of the committee to the point where the committee's workload was much larger than most other committees. You see the newspapers at the time described the chairperson's role as arduous" and not to be desired by any member with many duties. In fact in recognition of the workload of the chairperson of the Native Affairs Committee from 1876 to 1880 and again after that they were paid a little bit extra in their salary to compensate them for the extra workload that they were having to go through at the time when few other chairpersons actually were privy to that funding.I want to talk about the actual room itself and when I say "room" I mean "rooms" because we have two of them here in Parliament. It started out as the native affairs select committee room and it was named Matangireia. The meeting room was created in 1922; a kawanga whare was attended by the Prime Minister of the day William Massey; and there were also other people that were there including Te Arawa leaders Mita Taupopoke Te Naera Houkotuku and Te Kiwi Amohau. They were the ones that created the carvings for the room and they attended. The chairperson of the committee considered it only fitting that the room be designated as a whare rūnanga in recognition of the committee's mana and the committee's place in Parliament. In his address to the kawanga whare the Minister of Native Affairs at the time described the committee as one that was "governed by the highest traditions of justice and fair play to both races and the administration of its affairs." He expressed the hope that the high traditions of the past would always remain with the room where they were about to enter. The room was redecorated in 1955 by Ngāti Tūwharetoa carvers and chiefs. Red and black kōwhaiwhai were added to the decorative ceilings and the cornices of the room and tukutuku extended all around the walls. Reproductions of Te Tiriti o Waitangi were cast up on to the walls alongside portraits of distinguished Māori members of Parliament: Sir James Carroll Te Rangi Hīroa—Sir Peter Buck—Sir Maui Pōmare and the Hon Sir Apirana Ngata. There were also portraits of Sir Eruera Tirikatene the Hon Matiu Rata Iriaka Ratana and the Hon Whetu Tirikatene-Sullivan which have been added since.The meeting room was closed from 1992 through to 1995 as part of a refurbishment of Parliament House. When it was reopened it was given that name "Matangireia" meaning the 13th or the upper-most heaven. And although it's no longer used as a committee room it continues to have great significance to all of those that come through and get to see it for themselves. Cue the second Māori Affairs Committee room which was a baby of Koro Wētere who back in the day as Minister of Māori Affairs from 1984 to 1990 decided that actually we needed a room that was closer to the front of Parliament House and more accessible for whānau to be able to get there. Māui Tikitiki-a-Taranga was blessed and formally opened at a dawn ceremony November 1995 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and it was more prominently positioned as the Māori Affairs Committee room.Three master carvers were chosen to complete the room: Te Warihi Hetaraka Albert Poai Te Pou and Rangi Hetet. The carvers organised groups of weavers from North Auckland and from Te Whānau Paneke of Lower Hutt to complete the tukutuku panels and I want to acknowledge my colleague the Hon Peeni Henare whose mum actually had a part in some of the weavings and the stories that are contained in that room.It's important to acknowledge the room itself because we recently as part of this commemoration the Māori Affairs Committee held an online commemoration. There were two guests that were invited to commemorate alongside us. One of them was my colleague our colleague the Hon Nanaia Mahuta. She was chosen because this year also marks her 25 years of service to this country and to this House. Once upon a time she served as the chair of the Māori Affairs Committee and it was right and fitting that she came and presented to the committee telling us about some of the trials and tribulations that she faced. We also chose to invite to the meeting the legend—I'll call her a legend because that's what she is—and wahine toa the great Annette Sykes who for my reasons I thought it was incredibly important that we had somebody who'd been working inside the system for so long fighting for the rights of Māori but equally somebody that's been standing outside on the steps of Parliament for just as long again fighting for the rights of Māori. Between them they shared the kōrero. In fact one of the lines that was used about "if these walls could talk"—and it was used by Annette Sykes. When she said that I thought about it; I thought about "If these walls could talk what would they say? Whose stories would they hark back to?" There would be a lot of stories because both committee rooms have heard the pain the anguish the upset the happiness and the comedy that often takes place in that committee room as well but actually they would have some pretty poignant things to say. The Hon Nanaia Mahuta reflected on her time. As a newbie into this House of Parliament she was put straight on to the Māori Affairs Committee and actually one of her initial jobs was to see through one of the first of the Treaty settlements that we've become so accustomed to now. The Ngāi Tahu settlement was up and she was in as a member of the committee at the time. She talked about how outside in the real world outside of this House—the protection of this House—actually it was incredibly confronting and there was some vandalism and there was some not nice things said out there in the media about this process of Treaty settlements but actually it was the right thing to do. So she used that example of the Ngāi Tahu Treaty settlement to really indicate some of those struggles.I want to mention the great Annette Sykes as well who talked to us about one of her first trips down to Wellington where she was invited down by Bruce Gregory as we were trying to make Māori an official language. She was brought down to help draft up the bill so that she did. But she told us that in her experience she finally understood what this place was all about. She finally understood that if you were given a 10-minute speaking slot that actually you should only take five minutes of that and leave five minutes for questions afterwards. But what she also noted in the meeting was the compassion of the members that were sitting around the table. Now I want to acknowledge all of those members past and present of the Māori Affairs Committee and the Native Affairs Committee who have sat there and listened to the heart-wrenching stories of so many people that have come to this House looking for justice. I want to acknowledge those ones that have passed on that have done the hard yards over the years and I want to mention and state the great work that they did. We stand on their shoulders. As the current chair of the Māori Affairs Committee I prepare my shoulders for those coming after us that will join the Māori Affairs Committee and will continue to work for change within these hallowed halls of Parliament. I look forward to the change that they are able to bring. We'll do our bit for the time that we're here but I'm aspirational for the future and I'm aspirational that actually we have a generation of young Māori activists out there who have grown up absolutely understanding who they are where they come from how they tie into this world and learning from some of the mistakes of the past.The Māori Affairs Committee is the place where rangatiratanga intersects with Kāwanatanga and for that reason the Māori Affairs Committee members are and always have been the front line of Māori politics. I thank you Mr Speaker for giving us this time in the House to look back over our shoulder. Tēnā koe."