Tirikatene RinoRINO TIRIKATENE (Labour—Te Tai Tonga): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. I'm very pleased to have this right of reply in this debate. I want to acknowledge all of the speakers for New Zealand First and the Green Party who will be supporting this bill who have indicated their support. I thank them for that. The odds of this bill getting into this House were pretty tough. The odds of it making it to select committee were even tougher so I do acknowledge the support that I've had around the House as well as the contributions that have been made—the actual thoughtful contributions made on this side as opposed to the snake oil deceiving-type contributions that we've heard from the other side. I want to pick up on the Hon Dr Nick Smith. Just because someone says Oh these provisions don't apply."—do not listen to that man. Do not listen to that man. He is a snake oil salesman. He's trying to deceive people. What we are doing here is absolutely required. It's absolutely required. There is a discrepancy. There is a different standard that applies to the Māori seats. What we are doing—and Mr Smith knows this very well. The general seats are entrenched. The machinery that creates the general seats is entrenched. What this bill is does is that the machinery that creates the Māori seats—we're wanting to entrench it too. So do not listen to the absolutely false statements that are coming out from that side of the House. He knows very well that he's deceiving the public of New Zealand but do you know that why he's doing it is because he can't argue against this bill on any other grounds so he's trying to make up some perceived technicalities around the bill. This bill is well researched. We know very well that it has academic support. It has had Electoral Commission support. We know what we're doing with this bill but the other side do not want to address that. They do not want to address the discrepancy. They do not want to address the different standards. There is a double standard in the Electoral Act and we are addressing it. Hon Dr Nick Smith: That's not true. RINO TIRIKATENE: Yes there are hundreds of provisions of the Electoral Act and not all of them are entrenched into section 268. But this bill is elevating the provisions that create the Māori seats and providing them with entrenchment and that's what we want to do. It's all about equality and equal treatment and I acknowledge the contributions made from this side. I do want to just pay some remarks to my whanaunga Tutehounuku Korako. At the end of the day your whakapapa is your whakapapa. We don't say that oh you're a little bit this or a little bit Ngāti Wheke or a little bit Ngāi Tūahuriri. Whakapapa is whakapapa. If you're Māori you're Māori and that's why we're here in this House. We are elected by Māori constituents. We are elected by those people to advance Māori kaupapa and that is exactly what we are doing with this bill. There is a double standard here and we want to address this through the passage of this legislation. I am very very humbled and grateful that we do have the support to send this to select committee and then we can take it all the way around the motu. I want to encourage all Māori all iwi hapū and organisations up and down the length of the country to come out and present in their support for this bill because this is what Parliament is all about. So we're going to take this to the motu. We are going to take this to the motu. Mr Nick Smith may want to try and quote procedural Standing Orders and the like. We can move around the Standing Orders as well Mr Smith. Hon Dr Nick Smith: You can't entrench without our support. RINO TIRIKATENE: Yes we can. So against all the odds we have gotten the bill this far and who knows where can go with it? We're going to take it around the country. We're going to listen to Māori up and down the country and we'll hear other views—I'm sure we will. We will be ready and we will listen but at the end of the day this is about doing something that's right. This bill is about making sure we have an equal place with our general seats in this Parliament and I commend it to the House. Kia ora."