Ngarewa-Packer DebbieDEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori): Ngā mihi aroha ki a koutou. Tēnā tātou e te W'are. I rise on behalf of Te Paati Māori to speak in a special debate on the report Zero Suicide Aotearoa. We acknowledge the members of the cross-party working group and thank them for this report. E te tuahine Louisa ngā mihi aroha mō tō kaha mō tō manaaki i tēnei kaupapa. Me tū me kōrero.[To my colleague Louisa my sincere greetings to you for your strength in supporting this topic. We need to stand and talk.]E Te Paati Māori supports the imperative to work together cross-party cross agency cross community to end the devastation of suicide in Aotearoa. We support the recommendations of this report which flow out of the 2020 Te Mauri report—Te pūrongo mō te mate whakamomori o te rangatahi—developed by many of our leading tangata w'enua hauora experts as part of the Ngā Pou Araw'enua. In particular we acknowledge the recommendations to embed and enact Te Tiriti into all policy urgently address the impact of socio-economic determinants on the health of whānau invest in what works for Māori iwi hapū and w'ānau. Te Paati Māori's policy has called for the establishment of a kaupapa Māori mental health service and the independent Māori health funding authority to take full control of the way mental health services are designed and developed and implemented by Māori for Māori with Māori.Mental health in Aotearoa has a siloed approach to oranga for our people and it hasn't worked. W'ānau Ora is the Māori mental health strategy but it is more than that. It's a complete wellbeing strategy and must be valued as such. We must focus on holistic wellbeing and its determinants rather than continuing with piecemeal and sadly uncoordinated approaches. Aotearoa has some of the highest suicide rates in the developed world as we have heard and it is a great indictment on this nation. Māori have sadly suffered under these systemic conditions which perpetuate shame. The rates for Māori are horrific. They are higher than any other ethnic group in Aotearoa and are concentrated among our rangatahi. The general suicide rate in 2017-18 was 13.67 deaths per 100000 population. Shockingly the rate for Māori rose from 23.7 percent to a rate of 28.23 in 2018-19. I share these stats so that our w'ānau at home understand the increasing impact that we're dealing with. Rangatahi and our takatāpui w'ānau are particularly at risk compared to any other group. Suicide was the second leading cause of premature death for Māori tāne.We are here today. We have survived today despite centuries of colonisation and poverty; displacement from our natural inhabitants our natural indigenous wellbeing; and decades of colonisation which has entrenched inequities displacement and the breakdown of community and social support systems. We know that many of our w'ānau such as our tāne and takatāpui rangatahi are at the intersection of this suffering and therefore the sharp end of suicide statistics. How can we be surprised when our society deliberately marginalises our rangatahi?We must stop looking at our rangatahi as statistics or as problems that need solving. We must continue to work harder to connect so that we don't make things worse. In this country we are looking around trying to find answers for the issues and the problems that face us. I believe that our rangatahi already have the answers and I've put this in the New Zealand Herald this week. I suggest we begin to think seriously about how we connect how we hand over the reins and allow our rangatahi to do what they do best in their generation which is lead. We need to listen to rangatahi to humble ourselves as pā'ake and find out how we can support them and celebrate them to live as their true selves to remove the barriers that are holding them back from realising their dreams and aspirations to ensure they have the opportunities to connect with each other with their culture and with their w'akapapa.Another issue we as leaders of this country in our sphere of influence as members of Parliament need to acknowledge is how we perpetuate the stigmatisation of our many w'ānau: our young people our takatāpui those who are in gangs those who are on benefits. We need to do better by them. I know there are w'ānau out there that are working really hard to break cycles of intergenerational trauma. W'ānau: I see you I mihi to you I acknowledge your mana and your resilience. When this very House shamefully ridicules bashes and debates the rights of those w'ānau it is an assault on our identities and our lived experiences. We have a responsibility to address our own behaviour. We have an obligation to look in the mirror.Ka hoki kaha atu te kurī ki tōna ruaki.[A dog will continue to return to its own vomit.]These are institutions and attitudes that instil w'akamā into our communities. W'akamā: shame. It's one of the biggest killers of Māori: too w'akamā to ask for help to ask for help out of addictions to ask for help when we're pōhara to ask for help out of abuse to ask for help when our w'ānau aren't doing well. At the very least we need to be focusing on eliminating systemic racism. We need to pour our energy into addressing barriers. We need to make sure that the resources and the wraparound support is there for communities in order to ensure our w'ānau get what they need to deal with these complex issues. We must be focused on holistic wellbeing and its determinants rather than continuing with piecemeal and uncoordinated approaches. We need to invest in each other.We have a mental health crisis in this country and we cannot sit idly by while so many of our people are suffering from despair and hopelessness. There is no excuse to allow for the poverty the inequities the racism the judging the profiling that is making our people think there is no hope that they are less than. We must do better and I believe united we can. I have strong tautoko as an individual as an MP as Te Paati Māori to continue to support long-term cross-party efforts to address. I ask that we all within our sphere of influence as w'ānau as w'ānaunga as leaders as participants in community we lift up: we lift up the trauma that is falling on our communities on our rangatahi on our tāne and we help them to breathe.Nō reira i te āhuatanga o tā tātou tūpuna tēnā tātou kia ora koutou katoa.[Therefore with respect to our ancestors thank you all.]