Rurawhe AdrianRt Hon ADRIAN RURAWHE (Labour): Tēnā koe e te Mana Whakawā. Ka tuku mihi atu ki a koutou katoa; te Whare nei tae atu ki ngā mema hou anei ahau e tuku mihi atu ana ki a koutou. Tae atu ki a koe Cushla Tangaere-Manuel me Reuben Davidson. Tēnei te mihi ake mai i ahau ki a kōrua tahi.He tika hoki kia tuku mihi atu ki aku whanaunga nō Mōkai Pātea. Tuatahi te mema hou mō Tāmaki Makaurau ki a koe Takutai Tarsh Kemp tēnei te mihi.Ko te hokinga mai anō o Hon Tama Potaka anō hoki. Nō reira tēnā kōrua aku whanaunga.Ki a koutou katoa. Kua roa te wa ka tū ake ahau ki te kōrero i roto i te Whare nei. Tata ki ngā tau e whā. Nō reira he tino hōnore tēnei kia tū ake au kia tuku atu aku whakaaro ki te Whare nei.[Thank you Mr Speaker. I acknowledge you all; this House and its new members. I commend you all.Especially Cushla Tangaere-Manuel and Reuben Davidson. I would like to welcome you both from me to you. It is only right that I address and commend my Mōkai Pātea relatives. First to the new member for Tāmaki Makaurau to Takutai Tarsh Kemp I acknowledge you.To the returning Hon Tama Potaka as well. I acknowledge you my relations. To you all. It's been a long time since I've had to stand and make a speech in this House; just about four years. So it is an honour to stand here to give my contribution to the House.]As I said it's been a long time since I've made a speech in this House. I do want to Mr Speaker congratulate you on becoming an Assistant Speaker this time. I think you were an excellent Deputy Speaker to me when I was Speaker. I now become the former Speaker and I hope to carry it out as well as the Rt Hon Sir David Carter did when he was the former Speaker. I acknowledge the other presiding officers as well especially the Rt Hon Gerry Brownlee Barbara Kuriger and Maureen Pugh. I think you've got a great presiding officer team and I hope the House sees it upon itself to give the new team a good start. So congratulations again to you.I want to acknowledge the Rt Hon Chris Hipkins who has given me the responsibility in Opposition to be the spokesperson for the Labour Party on Whānau Ora. So I do mihi again to my whanaunga the Hon Tama Potaka who holds that portfolio. It's one that is really dear to my heart and I think back to before I came to Parliament of the work that I did as the chair of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Apa and also chair of Te Oranganui Iwi Health Authority chair of Te Kōtuku Hauora and a member of the Whanganui Regional Primary Health Organisation as well. Throughout that time Whānau Ora was an important kaupapa for all of those organisations because we knew it was a great way forward. Tariana Turia—now the Hon Dame Tariana Turia—was the first CEO of Te Oranganui Iwi Health Authority. She was the architect of that plan and I was right there when that was happening. I feel honoured to have witnessed its emergence into a Government policy. I'll be making certain that my cousin Tama also upholds that. I think it's important that his colleagues in the Government support him in that. He's got a lot of portfolios that are going to attract a lot of attention because when I saw and I heard the speech that was made today I heard a lot of things there which bothered me—bothered me a lot—because I know from experience how difficult it is for whānau Māori without those mechanisms being in place. I know it because I've been part of it. I've seen it I've walked in that world and it's difficult. It feels like we're going to go backwards after hard-fought gains to address the inequities that clearly exist in our society. I heard today that the Government would govern for all people for all New Zealanders. Māori are New Zealanders. I just want remind everyone in this House: Māori are New Zealanders. Not only are we New Zealanders; we deserve to have the Treaty relationship and the promises in it upheld and acknowledged. There is nothing less that will do. We deserve nothing less. This country deserves nothing less. We have to do the best that we can do so we will oppose—we will oppose—for those things that have been hard gained and fought for and that have made a difference in our people's lives. For example in the last six years funding for Whānau Ora has increased by 145 percent. It has gone from servicing 13000 families to 30000 families—a huge increase—because the need is there. Now I hear a lot of things that are going to be taken away. What I don't hear is how those inequities are going to be addressed. There are mountains of evidence even in this House—evidence. In the 52nd Parliament there was an inquiry by the Māori Affairs Committee into the inequities in health for Māori. The report was tabled in this House. It recommended by majority that a Māori health authority be established to address that. That was the evidence that was collected over that inquiry. I can point to the Simpson report—again evidence; not just making up stuff. I just feel it's an absolute tragedy to go backwards after gaining so much. We will lose much more it will be much harder to regain a Māori health authority and the impact on Māori families will be huge. I want all of us to know that.I line it up directly alongside the impact of removing smoke-free legislation. When I was the Speaker of the House one of the proudest moments I had was presiding over the passage of that legislation. It will change lives if it's left alone. By that I mean we all know the evidence: smoking kills our people. There's no way of dressing it up so it looks nice and feels nice. It doesn't—it's not nice. Too many of us have gone to hospitals and hospices to witness the impact of smoking. I can take you around the urupā at my home and I can point to the graves of those who have passed away from smoking. Removing the barrier that is going to prevent more of that is a horrendous thing to do. I would be ashamed to vote for the repeal of that legislation and I think every single member in this House should actually ask themselves Do we want a future where the impact of such an activity as smoking should be legislated for or against? What is the best outcome for our people? What is the best that we can do for the future generations?" I don't know but I think that if it is repealed then the next time that we have a progressive Government that wants to make a difference about the number of kids that take up smoking and then eventually die from it it will have to be a lot stronger in the legislation that we put up—like let's just ban the stuff. Kia ora."