Kapa-Kingi Mariameno; Brownlee GerryMARIAMENO KAPA-KINGI (Matarau—Te Pāti Māori): Tēnā koe e te Pīka tēnā tātou. Tū ana rā i te pō uriuri anga nui ana ki tēnei poupou pupuri kōrero. Anei ngā puta ki te ao mārama. E ara. E ngā manawa kua irihia ki runga tēnā anō tātou katoa. E rere rā ko ngā tangi kōrero ko ngā tangi tikanga ko ngā tangi roimata ki runga ki ēnei ki ngā purapura ora kua tupu kerekere kua tupu wanawana. Tēnā tatou. [Thank you Mr Speaker greetings to us all.Standing in the darkest night facing this pillar that maintains the discourse. These are the pathways to the world of light. Arise. To those whose hearts have been elevated greetings to all of us.Flowing are the resounding statements the resounding practices and the tearful cries of grief on these the living seeds whose growth has been extraordinary and awe-inspiring. Greetings to us all.]My hope is that we see the full whakapapa of this report as opposed to just the letters and the numbers on the paper that we see the sickening irony of the phrase abuse in care" that we see the faces of all the innocent babies who have died in these Pākehā institutions with some of their bones laying underneath unmarked graves. This world may have forgotten you but your tūpuna won't. I know that your kuia Hine-nui-te-pō will be loving you now in a way that this world did not have the heart to do. Moe mai rā koutou.My hope is that we see the faces who were hated and abused because they were brown because they loved in their own way because they were different because they were born without the privileges that able-bodied people enjoy; faces that longed for ones like theirs to tell them who they are to speak to their wairua through the reo and tikanga of their tūpuna to say they loved them to make them whole; faces that screamed over and over into an empty void completely devoid of aroha completely devoid of care.To all of you beautifully made mokopuna I see you I see your pain but I also see your power. Ko tō mana nō Hawaiki mai nō Rangiātea mai. Ahakoa te aha e kore e ngaro. [Your power is from Hawaiki it is from Rangiātea. No matter what it will never be lost.]You have a just rage within that you shake the world e hoa mā let it out.The release of this 3000-page report culminating from six years of hearing truth and pain is by no means an end point; it is just the beginning. It has proved to the world beyond any form of doubt the reality of State- and church-sanctioned abuse over generations within a system which on paper is meant to care for and protect tamariki. It also proves that for years successive Governments have spent more time effort and money trying to hide that reality to save its own reputation as opposed to saving the lives of innocent children.Today I say to the Pākehā State: you must answer to your crimes against all tamariki who you have made and watched suffer—the bare minimum response financial compensation and enacting all 138 recommendations in this report.Let me say this: when I hear comments like "We thought this was a great country. We never could possibly do that." it's such a privileged statement. Māori for way too long have absolutely felt the despise the distaste and the horror of what Pākehā systemic racism hands to us right? So absolutely it is not a shock to us. It is not a surprise. It is not a surprise to Māori at all that these things occurred then and that they occur right now as I'm standing here giving this speech.All roads must lead to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. My tūpuna did not sign Te Tiriti to watch their mokopuna die. We are the only ones who can care and love for our own. So hands off our mokopuna. The best chance we have of protecting our tamariki from State abuse is to keep them out of it in the first place. Our tamariki Māori currently make up 70 percent of those in State custody and further they make up 80 percent of the currently abused by the State. Imagine the next apology that's going to roll out over the next two years. Imagine what that's going to look like. We must dismantle this institution now.Relevant communities including iwi hapū and whānau must be resourced to shape the destinies of their own babies. For us for Te Pāti Māori this looks like the Mokopuna Māori Authority which will prioritise indigenous care models and empower communities. These thoughts aren't a theory—and I just heard my whanaunga mihi and that's because her and I know that working in the department at times back in the late 1980s and 1990s we saw it we fought against it and still they refused to hear it then.So I mihi to every single whānau member in this House that could make it and to the thousands that couldn't: we're with you we see you. Kia kaha rā tātou.Motion agreed to.SPEAKER: I declare the House in committee for consideration of the Local Government (Electoral Legislation and Māori Wards and Māori Constituencies) Amendment Bill."