Waititi RawiriRAWIRI WAITITI (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori): E te Pīka e te Whare tēnā tātou. Tēnā tātou i a tātou e pōhiri nei i te tau 2022. Kāti ake ā ko te wehi ki a Ihowa o ngā mano me ōna manaakitia i a tātou kei ngā tini āhuatanga o te wā. E kī ahau ki ō tātou tini mate ngā mate huhua o te wā ngā mate kei runga i tēnā marae kei runga i tēnā marae tēnā kāinga tēnā kāinga o tātou. Arā ko taku tuahine tērā i roto i Te Whakatōhea ki a Kay i riro tītapu ki te pō i nehua i tāinahi me ngā mate huhua o te wā. Kua rere ngā mate haere haere whatungaro atu rā. Hoki mai rā ki a tātou ngā mahuetanga iho ngā toe iho ki a tātou e pae nei tēnā koutou tēnā koutou kia ora tātou katoa.[To the Speaker to the House greetings to all of us who have been welcomed here in 2022. May we be protected by the Lord God in the many current issues that we face. We mourn the many deaths the many recent deaths on each and every marae and in each and every home of ours. Specifically I mourn my sister Kay from Whakatōhea who was taken recently and was buried yesterday but also mourn the other many deaths. The dead have flown go go be gone. I now return to us all to those left behind to those that remain to us sitting here. Greetings greetings be well one and all.]Well as I reflect on the year that has gone and I know many have done that—it was a big year and it was a hard year and it was trying year for many. But with COVID and with the summer period of the unknown we are still here today ensuring the safety of all that live here in Aotearoa.But let me bring you to a kaupapa that has been at the core of everything we have done but at the core of our announcements in the last few days during the celebrations—or the commemorations—of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.The whakapapa of Te Tiriti o Waitangi needs to be continued to be discussed and wānanga-ed at every level of this country from this House—where it is not evident; it is not evident in this Chamber. I see a lot of spare space on this wall where Te Tiriti o Waitangi should be evident. It should guide the discussions of this House.The whakapapa of Te Tiriti o Waitangi article 1 as I have said before consented to custodianship of the Crown. Article 2 consented to Kāwanatanga and to maintain rangatiratanga over our whenua our awa our moana our people and our domains. Article 3 was to be treated as equals. Māori have been good partners through Te Tiriti o Waitangi for the last 182 years. We have consented to Kāwanatanga and we have upheld our part of the deal. Rangatiratanga has not been upheld. The Crown has not honoured the Treaty. We continue to fight for the equal rights of Māori to participate in our country's democracy.We talked about divorcing the Queen—this Waitangi Day Te Paati Māori announced the removal of the British Crown and the royal family as head of State and move Aotearoa to a Tiriti-centric Aotearoa. Now if you look at it as a marriage—if you look at it as a marriage—tangata whenua went into a marriage with the Crown and they beget a child called Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Just because the divorce happens doesn't mean the child still doesn't exist. And so what we are calling for is to relinquish the Crown as head of State of Aotearoa but to allow Te Tiriti o Waitangi to guide us to create a Tiriti-centric Aotearoa between tangata whenua—and like David Seymour said in his speech and I heard him supporting this is that we have tangata Tiriti sit in their rightful place: to be able to make equal decisions for the wellbeing of our country. So just because the divorce happens doesn't mean the child still doesn't exist. So it is time for an adult and a mature conversation to the herald the dawn of a new union: a marriage of equality between tangata whenua and tangata Tiriti to create a true Aotearoa; an Aotearoa our tīpuna envisaged and consented to a Tiriti-centric Aotearoa.Our vision is not reform because reform is a sugar-coated mechanism to be better servants to the system. As we work towards equality let's not confuse diversity and inclusion with equality—because it usually shows up with an obsession with numbers. How many Māori are in the photo? Have we met our 20 percent Māori quota? How many Māori are in Cabinet? All we are seeing is chocolate sprinkles put over a vanilla cake—the cake is still vanilla. Our mana motuhake policy is the reconciliation of our indigenous truth and our re-indigenisation of our collectivism as tangata whenua. Our mana motuhake policy is the revolutionary transformation of who we are as mana whenua of this nation as tuakana of this nation.The establishment of a Māori Parliament is critical to our constitutional transformation. The implementation of Matike Mai recommendations is also part of that policy. The overhaul of the Treaty settlement process and to return land to whānau hapū and iwi by ensuring the private and local government land is returned to mana whenua introducing a first right of refusal policy and I thank the Greens for supporting this part of our policy because it means we are in agreement with this particular policy in our mana motuhake endeavours. We want to return conservation land in the Department of Conversation estate to whānau hapū and iwi Māori. Land back must become reality for tino rangatiratanga. To be achieved we must commit to restore our environment and tackle the climate change crisis—and I look forward to the invitation by the Greens' co-leader to have those discussions—by allowing mātauranga Māori to lead the way. Only indigenous knowledge will save this planet—because science hasn't.There is a new generation on the rise. You have the baby boomers you have Gen Y Gen Z the Millennials. I have dubbed this next generation as 'Gen T': Generation Tiriti. They are intelligent they are strategic and they are in tune and—dare I say it—they are woke. We are here to dismantle and they are here to dismantle the system and I am here for it.Our mahi for the year ahead: in 2022 we will continue to be the unapologetic Māori voice for a Tiriti-centric Aotearoa and be a continued powerhouse in Opposition. Just last month we supported the call for musicians artists and creatives who had the rug pulled from under them with the sudden cancellation of events. Thankfully the Government listened and has now fronted up with more support. This once again shows the power of Te Paati Māori's voice on the cross benches and that even more Te Paati Māori MPs next term—and I believe we're the kryptonite everybody's talking about—will lead to even more wins for our people.Our people expect and deserve liberated representatives who will be ashamedly Māori always; who will not bow down to the Crown; and who do not suffer cognitive dissonance where our actions conflict with our values. This year we will continue as we've begun. We will continue to elevate the voices of te pani me te rawakore and fight against inequalities in the widening inequality that this country has seen.COVID has not only highlighted the injustices in society but made it far worse. As economist Bernard Hickey has reported the Government's COVID policies made the rich $952 billion richer while the poor have been forced with a $400 million further in debt to the Government itself. The poor now need more than twice as many food parcels as before COVID. As prices continue to rise much faster than wages it is Māori as always who bear the brunt of capitalism's failures. This is clear when looking at the housing market. We are seeing the biggest wealth transfer in generations: from hardworking whānau to greedy property developers and landlords. Since 1986 the number of Māori forced to rent has increased by 88.3 percent; 70 percent of Māori cannot afford homes and are living in rentals; one-third of Māori live in houses considered damp and/or overcrowded; Māori make up 50 percent of the waiting list for social housing; 30 percent of Māori pay rent that is over 30 percent of their weekly income; and 33 percent of Māori will shift residence every three years.At the same time there were 191646 unoccupied houses on census night in 2018—38000 of those ghost houses were in Auckland. At least 12000 tangata whenua are homeless in their homeland. This is one of the most significant Treaty breaches of today. We have created a generation of renters and we are holding them hostage with the very real prospect of homelessness. Te Paati Māori will continue to push for bold solutions to the housing crisis including taxing unearned wealth through capital gains and a ghost house tax; we will massively increase the construction of State houses while enabling papa kāinga housing at scale through regular reforms and increased investment; and we will stop all sales of freehold land to offshore foreign interest.My member's bill on electoral law overhaul needs this House to support all the recommendations. If we do not we fall short. We need a fair electoral system that does not limit and suppress Māori participation. Our electoral law is archaic it's discriminatory and it's racist. There are only two opportunities for Māori to choose the electoral rolls: either at the time of initial enrolment or during the Māori Electoral Option period which the last time was in 2018. So if you wanted to change in the election for 2020 you couldn't because your next option is 2024. So you miss the next election in 2023 and so you participate on the roll of your choice in 2026. This is no accident. The barriers in place are calculated to lock tangata whenua out from fully participating in this country's democracy. The system is designed to disenfranchise Māori voters and lock us out. My member's bill is to remove the racism that locks our people out of their right to change rolls for up to eight years—it's an eight-year lockout.Specifically the bill will allow Māori to change between the Māori and general rolls at any time; to change the requirement to redraw electoral boundaries; to set a date two years after each general election; set a legislative requirement that if somebody stipulates they are Māori when enrolling but doesn't choose an electoral roll they are automatically placed on the Māori roll; change the name of the general electoral district to non-Māori electoral district" because you've got the Māori roll the general roll and then the general election—it doesn't make sense. I am encouraging all my fellow MPs to support this bill. Supporting is consciously choosing to actively participate in a Tiriti-centric Aotearoa recognising the mana of the Treaty that our ancestors signed together. If not then we choose to continue to discriminate against tangata whenua and you choose to uphold this blatantly racist legislation.Seabed mining is another one of our members' bills. Te Paati Māori will also continue to assert the kaitiakitanga of tangata whenua and for the restoration of our whenua moana and taiao. The other Te Paati Māori member's bill—under Debbie Ngarewa-Packer in the ballot—the Prohibition on Seabed Mining Legislation Amendment Bill which would ban seabed mining in Aotearoa. Debbie's Ngāti Ruanui and the iwi of Te Tai Hauāuru have been fighting for years against the greed of international corporates who would destroy our moana and offshore profits. They follow in the proud tradition of whānau hapū and iwi across Aotearoa who have fought against the pollution of our taiao and the desecration of our whenua taurikura such as Te Whānau-a-Apanui my own people. I stood on the front lines of the protest that worked to get Petrobras out of the Raukumara. Ngāti Ruanui have won in the courts time and time again including in the Supreme Court in September of last year and we are very proud of that. It's now time for the Government to follow the precedent of the courts and to do what's right: adopt Debbie's bill ban seabed mining in Aotearoa and while they're at it onshore drilling and fracking too. We are entirely focused on advancing the aspirations of our people because we are the true indigenous political voice and movement in this House. We will continue to support bills that do that and oppose policies that harm our people regardless of who puts them forward.Nō reira e te iwi Māori kia kaha kaha ki a tātou e hika mā.[Therefore I say to the Māori people we must indeed continue to stay strong.]We must continue to be the protectors and the projectors of our indigenous voice we must continue to be the unapologetic Māori voice for our liberation and we must continue to re-indigenise our world for the sake of our whenua our moana our mokopuna and our future. Why? Because we are magic.Nō reira e hika mā ka nui aku kōrero mō tēnei wā. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou kia ora tātou katou.[And so I will leave my speech there. Greetings greetings be well one and all.]"