Waititi RawiriRAWIRI WAITITI (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori): Well I've heard many an oxymoron this evening: It's sensible but we will not be supporting it."I just want to acknowledge the first speaker Tāmati Coffey who actually talked about being on the general roll and the Māori roll. He's still on the general roll and I just want to thank him for his vote at the last election. Because he couldn't vote for anybody else he voted for me. He was still on the general roll at that particular time. But anyway just moving on from that there was some interesting kōrero. One speaker talked about tactical voting and the seat that he currently sits in only has tactical voting and it's decided over a cup of tea. Yes I do remember 2014 Arena. When you decide to see the light the Māori Party will be waiting for you. We'll always be waiting here with open arms for all those Māori on that side. Haere mai hoki mai hoki mai ki te kāinga. [Welcome return come back home.]So this has been an interesting process in actual fact. And just to put on the record in terms of the Hansard my bill was drawn out and then a minute later Labour announced that they were doing the same thing. I can tell you that it was a minute later because it's in our press release that went out at the same time as it was drawn. So it's an interesting space but it was not a month after; it was actually a minute later that Labour announced their bill for the electoral roll. So ours was actually drawn first.Hon Member: Now the truth comes out!RAWIRI WAITITI: Yes there's the truth and it's now in the Hansard and I will back it up with the evidence.I just want to thank the Greens and Golriz for supporting this particular bill. There are only two parties in this House with common sense this evening but I do want to have a look at some of the other things. This bill never ever questioned anybody's whakapapa. It never ever questioned anybody's Māoritanga but what it did question was their ability to advocate for their Māoritanga. So this wasn't about questioning whakapapa; this was about being able to stand up for tangata whenua—being able to stand up for a tangata whenua point of view on this issue. Yes Labour has a similar bill but it's like an empty Christmas tree. This bill was a Christmas tree with all the decorations lights and the presents underneath it and we've chosen to ignore it. But it's OK—it's OK. We will continue to fight to ensure a fairer democratic system for tangata whenua. But it never took away anything and it never was about threatening the vote of others that are in our democracy. This was just allowing our people to have a fairer process in this country's democracy because for a long time we have been shut out. And like I said it's over an eight-year period of being shut out for our people.So I just want to thank everybody for their contributions. I'm a little bit disappointed that we weren't able to get this over the first reading and be able to debate the other parts of this bill which are actually missing from the Labour bill the Government bill. It would have been nice to be able to sit there I think and have a robust discussion and kōrero across all the parties about the other parts of this bill which are missing from their bill. It's all about the ability to be able to have these robust debates but look the blocks have been put up and we will continue to ensure that the voice of our constituents in which this bill was created on their dreams and aspirations will have to come through other avenues. But we will continue to fight to ensure that their voices are heard in this particular process.I can hear that the two major parties didn't support it. ACT? Well I wasn't surprised—I wasn't surprised. The leader of the ACT Party gives me a serve on the way out. Kei te pai tēnā. Boom! Anyway—Karen Chhour: Point of order. We don't actually allow—RAWIRI WAITITI: I'm still speaking Mr Speaker.DEPUTY SPEAKER: No it's a point of order sorry.Karen Chhour: —speeches to mention that somebody is not in the House.DEPUTY SPEAKER: He actually mentioned that he was leaving the House. The conversation was still taking place in the House. So we'll resume—31 seconds to go Mr Waititi.RAWIRI WAITITI: Thank you Mr Speaker. I knew that. I know my Standing Orders. He was on the way out of the House. Anyway regardless of that I look forward to other members' bills. I'm thankful that the karakia were heard for this particular bill. I take it from that that the others didn't hear the same karakia. But anyway it will do for the next member's bill to ensure that we are able to continue to advocate for our people and for our constituents in this House. Kia ora tātou."