Coffey TamatiTAMATI COFFEY (Labour—Waiariki): Thank you Mr Speaker. Tū taua mai i runga tū taua mai i raro tū taua mai i roto tū taua mai i waho kia tau ai te mauri tū te mauri ora ki te katoa haumi e hui e tāiki e.Ka hoki ngā mahara ki a rātou mā kua wehe atu ki te pō: ā haere haere haere atu runga ngā mate. Ā rātou ki a rātou tātou ki a tātou. Tēnā koutou tēnā koutou te whānau tēnā koutou katoa.[I summon from above I summon from below I summon from within and the surrounding environment the life energy to infuse and enrich all present unified and connected.The thoughts return to those who have departed to the place of departed spirits: go go go above the deceased. And may they remain with each other and we will remain with each other. Greetings greetings family greetings to us all.]I stand here actually quite emotional listening to my colleagues tell the stories about how we as Te Arawa have put our tentacles out all around Aotearoa and the impact that our tūpuna our kuia our kaumātua have had when it comes to Te Puia when it comes to our arts and crafts and the legacy that that's left in the various regions around Aotearoa. So that pleases my heart greatly.The second thing that pleases my heart is seeing all of you up there in the gallery my whānau. It's a moment where my world is colliding. Down here I see these people—they are my work whānau—when I come home you are my actual whānau and this is a moment where both of these moments have come together and it's a beautiful moment so allow me to indulge in that.Te Puia the New Zealand Māori Arts and Crafts Institute has a long history as you've heard from my colleague and fellow Rotorua boy Fletcher Tabuteau. The whole premise of the carving school started down at Te Ao Marama down at Ōhinemutu and in fact I was reading through the history of it. Because of the Depression and because of the death of one of the directors it closed in 1937 and it wasn't re-erected until 1963 when through an Act of Parliament it was made official as an entity. It was then the place where all of our carvers and all of our weavers learnt their trades perfected their skills and it was also a place where we welcomed in young carvers and young weavers from around the country and sent them back to their rohe as well with that treasure that taonga that had been passed down. And that tradition carries on today.Just last weekend I was at Te Puia in fact—for our staff Christmas party no less—and I saw the wonderful things that have gone on there. It's developing in the most beautiful way and I want to mihi to all of the kaimahi from Te Puia—Tim Cossar I saw you somewhere up there before—and all of our team up there that have been doing a brilliant job turning Te Puia into what it is today. The opening of Pātaka Kai as a new function centre—the place looks amazing. I was seeing last week they were laying the underground underfloor heating in the outdoor central area—awesome because we all know it can get cold in the middle of the winter. So there's real progress going on there. And the buses—the buses in the carpark are testament to the fact that there is some really good management going on there and a positive outlook for the future.I'm absolutely supportive of this bill and when we held a hui down at Whakarewarewa the other day there were a few concerns from some of our whānau who were a little bit upset that they weren't feeling like they were part of this movement going forward. One bit of agreement that we got was that they were absolutely in agreement with me that Te Puia needs to come back. No matter which side of the fence you sat on everybody's in absolute agreement that it's coming back. The devil's in the detail. The devil's in the detail about who it comes back to what the entity is going to look like afterwards and whether or not we're going to have sufficient representation from all of our partners involved in that partnership. Those are some very legitimate concerns and I pledged that I would go back and I would do some submission-writing workshops. So some of our whānau who have never written a submission before and wouldn't know one if they fell over one can actually participate in this process because something that's incredibly important in this going forward is making sure that all of our whānau are on this journey. That's hugely important and I put that little wero out there and I'm going to do my best to make sure that our whānau are on for that ride.I want to mihi to our hapū: Wāhiao Tūhourangi Ngāti Hinganoa Huarere Tūkiterangi the HTK Trust—there are some issues wrapped in that too and I understand that. But I want to mihi to my whānau: Ngāti Hurungaterangi Ngāti Taeotu and Ngāti Te Kahū and also Pukeroa Oruawhata. I see Malcolm Short up there and Alec Wilson: ā ngā mihi nui ki a kōrua mō ō kōrua mahi—for all of us actually for Ngāti Whakauē—so thank you for the work that you do.This is going to be a positive partnership whānau. I'm really looking forward to the challenge in front of us. I'm with you on this journey as your local member of Parliament but also as one of you. So therefore I look forward to this progressing through the House. I heard my colleague's challenge there to see if we could have this wrapped up by Matatini to which I go Hmm let's not rush the process!" I know that we have a significant date coming up and I know that we're all going to be back here in full force and I know it will probably be significant because Te Arawa will no doubt take out if not the first then the second place at Matatini. But you know—SPEAKER: Order!TAMATI COFFEY: Oh! It will be a significant occasion but I'm very aware that there are some people that need to feel heard through this process and I don't want to rush that. So with that in mind I absolutely commend this bill to the House. Kia ora.Bill read a first time. Bill referred to the Māori Affairs Committee.Waiata"