Kapa-Kingi MariamenoMARIAMENO KAPA-KINGI (Te Pāti Māori —Te Tai Tokerau): Mōrena. No matter my words today this Government will not waver in its mission to exterminate Māori. I might be tempted to change tone and say pai ana [that's OK] get rid of section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act and while you're at it get rid of the entire Act and the rotten institution that is Oranga Tamariki which should in fact be renamed Matenga Tamariki" Because it and its predecessor has only caused strife and ruin to the most vulnerable of te Iwi Māori our babies our beautiful brown babies.The theory of the Minister is that Oranga Tamariki's governing principles should be colour-blind which is just another word for white supremacy because to say we are all one people is really to say we should all be white people erasing the very hue of our identity and culture that makes us whole as tangata Māori tamariki Māori mokopuna Māori. E te Minita ka aroha ki a koe kua karetaohia e tō pāti. Kia kaha rā.[To the Minister how sad that you have been made a puppet by your party. Be strong.]The history of State violence on our tamariki is clear. Every Government institution has failed to care for our babies. Hoi anō it was never the Pākehā Government's job in the first place. That is purely the Hawaiki-derived prerogative of whānau of hapū iwi maintained by part two of Te Tiriti through tino rangatiratanga over our kāinga. E tika ana. [It's true.]A house is not a kāinga; that kupu encapsulates the very people that are the centre of your oranga the people that made you.If not for the conventions of statutory numbering section 7AA really should have been called "section 1840" because it provides an opportunity to revive our reality as the rangatira of our own destinies to rewind to a time where Pākehā hands would not dare touch our babies. From 1842 to today almost 70 percent of children in care are Māori a number which has only ever gone up. I know that most of those tamariki have whakapapa to my own rohe of Te Tai Tokerau. But they likely would not know that. Why? Because they have been stripped away from their cultural matrix. The early criminalisation of our babies through cultural alienation is no accident and removing section 7AA will only further entrench the system which by design has ruined us one generation at a time. My mind turns to Puao-te-ata-tu which came out in my time as a social worker in the Department of Social Welfare in the 1980s. The words of that report for direct Māori involvement in social welfare policy practices to improve Māori social outcomes for Māori have merely remained on paper. But section 7AA reveals the first glimpse of light into true devolution of power to resource Māori. This Act did not of course fall out of the sky. The sheer volume of research and policy behind it would be difficult to quantify. However the Government's reasons to take it away can be summed up in a few short words: racism and Pākehā supremacy. The ACT Party want to keep our tamariki mokopuna in the pipeline from State care to youth residences to youth prison to adult prison to uphold the Pākehā superiority of its voters. The Waitangi Tribunal's interim report and so take heed of this and indeed the Minister's own officials in their regulatory impact statement echo concerns over the lack of express rationale—I'll pause there—behind this repeal truthfully because it isn't there. They have warned of the risk of real harm to vulnerable children of progress with iwi partnerships and to tamariki reconnecting with their culture and sense of identity—please let that sink in—following the tone set by successful initiatives such as Rangatahi and Matariki Courts which do better to see our babies for who they are. Mark my words: regardless of the likely inevitable removal of section 7AA Te Pāti Māori will one day build a mokupuna Māori authority which will outshine this shameful moment in history just like we did with Whānau Ora by Māori for Māori and of Māori. That's what we will continue to do to the point of this Government's decisions that do not matter to us at all.Hokinga 'hakapapa oranga mokopuna. Kāti ki tēnā kia ora tātou. [A return of identity is the wellbeing of grandchildren. That's enough thanks everyone.]"