Lee MelissaMELISSA LEE (National): Finally Madam Chair—great choice. I take this opportunity to rise to speak on this bill. It is my first opportunity and forgive me if I repeat some of the things that other members might have traversed in the Chamber. But I've found it extremely interesting sitting here listening to the Minister talking and starting her answer previously. Her comment was that Māori also pay rates as if that is an answer to the question that was asked and she said that she was being race-baited by one of my colleagues. I thought that her very comment that Māori pay rates was in fact race-baiting. If that is the case the answer is: how many non-Māori do not actually pay rates? Are we now saying that if Māori pay rates and they get half the seats how about the rest of us who pay rates and who do not get any representatives on this board and what about the territorial authorities who are duly elected and appointed to look after our waters? But they are being told No the Government knows best. We're reducing your numbers and we will only have four big entities and we will have equal representatives from territorial authority representatives as well as mana whenua—50:50." I can actually say that my background is also ethnic. I come from a Korean background and I don't know if many members actually know this but my surname Lee it is actually Yi but the prefix before the Lee indicates what clan I come from. I am a Gyeongju Lee and if I come from Gyeongju Lee my name also gives an indication as to what generation I am. In Korea we also have clan land issues so I do actually understand the issue that Māori have in terms of iwi and hapū and the clan land—the land that belongs to the whole hapū and iwi—and the kinds of disputes that go on within the family as well. When the Minister talked about how the representation was really significant and that it wasn't—I'm just trying to understand. Do even the mana whenua get true representation when you talk about having at least 60-odd iwi and hapū groupings in the Waikato alone I think? The territorial authorities number more than 20—I can't remember exactly how many there were—and if we are talking about having 50:50 seats in this particular grouping on one of the new entities that this bill makes how many representatives is that going to be Minister exactly in the number and can that number be said to be truly representative and democratic? The Minister mentioned the democracy issue in this. She actually brought that in. When you consider the fact that New Zealand is supposed to be a democracy and I sort of feel that this clause in particular—and I support honestly Supplementary Order Paper 287 which Simon Watts has presented. It amends this bill to make changes to make sure of the "composition of the regional representative groups to ensure that every territorial authority is represented in the regional representative group." because if we are talking about a democracy—and the Minister said that she has read some of the submissions. When there are more than 88000 submissions to the select committee and the majority of them actually oppose this bill I don't understand how she can honestly say that she has listened to the people who oppose it. Even the councils that she talks about opposed this bill. The people of New Zealand oppose this bill and we oppose this bill and I think she should actually take heed of some of the valuable suggestions that members in this committee are in fact making because it certainly might make this bill better. On sitting here just listening to the Minister it sounds typical of this Labour Government as it is the Labour Government who knows best and nobody else can tell them what to do."