Webb DuncanHon Dr DUNCAN WEBB (Labour—Christchurch Central): Kia ora Mr Speaker. One of the roles of Government is to think hard about how to meet the Crown's Treaty of Waitangi obligations. To her credit the Attorney-General did that when she wrote the report on this bill. This is what she said: [T]he Bill appears likely to result in a reduction in the representation of Māori as a specific community of interest including by subjecting Māori as a specific community of interest to particular procedural requirements. We consider this is disadvantageous for electors on the Māori roll in a local authority context relative to their current position." In a nutshell the Attorney-General agrees that this bill takes Māori backwards. One of the challenges for Government is to make sure that the right of Māori the promise in Te Tiriti of a voice at the table—not off to one side but around the table—is properly fully and fairly heard.We heard Cameron Brewer do politics by anecdote as he ran through electors people who had been elected of Māori descent in Auckland's elections. But have a look at the select committee report. Between 2002 and 2019 only two councils managed to establish Māori wards. The facts of it were clear. Even if you go through all of the elected members it was a recognised problem that Māori were not getting a seat around the table on a consistent basis because they simply weren't getting voted in. So there was a problem to be addressed. The way the problem was resolved—do you know what it was? It was something that the Government over there actually pays lip service to. It was to give local people the choice as to whether they had a Māori ward or not; let the local body itself decide because it knew its communities. Now the fact of the matter is—and it's well recognised in the documentation and the Waitangi Tribunal has stated it—that going to referendum to ensure a minority voice is an effective veto. It doesn't happen. We know that. We've seen that. The obligation to honour the Treaty is not an obligation to ask each and every elector of their reckons of whether we should have Māori wards; it's to take the steps that are necessary to give a real and cogent voice and Māori wards do that. This Government in its quite misleading narrative—in fact it's really misleading to suggest that this is in some way restoring one person one vote. I've seen members of the Opposition including Ministers say this. There was never a situation where Māori had more than one vote under the Māori ward system; they only ever had one vote and that was for the ward that they chose to vote in. To say otherwise is pernicious and quite misleading.This bill essentially breaks the promise of this Government to give local bodies more control. It's yet another example of them saying to local bodies "You might have liked to do things this way but we've changed your minds for you. We are going to unwind the Māori wards that you've chosen to have. We're going to force you to go to a referendum; a referendum that we know will be much harder to succeed in than the local bodies would otherwise want."The fact of the matter is that the principles and the objectives of a local government set out in the Local Government Act are for effective control. We allow special interests. We allow special rural wards. That's fine. Local bodies can choose to have different representation rules for rural wards; or island communities—Great Barrier Waiheke whatever—yeah we recognise it's a special community of enterprise. That's fine. But when it comes to Māori no. Not only no but no in the face of a Treaty obligation to give tino rangatiratanga to Māori the right to have self-determination the right to have an ability to determine their own path and participate meaningfully and directly in a decision-making process. Yet the Government says no.Look we can pontificate about the Treaty of Waitangi and that's important. It's of critical importance. But here's the real kicker: local bodies with Māori wards with effective and meaningful and consistent Māori representation around the table representing Māori communities are more effective. They do a better job. They run into problems less frequently. They find themselves being hauled through the Environment Court less frequently. They have a breakdown of relationship with iwi and hapū less frequently. It was a pleasure and a privilege to sit through the select committee and hear local body after local body extol the virtues of the relationships that Māori councillors representing Māori wards created. There wasn't the odd time where there was a rye smile exchange as we saw people who perhaps 10 years ago wouldn't have taken that view but now recognise that the relationship building the connection that this created the legitimisation of the Māori voice that this gave was highly effective.The fact of the matter is that Māori are both tangata whenua and also have customary rights. This is something that I think has been skimmed over. Māori as tangata whenua have many rights in respect of land and resources which might not appears on titles which don't immediately leap to the fore when some local body decision is being made but absolutely need to be taken into account. The only way to do that is to have people around the table to talk about that. It's not enough to nip out for a bit of consultation—important though that that might be—but it's got to be at the top table. This Government is insisting in its one-size-fits-all approach its vanilla approach its obsession with equality over equity that that voice isn't given. What this essentially does is return us to a system which we'd thankfully departed from where local bodies leaned against Māori not on purpose but because of the way they were composed because of the way the elections occurred decisions were made which didn't balance Treaty rights customary rights the interest of iwi and hapū. What they did was they unsatisfactorily skewed because the representatives around the table weren't entirely representative. It's the struggle of our democracy it is the struggle that this House through its MMP system addresses it's a struggle to have a representative body. That is what Māori wards did. They said that we not only have a Treaty obligation but just a good government obligation to have Māori around the table who aren't elected in general wards to talk about the interests of everyone who elected them from every walk of life but Māori from a Māori ward who come to speak with a Māori voice about Māori things things that I can't talk about but things that need to be said and that need to be listened to. So this bill is a huge retrograde step. As we listened to submissions time and again councillors iwi and ordinary citizens said "This is taking us backwards. We don't want it." But this Government is determined driven by the extreme views of its coalition partners to take a one-size-fits-all approach. It's shameful."