Brewer CameronCAMERON BREWER (National—Upper Harbour): I'm very pleased to rise against this member's bill today and I just reflect on the accusation as to why the Māori electorates were set up under the Maori Representation Act of 1867. Perhaps members need to go on and amend Wikipedia which is pored over by different scholars. You need to make a change because they say—Wikipedia which is pored over by scholars—they were created Māori electorates in order to give Māori a more direct say in Parliament. And isn't Te Pāti Māori a wonderful example of that in the last few weeks and months?I think Jamie Arbuckle member Arbuckle said it right when he said why didn't the Labour Government use their parliamentary majority? And I even see you resonating to that Madam Speaker. Fifty percent an MMP record—50 percent. How many MPs did they have 65 MPs? I don't know they disappeared but it was 65 66 something like that. They had the opportunity to use that parliamentary majority. And the powerful Māori caucus—remember we used to hear about that the powerful Māori caucus? Why didn't they put this forward as a Government proposal when they had an absolute majority?Entrenchment is not appropriate through a member's bill. As my colleague the chair of the Justice Committee James Meager said—and of course he is a man of the law; he was trained at one of the world's most southern universities Otago and of course those cold crisp winter mornings gave him the clarity that he brings to Parliament. He said that he had constitutional concerns. This is our own in-house scholar from Otago university. There were practical reasons—he took us through it in his Address in Reply debate speech. Most importantly he said it does not actually progress the wellbeing of Māori and that is a very good point. He said that in 1993 with the Electoral Act changes it was Parliament's intention then not to entrench Māori seats. And it is a rarity—if you look at the other provisions within the 1993 Electoral Act those that have entrenchment status are few and far between: it's around the length of the parliamentary term the division of general electoral districts the allowance for adjustment of the quota of electoral districts the voting age the method of voting.We do not support this bill coming through as a member's bill. It's wholly inappropriate. The sponsor Arena Williams—I appreciate the passion and the vigour that she's brought to this. She acknowledged that we've basically got it right—that New Zealand's made our constitutional inheritance from the UK—that we've made it our own and we've basically got it all right. And if that's the case let's not try and fix something that's not broken. She says she hopes it will lift engagement and lift Māori participation in voting. Well that is a long bow and where we need to put our emphasis—and where the Justice Committee will be putting it—is when the Auditor-General and others will be reviewing the electoral processes in and around the general election 2023. That is how we can look at how we can lift participation in Māori voting.In the meantime where we can spend our time in Parliament as my learned colleague James Meager said is improving focusing on actually lifting Māori outcomes lifting Māori out of dependency reducing the cost of living for Māori cracking down on law and order for Māori growing the economy for Māori lifting incomes growing the economy doing everything in favour of Māori. That's what this Government's focused on. So I do not support this bill.