Williams Arena; Salesa JennyELECTORAL (EQUAL PROTECTION OF MĀORI SEATS) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingARENA WILLIAMS (Labour—Manurewa): I move That the Electoral (Equal Protection of Māori Seats) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Māori Affairs Committee to consider the bill.Madam Speaker he mihi. Tēnā koutou ngā mātāwaka tēnā hoki koutou ngā mema o tēnei Whare. E tū ana ahau ki te whaikōrero mō taku pire kua tae mai ki mua ki te aroaro o te Pāremata. Kua tae tēnei ki te wā ki te whakature i ngā tūru Māori he tūru motuhake.[Madam Speaker some acknowledgments. I acknowledge you the people of many backgrounds and I also acknowledge the members of this House. I stand to speak about my bill which has arrived before Parliament. The time has come to legislate the Māori seats seats of special character.]I am very privileged and proud to speak in support of this member's bill which has a great deal of history. My colleague the Hon Rino Tirikatene introduced a bill similar to this in 2018 and it feels right for me after speaking about his legacy recently in the House to acknowledge that legacy by continuing his work to make sure that the Māori seats have equal protection to the general seats.On his bill Mr Tirikatene said in his first reading although it's small it is a treasure—Ahakoa he iti he pounamu." This is a short bill and I hope that members around the House take the opportunity to read it. It's on the Table along with a positive New Zealand Bill of Rights Act vet from the Attorney-General the Hon Judith Collins.It is a simple bill and it is easy to understand but I'll take you through it so that there's no confusion about what the simple provisions do because they do speak to those provisions in the Electoral Act which are about making sure that we have fairness for the participation of everyone in our democracy.The Electoral Act sets out the rules of the elections. Some of those rules are so fundamental to the way that our fair play within the elections work that you cannot change them or get rid of them without the 75 percent support of this House. That's because it would be unfair for any one parliamentary party or any one Government to be able to change those things that we say are fundamental to the way that we can vote and exercise our right to participate when it comes to our democratic choice.Sections 268 and 269 of the Electoral Act set out that 75 percent majority rule. There are not many other rules within the Electoral Act which are subject to those rules of the 75 percent majority but one is section 35—that's called "Division of New Zealand into General electoral districts."So we've got this provision here on one side which deals with the way that general seats which many members of this House here tonight will hold and that is entrenched. No one can change the rules around those. Section 35 determines how many people should be in each electorate and how they should look in the future as the population grows. It's so fundamental to the way we organise ourselves in our New Zealand democratic system that it's not possible to gerrymander the population represented within it. That's something we need to preserve and both major parties have always been committed to preserving. You would need a 75 percent majority to do that and so in effect you'd need everyone around this House to appreciate that there was a consensus to be able to make some changes there.Section 45 on the other hand is the rule which means that the Māori seats exist. It determines how many people should be in each electorate for Māori and how they should look in the future as the population grows—sounds very similar to section 35 right? But the difference between section 35 and section 45 is only that section 35 requires a 75 percent majority to change it to change the population that is represented by those seats and section 45 does not require a 75 percent majority.So a simple majority of Parliament could change the way that the representation in those seats worked that gerrymandering the population within those seats would not be protected by a 75 percent majority that changing the way they looked in the future would not be protected by a 75 percent majority. This is what this bill intends to correct. It probably was not and should not have been the intention of Parliament when it passed section 35 which is the rule about how to determine general seats to protect those in a way that the Māori seats were not protected. Because when we look at the history of the Māori seats they were about giving voters who chose to be on the Māori roll the same representation as those voters who would vote in the general electorates. That's why I've brought this bill to the House tonight. This is about seeking Parliament's ability to debate these issues and I hope we can get to select committee to have these kinds of discussions about how we see the future of our democracy working how we see the representation of Māori roll voters being protected in exactly the same way that people in a general seat and the MPs in a general seat who are campaigning to them are protected in the future.The bill seeks to protect both section 35 and section 45. There is no change proposed to the way that the general seats are calculated because they are of equal importance to our democratic system our electoral system and of equal importance to the way that we play the game in Parliament and that we come here. So I hope we can all agree that that even playing field is something we want to continue into the future.The Māori seats are also a good part of our little democracy. I like our system of government and it's not perfect but I think we've got the most no-nonsense system in the world that suits Kiwis' attitude of no-nonsense when it comes to lots of things. It makes me a proud advocate not only for our parliamentary democracy but also for our constitutional monarchy which is in itself one of the most stable forms of government in the world. It's something we've inherited from Britain but look we've made it our own. It's one of the best examples historically of Kiwis taking something which was not designed by us but fixing it up with minimal fuss and making it work and we're still making it work. Our democracy is something that we should be incredibly proud of and our parliamentary system is one of the envies of other democracies within the Western world. We've got the rules basically right. I think that we can agree that if we keep on the even keel here of a recipe which is working we can make sure that our Māori seats continue in the future in the way that they have worked since 1867.There is a proud history there which we can all look to and say that we've had representatives in Parliament who have won those Māori seats from many of the parties represented here today and they've made a huge contribution. It's the history of the Māori seats that I want to see this bill through. They're about us taking on something that wasn't designed for us—but we made it work—that we created in 1867 and they immediately provided a political flashpoint for organising within Māori communities and around Māori issues particularly land rights and at the time health issues like alcohol use. Important leaders within Māori society have represented their people by being elected in their seats: Māui Pōmare my tupuna James Carroll and Apirana Ngata. The first wahine Māori was elected in 1949 Iriaka Rātana and generations of Māori leaders have followed her through the Māori seats like Nanaia Mahuta.They're also popular. Every five years we have a referendum on the Māori seats—it's called the Māori electoral option. More than half of Māori voters choose to be on the Māori roll and there are 261000 of us who choose to vote in one of the Māori seats—yep that's me. Me and my dad go down to the Anglican church in Manurewa and we cast our votes for Peeni Henare. He is an excellent local MP for me and my father. He loves him probably more than me.I believe that the Māori electoral option is another way of engaging some of the most under-represented voters within our democracy. Parliament works better when it thinks like the New Zealanders we represent but according to official figures approximately 11.5 percent of eligible voters are not resisted to vote and that's 440000 New Zealanders. We should be doing everything we can no matter what our political affiliations to increase the number of people who are engaged with our electoral system in the Māori electoral option and organising around the Māori seats is one of those ways we can reach into communities who have some of the lowest levels of engagement in our democracy.Māori are less likely to be enrolled to vote than other New Zealanders and when they are enrolled they are less likely to exercise their vote than other New Zealanders. Giving options and actively talking about the importance of voting is something we can do for that community to encourage participation and we should be doing it.I want to briefly comment on the vet from the Hon Judith Collins in her capacity as the Attorney-General. It is available for members on the Table. The Attorney-General has provided a positive rights analysis when considering the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act implications of this bill. Crown Law have provided advice that should give MPs around the House some comfort about the ability for this bill not to impinge on the rights of any other voters including their electoral rights and the right to participate in our democracy. This is simply making the rule for Māori seats similar to the rule for general seats and that is why there are no rights implications that Crown Law have identified.I draw again on the words of the Hon Rino Tirikatene to finish: He taonga ngā tūru Māori. Māori seats are a treasure. Neke atu i te kotahi rau tau te tawhito. They've been around for well over 100 years. He mana tō ngā tūru Māori. The Māori seats still have mana. He taonga whakahirahira. They are a treasured taonga of our people and this country. I commend this bill and I hope we get a 75 percent majority tonight.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Jenny Salesa): The question is that the motion be agreed to."