Paul TamathaTAMATHA PAUL (Green—Wellington Central): Tēnā koe ngā mihi ki te Whare e tēnei. So as we all know it's Valentine's today but something else significant happened on this day in history and it was when Kanaʻina aliʻi took one for the team and killed the notorious coloniser Captain Cook. And as you may know one of the principles of the Green Party is non-violence so I won't reflect too much on the actions and the means by which this happened but I will say that it does serve as a warning to us all: dishonour the mana of indigenous people at your own peril.That's why we are supporting the bill in front of us today. Because over the last few months we've seen this Government unwind decades of mahi that was meant to even out the playing field for tangata whenua because legacies of colonisation are still all around us poisoning our people and poisoning our planet. And like with the Maōri electorates the Government could wake up tomorrow morning and decide they don't like Maōri electorates anymore and decide to get rid of them like they're doing with literally everything else because Maōri seats do not have the same protections as general seats like the one that I am elected to represent—the coolest electorate—Wellington Central.I'm not surprised by the fact that Maōri seats are not afforded the same rights and protections as general seats because this Pākehā system was not designed for us. In fact it was designed to actively exclude us. There is plenty of evidence of that shameful part of our history and even today that continues because this House withholds the right to vote from people currently in prison. And we know that that is disproportionately Maōri—that's another way that our democracy excludes Maōri from participating and being represented in this system. The member before me James Meager said If it isn't broke then don't fix it." and I think there's some truth in that in that the system is functioning exactly in the way that it was designed which is to exclude tangata whenua.I'm the first Maōri MP for Wellington Central and my electorate falls in the Maōri electorate of Te Tai Tonga held by my brother Tākuta Ferris. I'm lucky to represent a city that is Green to its core and the people I represent are lucky because we can't face any backlash over our staunch left-wing support. But I can't say the same for the people that Tākuta represents because unfortunately the Maōri seats become a political football every single election. You have different parties coming out of the woodworks promising to abolish them which would actually be a real tragedy because at the end of the day I can't do Tākuta's job and Tākuta probably doesn't want to do my job but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't have the same rights and protections as each other. At the end of the day protecting Maōri seats and affording them the same protections as everybody else is really the bare minimum. It's the very least that we can be doing to honour Te Tiriti and express it in the mahi that we do in this House.And it's nothing to be scared of. When I spent four years on the Wellington City Council we had mana whenua representation around our council table and we had a Maōri ward and I found that working alongside Maōri and that kind of arrangement meant that we were making better decisions we were informed of the history long before this House was even set up the history of this whenua—the history of this land—and it's nothing to be afraid of. So I commend Arena Williams for her mahi on this bill and say that we fully support it. Kia ora."