Sepuloni CarmelHon CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour—Kelston): Talofa lava Madam Speaker and talofa lava to the House. To all of our Samoan community who have come along today to support this bill can I acknowledge you. Many of the people that are here today are not just here to support the kaupapa of today; they were here in 2003 outside Parliament. They were one or many of the 90000 people that signed the petition at the time and have been fighting for this change for decades. Can I acknowledge the Green Party member Teanau Tuiono one of only six Pacific members of Parliament at the moment. Can I just say on record that the other side who are in the Labour Party stand behind Teanau Tuiono with respect to this bill that he is attempting to pass.I'm going to start with the Dawn Raids apology. The Dawn Raids apology was a formal acknowledgement of the discriminatory implementation of immigration laws that led to the Dawn Raids. However beyond the Dawn Raids the Muldoon-led National Government continued on their trajectory with the 1982 retrospective removal of the right to citizenship for those Samoans born between 1924 to 1948. So I do find it very interesting that the member Cameron Brewer says that he doesn't want to retroactively reinstate citizenship for Samoans when it was retrospectively taken away from them. The removal of citizenship rights for any country is contentious. In fact New Zealand has been at the forefront in some incidences of criticising other countries internationally for this. Sadly the New Zealand Government did exactly this themselves in 1982 and this continues to be something that is deemed controversial—and rightly so.The actions that followed the Dawn Raid apology were not exhaustive. As part of the apology we provided educational scholarships access to the Manaaki New Zealand Short Term Scholarship training courses support for Pacific artists and historians to develop a comprehensive written and oral account of the Dawn Raids but no one at that time implied that the work required by New Zealand Governments to demonstrate a genuine understanding of the discrimination and trauma the Pacific community had endured was complete.The apology provided a platform for remorse remembrance and reflection of that dark time that should and could inform ongoing future policy decisions. What we have before us is another opportunity to honour the spirit of the Dawn Raids apology and we truly hope that other political parties in this House will see this. I'm not going to pretend that this is where it ends. It would be remiss of me not to mention the policy Labour took into the last election where we would have provided the opportunity for some that were here illegally to regularise their immigration status. This work has not been forgotten by the Labour Party.Turning my mind back to the bill in front of us Teanau Tuiono has stated clearly we are talking about 3000 to 5000 people not all of whom would want to take the opportunity up. It is the right thing to do at least to allow the bill to go to select committee. Off the back of the significant contributions Samoans have made to Aotearoa it is the right thing to do; on behalf of the nearly 200000 Samoans who have made New Zealand their home it is the right thing to do; in the spirit of the 1962 Treaty of Friendship between Samoa where we pledged the two countries would be governed by a spirit of close friendship it is the right thing to do; and with the acknowledgement of the discriminatory immigration policy our Samoan community endured before and during the period that this legislation was passed it is the right thing to do.I want to implore all political parties to at least support this to select committee. There is no precedent being set when it is only being considered at select committee. That is where we get to consider the advice the submissions from the community and to hear from the legal experts. We don't need to hear from the people who think they are legal experts in the House today. [Applause]ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Maureen Pugh): Order! Order!Hon CARMEL SEPULONI: Labour is represented by our Samoan community. Labour is here to support the Samoan community. We stand by our Green Party brother in supporting this bill today.