Davis KelvinKELVIN DAVIS (Labour—Te Tai Tokerau): Kia ora Mr Deputy Speaker. Well that was a kete full of hōhā if ever I heard a speech. Here we have the National Government which has just spent the last hour championing choice and what happens? It is denying Māori the choice to stand up for Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The Māori members of the National Party must be quite embarrassed by their party's stance.It is not a well-known fact that Queen Elizabeth II and I are in Māori terms anyway quite closely related. She does not actually mention my name often; I guess that proves that she is not a name-dropper. But the reality is that my great-great-grandfather's first cousin was godson to Queen Elizabeth II's great-great-great-grandmother. So if we overlay the Māori whakapapa framework that basically means that we are whānau. But despite the fact that we are whānau—Queen Elizabeth II has been to New Zealand a number of times and each time she heads up to Waitangi and drives right past our marae. She has never once swung in to her whānau's marae. You know whānau is whānau; my marae is her marae. Not once have I seen her turn up. Not once have I heard her karanga. Not once have I heard her waiata. Not once has she peeled a spud or washed a plate or opened kinas whatsoever. When on the odd occasion I have been over to England I turn up to her place—no pōwhiri no karanga not even a whakatau. In fact there is this big wrought iron fence out in front of her marae with these guys with red jackets and big woolly hats on and guns keeping me out. She does not know anything about whanaungatanga or manaakitanga or anything like that.The point of the story is that Queen Elizabeth II has absolutely no understanding or any ability to relate to who I am and where I am from as a Māori New Zealander. I have absolutely no ability to relate to her and where she comes from. Yet when I walked into this House here and I had to put my hand on the Bible I had to swear allegiance to a lovely great-grandmother who lives over in England. I did not have the opportunity as a Māori member of Parliament to swear allegiance to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and its principles—and that is really unacceptable. The National Government has an opportunity today to change that.I can relate to the Treaty of Waitangi because I grew up in the place where it was signed. My great-great-great-great-grandfather was one of the signatories; he was the grandfather of that godson of Queen Victoria. I ran around and played as a kid on the place known as Tau Rangatira where the chiefs sat on 5 February and debated and discussed the Treaty of Waitangi before heading over the river to sign it the next day. We used to walk freely all around the Waitangi Treaty Grounds when I was a young person until Pita Paraone and Peeni Henare and all the other members of the Waitangi National Trust actually put a charge on it. I have even hit a few golf balls up the fairway that runs parallel to the Treaty Grounds—in fact probably more of my golf balls have landed on the Treaty Grounds than have landed on the fairway. But the fact of the matter is as a Māori I can relate to the Treaty of Waitangi and the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi; I cannot relate to a lovely great-grandmother who sits in her house at the end of The Mall in London. It means nothing to me and it means nothing to many of my Māori compatriots—and even to non-Māori members of Parliament.I remember as a teenager when I signed up for teachers' college in 1984 having to go down to the local chemist because there was the justice of the peace George Barke. He made me put my hand on a Bible as well and swear allegiance to that same English great-grandmother. It just did not mean anything to me then. It was a bit embarrassing because he made me do it in the middle of his shop with all of the customers walking around and I just thought it was ridiculous. The Treaty of Waitangi is something that I can relate to that I can swear allegiance to that all New Zealanders can swear allegiance to if they want. Marama Fox is only asking for us to have the choice. Thank you.