Ngarewa-Packer DebbieDEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori): Thank you Madam Speaker. I stand to speak to the first reading of the Severe Weather Emergency Recovery Legislation Bill and note that this is the second emergency response bill coming through by the Government in the wake of the recent cyclone and attempts to improve processes to ensure that our communities get the support to recover and ensure we're better prepared for future disasters.I think we mentioned that while we had some concerns with the first bill Te Paati Māori supported it as the measures that were in it were practical and made sense and while it had some shortcomings—particularly when it came to the rights and obligations of tangata whenua under Te Tiriti o Waitangi—we acknowledge the wider overhaul of the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act that is currently being worked on. And I really appreciated the accolades from the previous speaker Sam Uffindell. However unless some important changes are made we will not be able to support the bill that is before the House for the first reading and I'd just like to elaborate on the whys. The decision to allow for the Orders in Council to be developed to enable fast changes in response to disasters makes sense but when this process is being used we need to make sure that the checks and balances are sufficient to meet a bar of appropriate lawmaking. It's our belief that that bar isn't being met in this legislation as it currently is written. On every piece of legislation that comes before the House Te Paati Māori considers if it will have impact on the rights and interests of us as tangata whenua mana motuhake mana orite and the protection and extension of w'akapapa. And when we looked at this bill it is our belief that this has been sidelined and that's extremely concerning. Every time there is a disaster in this country marae hapū and iwi are our first responders; they are our Māori organisations that stand up and act as hubs for all our peoples across our communities. We saw that in Kahungunu. We saw that in Manurewa Marae. We've seen it across the motu: they play a central role in the emergency response management in Aotearoa and yet they are never formally recognised in the system or supported in the legislative and regulatory framework that governs and resources official responses. I mean this needs to change and we want to put our foot down and state it at the stage here. It's completely unacceptable that the State will not recognise the central role of tangata whenua despite our people time and time again demonstrating our manaaki role to those who have been unfortunately affected. In this bill formal tangata whenua engagement is seen as a nice-to-have". It's seen as consideration and an optional afterthought and that's not good enough from our perspective. Te Tiriti is not optional. We as tangata whenua are not to be ignored especially when we prove time and time again how well we look after everyone—not just Māori you know; everyone all public. And we want to look at the clauses around the review panels for Orders in Council: in appointing the review panellists "the Minister … must consider appointing members with local perspectives in the severe weather events affected areas of mana whenua mātauranga Māori tikanga … and Te Ao Māori." The key word in this is "consider". Surely we have proven that we don't need to be considered; that it should be mandatory. Surely we don't have to keep proving this and I would expect that most of those who saw the support and manaaki in Kahungunu would be supporting us. The Minister doesn't have to appoint anyone with these perspectives it just has to consider it. We could simply consider it and decide "no"—as we've seen happen time and time again in the past. Even if it was a requirement to appoint people with these perspectives that would still not be Tiriti-based decision-making. Optional engagement with tangata whenua does not reflect our mana motuhake in Aotearoa or safeguard against the risk of rushed lawmaking in the parliamentary process—some that we saw in the COVID response. So Ministers appointing their own watchdogs is not appropriate lawmaking let alone Tiriti-based decision-making. So Te Paati Māori can't support this legislation unless we see amendments made to guarantee to tangata whenua representation on review panels and strengthen the checks and balances with this legislation. Therefore we intend to put forward a Supplementary Order Paper during the committee stage to amend the bill and guarantee Māori rights to representation are upheld and we will be calling on the Government and all parties to support those amendments so that we can assure tangata whenua—those very marae who proved themselves and looked after all of their communities—can have the confidence in this bill and the emergency management system. Kia ora rā."