Jones ShaneHon SHANE JONES (Minister of Forestry): This period of five minutes will be etched in the political history of Aotearoa. Of course I'm following what Parliament calls the White Rabbit" the man from Hamilton Tim Macindoe and I'm reminded given my generation of the song by Jefferson Airplane. That song is quite simple. It's got a particularly familiar lyric: "Tell [them] a hookah smoking caterpillar has given you the call". That's what we've heard. We've heard from someone who has absolutely no conception of what his party is doing to Māoridom.Why is a 17-year-old member of the youth wing of the white power movement from Palmerston North being sent to Parliament? Why did they denounce—why did they stand upon the head and the mana of Jo Hayes a senior Māori woman of the National Party and send a boy who celebrates his arrival and his candidature with the white power sign. Not only is that a reflection of the wrongdoing of their party but it shows that there's an inverse relationship—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Could you come to the bill?Hon SHANE JONES: —as to what we're hearing from the "white parrot".DEPUTY SPEAKER: Can we come to the bill?Hon SHANE JONES: I beg your pardon?DEPUTY SPEAKER: Just for a change it would be nice to come to the bill.Hon SHANE JONES: This is like a Māori speech first there's an introduction.DEPUTY SPEAKER: I'm sorry but a minute and a half. Come to the bill. Hon SHANE JONES: Madam Speaker I'm talking about the allegation that Māori seats are superfluous because they know what they're doing—they do not know what they're doing. We feel aroha because of the diminished status of one of our sisters on the other side of the House.However let me come back to the bill—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you.Hon SHANE JONES: Now this bill is promoted by a fine New Zealander. All around the houses on the hills of Wellington the maraes and the plateaus people under rose bushes and eating pūhā are listening tonight. They know that Rino Tirikatene is a fine parliamentarian. There is hardly anyone in this House who has a richer more lustrous lineage than Rino Tirikatene. I only need to go back to the days when Rātana swept across the forequarters and who did he have? He had the grandfather of Rino Tirikatene as a key representative of the Labour Party. That is why on a regular basis my rangatira and I go to Rātana every year. Now the grandfather who held the Tai Tonga—Te Wai Pounamu—Māori seat was originally cheated out of that seat but for the vote of a Pākehā from Dunedin. Actually I like Dunedin people; somewhere else in the South Island.So this particular legislation we are not voting for its entrenchment but neither are we voting like the National Party to see them swept aside in a march of supporting 17-year-olds from the youth wing of the White Power movement of Palmerston North. Our party supports not white power but grey power. Grey power is hina. As you can see the hairs of wisdom are becoming a little bit more hina on mātua Shane Jones' head.So we acknowledge the rich tradition that the promoter of this bill brings to the House in the form of Rino Tirikatene. Indeed we will stand shoulder to shoulder with his whānau and the inevitable Rātana band who are very friendly to me as I wander around making announcements in the tuawhenua. But this evening it falls heavily upon my shoulders despite the provocations of Willie Jackson who never won a Māori seat I might say—mind you I'm in that character as well which is actually a further reason why we should watch the Māori seats because Pita Sharples beat me and he kept the other side in power and that in itself led to enormous levels of degradation and an abuse of the whole kaupapa and institution of Māori seats. But they're in the past and we are going on to brighter things.As befits someone who speaks on occasion with modesty sobriety and seriousness although we greatly respect Rino Tirikatene and all of the Māori wing of the Labour Party and indeed we respect the lost souls the wairua ngaro the wairua kotiti [the lost souls the confused souls] of the National Party who are diminished and see 17-year-olds with their white power signs diminish the mana of the Māori people in the National Party. So for those reasons we cannot support this bill this evening. Kia ora tātou katoa."