Ngarewa-Packer DebbieDEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori): Tēnā tātou e te Whare. I rise to speak on the third reading of the Water Services Entities Bill. Te Paati Māori will not be supporting this bill at third reading. We are opposing this legislation because despite claims from both sides of the House it does not implement co-governance it doesn't implement self-governance and our belief is our tino rangatiratanga as tangata whenua is being ignored.I guess the debate in this place for us has missed the central point entirely. Public water infrastructure absolutely should not be sold off but it also doesn't need to be entrenched. It needs to be returned to its rightful kaitiaki—its owners; tangata whenua—who as many hapū and iwi remind today would have ensured that we could still drink collect kai and swim in the wai. What's missing in successive Governments is the leadership and the will to implement the inherent customary proprietary and decision-making rights of tangata whenua over fresh water—the customary kaitiaki who today are protesting to protect and are standing by their lakes and their rivers to clean up their wai awa lakes and moana. The conservative race-baiting campaign run by right-wing extremists and misinformation has been successful so far in whipping up opposition to any increase of Māori decision-making on water rights and people don't even understand what these reforms are proposing. They do not even guarantee Māori representation let alone iwi representation on the actual governance entities. While iwi and councils will both appoint a body that then appoints the entities these degrees of separation are designed to limit Māori power through not creating precedents or co-governance.So there is no doubt I will say that there will be improvements to the ability of mana whenua particularly larger iwi but our concerns are that this will have a cost particularly for those smaller iwi and hapū. There is the reality that until the Crown implements our customary and decision-making rights on fresh water reform of this scale is dangerous. The ongoing Crown position that everyone owns the water or no one owns the water—which is it? We can't keep up—is effectively designed to do what we saw happen in 1983 which is extinguish the rights of tangata whenua as they did with our rights to foreshore and seabed.So three waters is one thing and there are elements of this bill that we can support but what actually needs to happen is to go the full scale not half-pie ka pai and that is to bring about protection and restoration of our water through the absolute recognition and legal implementation of Māori ownership rights. Te Paati Māori would overturn the Crown's position that everyone owns water and instead adopt a position that acknowledges Māori rights to fresh water and kaitiakitanga. We acknowledge the intrinsic w'akapapa of fresh water and support hapū and iwi to negotiate for those w'akapapa rights to be acknowledged in law as Te Tiriti proposed. The w'akapapa connection between tangata whenua and wai māori is intrinsic and I guess what we have seen is 150-plus years of Government—local government regional government—and they've all failed in Te Mana o Te Wai. So we want to see negotiations between Government and hapū and iwi which need to be re-established to develop a policy framework on how Māori rights and interests are implemented in freshwater management and allocation. The Waitangi Tribunal said that the Crown should be doing this and it should be working directly with hapū and iwi to create a standard process for addressing these rights and interests. Instead we have the Crown currently deciding to stop negotiation with iwi leaders and shamefully instead has established its own Māori advisory group te Kāhui Wai Māori.And close to our hearts in Te Tai Hauāuru right now within W'anganui we need to put a moratorium on new consents for water bottling plants. We see the same in Lake Horowhenua. Until we can guarantee the safety of our aquifers and the life-sustaining mauri of our wai māori not one more drop. I guess we are concerned that the Crown has been in charge of our wai environmentally socially politically and has continued to fail future generations. We will prioritise these protections. What we see now is reform that is weak. Our wai is in crisis and we need transformation not tinkering. We will accept nothing less than our rights our interests being honoured and implemented. Ko te mana o te moana ko te mana o te wai i ahu mai i te mana o Papatūānuku nō reira tēnā koutou katoa. [The spiritual state of the sea and of water stems from the spiritual state of the Earth Mother and so greetings to you all.]