Paul Tamatha; Brownlee GerryTAMATHA PAUL (Green—Wellington Central): Kia whakatāne au i ahau i au au aue hā. Ko wai rā ko wai rā? Ko Pūtauaki e tū nei ko Ōhinemataroa e rere nei ko Ngāti Awa te toki tē tangatanga i te rā tē ngohengohe i te wai. Nei rā te pō i raru ai a Wairaka. Tū mai rā te āpōpō mō Papatūānuku e takoto nei. Whano whano whakatauhia ngā toki. Haumi e hui e tāiki e. [Let me make myself as a man. Who is this who is this? It is Mount Edgecumbe that stands here it is the Whakatāne River that flows here Ngāti Awa is the adze whose bindings will not loosen in the sun and not soften in the water. This is the night that Wairaka met her doom. Stand forth the future for Papatūānuku that lies here. Advance advance lay out the adzes. It coalesces it assembles it is bound.]Hoo! Big rākz now!I stand before you as a proud descendant of Wairaka. Wairaka brought the Mataatua waka back to safety through a storm at a time when it was tapu for wāhine to paddle—ahoy. Kia whakatāne au i ahau [Let me make myself as a man] is what she said so she could step into her full power and guide her people safely home.Our kuia of Ngāti Awa Marian McKay worked tirelessly on behalf of our iwi. She regularly petitioned this House for the return of our whenua foreseeing the consequences of raupatu on our people. She sadly died way too young. She died of pneumonia from sitting outside this House sitting outside in the rain. They wouldn't even let her in this door. Hoki wairua mai e kui e. I am sorry that this House wasn't ready to hear you but they will hear me. It wasn't so long ago that wāhine weren't even allowed to speak in this House let alone vote for the people standing in here but I am here with Wairaka with Marian McKay with my loved ones to navigate through the storm ahead. I know that all of my tīpuna are here with me today as are yours with you. Ka huri aku mihi ki a koe e Te Ātiawa ki a koe e Ngāti Toa ki ngā mana whenua o Te W'anganui-a-Tara. [I turn my acknowledgments to you Te Ātiawa to you Ngāti Toa to those who hold authority over the land of Wellington.]This whenua has seen politicians come and go but youse are doing the real mahi that will last beyond changes of Government.To all the iwi who are represented here today: kia ora my cuzzies. I want to mihi too āpōpō those that will come after me. I hope that by the time you read this we've stopped destroying our planet and stopped destroying each other.Although I am blessed with whakapapa that ties me firmly to this land I can't say that that's the only reason that I am here today. Being an MP can get to your head and you can start to think that it's your God-given right to stand here but I know that it wasn't destiny and it wasn't fate and it wasn't good luck that brought me here today. I am here because of the hard work of my community because it turns out it doesn't actually matter what the lawyer thinks or the lobbyist thinks and it doesn't actually matter what the polls say. What matters is people—people's stories people's hopes for our futures and people power. We ran an all-or-nothing campaign here in Wellington Central on the smell of an oily rag—without actually accepting any oil money by the way. We made 30000 phone calls and door knocks. We ran the biggest grassroots electorate campaign in Green history and we raised $100000 which is actually really hard when we're all broke—probably from paying the rent in this city as you're all aware. Ki a koe Caitlin my trusty sidekick nei rā te mihi nui ki a koe mō tō mahi [a big thanks to you for your work]. But enough about me for now. Mr Speaker congratulations on your new role and thank you for letting us bring our saxophone in here today. I appreciate you learning my name—I think it's always good to know the name of your local MP. In fact all of you work and live in my electorate and although I can't promise to represent half of the views in this House I do promise to try my very best to support every person in the city whether they voted for you whether they voted for me or whether they didn't even vote at all. But if you do have any complaints I'd ask you to please direct those to former Mayor of Wellington Andy Foster or former Mayor of Wellington Celia Wade-Brown!But in all seriousness being the MP for Wellington Central is a really special responsibility and it can be tough—I haven't even started yet; what do I know? We are a city that sees through the PR. At the moment it seems like everybody has an opinion on Wellington just like literally everybody in Wellington has an opinion. It's not easy representing this town so I want to give a special mihi to the former member for Wellington Central: Grant Robertson. Fifteen years of service is no small feat and I've discovered that in here a lot of people don't know when to call it—but I won't labour the point. But just know that I acknowledge you I acknowledge your work your legacy and your integrity.I've noticed that our new Prime Minister likes to talk about our city like it's an ivory tower. I'm aware that the electorate I represent is one of the most informed educated and privileged electorates in Aotearoa. But privilege isn't something to be ashamed of; it's something to be aware of it. My city knows how to use its privilege and that's why Wellington Central chose to elect a young Māori girl from a working-class whānau from Tokoroa. They elected a renter who lives in Aro Valley with her five flatmates and her dog Biggie—not once not twice but three times you have put your faith in me to represent you. I will not let you down I will not take you for granted and I will roll out of bed every single day and one outs this Government on your behalf.But my election to represent you didn't come out of nowhere. We've been building momentum since 2019 where we got organised campaigned and elected an independent student to our council. We set down the blueprint: that you can be an unapologetic voice for progress and if you back it up with organising you can win.Even more important than winning is making change. Nobody can deny that our city is fundamentally different than it was just a few years ago and that's a result of us understanding our power and wielding it. From the bottom of my heart to every person who's supported me over the years: ka nui te mihi ki a koutou.The most important thing I learnt from being a city councillor is that you can fix the broken street lights and you can try your best to patch up the leaky pipes but at the end of the day it's just a fresh coat on a rotten house; a dirty system full of hollow men that place profit over people and treat citizens as customers. But we are not a company; we are a country. We don't need new management; we need real leadership and I think that's something we haven't had for a long time—just blue and red shades of the same neo-liberal garbage.People often ask me who my role models were growing up and I'm sorry to say it wasn't anybody in this House. I'm not impressed by the so-called halls of power; I am impressed by the power of the people. I am in awe of the determination of hapū. I am inspired by artists who speak their minds and open up ours.When I was growing up watching my parents working 60 70 hours a week without complaint which was the norm where I'm from—that taught me what hard work really looks like. I grew up in a small town called Tokoroa. I'm really proud to have grown up in the 886 despite what the 6 o'clock news might have you believe and I won't lie: Tokoroa is not for the faint-hearted. The things I saw growing up there is exactly the kind of behaviour you'd come to expect when the only investment you're getting is new liquor stores on every street corner and new pokie machines in every pub. Without romanticising the very real issues I would say that that's what has made us even more determined to look out for one another. This is where I learnt that if we work together and we share what we have with each other there is enough for everybody to go around. That's the fundamental ethos of the Green Party.Although society would very much like us to hate ourselves in Tokoroa—and probably in the Greens too—it has made us even more curious in understanding who we are and where we come from. That's a quote that has inspired me always and stuck with me always from Nina Simone: My job is to somehow make them curious enough or persuade them by hook or by crook to get more aware of themselves and where they come from and what they are into and what is already within them and to bring that out. This is what compels me to compel them and I will do it by any means necessary."One thing I've learnt from listening to other maiden speeches is that a lot of us have done it tough growing up. I don't think anyone's journey here has been particularly easy. For some of us that adversity has opened our hearts up to serving our people. But I can see that for some the pain is still there and I can promise you that taking it out on the places that you come from will not heal you. But seeking answers to understand why things are this way will prevent us from repeating history and making the same mistakes. Another future is possible and that's why I came to Wellington—because I've lived the worst of it. I've seen what happens when you cut wages deny benefits sanction people sell State housing strip and privatise public assets and move people away from the land that they come from and lock them up and throw away the key. But if there's anything I've learnt from growing up in Tokoroa it's that if we all just shared a little bit more and if we all work together we can overcome the steepest of challenges which is almost the complete antithesis of this House. This place has a nasty habit of chewing up and spitting out our best and brightest. It's clear that there is an unwritten rule book: one set of standards for some and another set of standards for brown women. For as long as you can come in here and unwind decades of progress overnight we're never going to move beyond the status quo and I don't think the status quo is serving anybody or our planet particularly well. But how are you supposed to stay in touch with reality in a place like this that isn't even a reflection of the real world? We go from our nice homes and our nice vehicles to the Koru lounge and to the front row of the airplane and from a chauffeur to Parliament. But I'm here to tell you that this Parliament is not our future. The future that I dream of looks very different to the one in front of me today because until we start making the right decisions to stop polluting our planet into extinction until we stop ram-raiding Te Tiriti o Waitangi and until we confront the uncomfortable truths about our history and build on the agreement that our ancestors signed—both yours and mine—we will be doomed to continue to repeat history.That's why a lot of people have switched off. We've just got tired of politicians on both sides of this House making promises that they couldn't keep. It's true that you can't make everybody happy but at some point you have to put a stake in the ground for people who are doing it really hard right now. That's who I'm in this House to represent and it's not just me fighting and fighting doesn't have to look like question time every day at 2 p.m. Fighting can look like speaking as little or as much of your reo that you have reclaiming your whakapapa or reclaiming our cities that have been gentrified. It's refusing to let this fast-paced rat race strip you of your birthright to return to your maunga return to your awa and return to the knowledge that our ancestors have left for us. Ko Ngāti Awa te toki tē tangatanga i te rā tē ngohengohe i te wai. [Ngāti Awa is the adze whose bindings will not loosen in the sun and will not soften in the water.]If you stay ready you ain't got to get ready. Ngāti Awa stays sharp Ngāti Awa stays ready and we do it looking so good. Huri noa I te Whare. Tihei mauri ora! Chur. Waiata—"Wairaka"[Applause hongi and harirū]KarangaSPEAKER: To make her maiden speech to Parliament I call on Kahurangi Carter."