Ngarewa-Packer DebbieDEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori): Tēnā koe e te Pīka—thank you. Tēnā tātou e te Whare. I rise to speak to the final reading of the COVID19 Response (Vaccinations) Legislation Bill. As we already outlined last night just in case you couldn't hear over Minister Kelvin Davis' yelling Te Paati Māori will not be supporting this bill and our reasons are simple: Te Paati Māori could never support legislation that attacks our mana motuhake through imposing mandates on tangata whenua. We would never support legislation that sidelines Māori leadership in times of crisis that tramples on our tikanga tangihanga processes that lumps Māori in with everyone else leaving us behind or that intends to enact warrantless searches of our marae. This legislation does not move us forward. It takes tangata whenua back to an era that divided and negatively profiled us. I refer to the Crown's convenient amnesia of the history here in Aotearoa. It was only a hundred years ago that we as tangata whenua were officially on the brink of extinction marginalised on the outskirts. To feather the dying pillow of the Māori race then Government policy framed it to help us die quietly easing the politicians' conscience. We were being pushed to the brink of extinction because of disease: the common cold. This was my grandparents' generation. During my parents' generation Māori had to sit on the floor in Māori theatres and were not allowed to see the same hairdressers as Pākehā and now today three generations later for my mokopuna we find ourselves similar as their tūpuna were. Rather than feather the pillow this time though the Government has determined to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach knowing health experts warned that something designed for an individual could never fit a collective indigenous people such as tangata whenua and that is where this Government and this legislation have failed Māori and where this has left us. As of yesterday Māori make up the highest number of COVID cases for the 50th consecutive day. We make up the highest number of cases in Aotearoa surpassing the 3000 mark. Six Māori have now died from COVID-19. Three of these were men between the ages of 40 and 50. Māori are 3.7 times more likely to catch Delta 2.3 times more likely to suffer severe sickness and be hospitalised and 3.1 times more likely to die from Delta. Our health experts whose advice this Government has consistently ignored are telling us that we will have 6400 Māori cases by Christmas. You have willingly unleashed this virus into our communities knowing that Māori are 20 percent behind the general population and hearing the heed of our leaders in Tai Tokerau and Tai Rāwhiti to not visit our regions that have low vaccination rates. When one of our foremost public health experts Dr Rawiri Jansen left the Government's pandemic advisory group in April it was symbolic of what was to come—tangata whenua choosing to opt out of a response programme that sidelines our rangatiratanga that ignores our needs and that does not acknowledge our mana motuhake. This Government has let tangata whenua face the prospect of losing their livelihoods over mandates. We must show aroha to those of our people who don't trust a public health system that has never turned up in their neighbourhood and that they have suffered from because of the systemic racism that saw this very Government establish a Māori health authority because as we have illustrated these seeds of mistrust were sown generations ago. The trust has not been rebuilt since. When you leave tangata whenua out of the equation you leave us behind. I've been on the front line and heard whānau mistrust of your approach their mistrust of the public health system that has never ventured into their world but is telling them now what to do. I've also seen the opportunities communities and iwi are owning which you have not included in your traffic light system. How can our people be at the traffic lights when they're still caught up in the mess of the roadworks you had left when you decided that 70 percent of our population did not matter in your vaccination programme? This bill is cruel. It will never gain Te Paati Māori support. You have forgotten your tangata whenua. You have forgotten to honour Te Tiriti. Nō reira e te whānau kia haumaru te noho tēnā tātou katoa.[Therefore family stay safe greetings one and all.]