Bidois DanDAN BIDOIS (National—Northcote): Tēnā koe e Te Mana Whakawā. It's a pleasure to speak at the second reading of the Electoral (Entrenchment of Māori Seats) Amendment Bill. I do want to start out by acknowledging the chair of the Māori Affairs Committee and the member for this bill Rino Tirikatene and all members of the Māori Affairs Committee. It's a pleasure to work with you. It's a distinct select committee in our Parliament. No matter what I say in this speech I just want to acknowledge the fine contributions that you make to your own electorates and I know that you do good work for the House.So we know that National is not supporting this bill but I want to tell you about this issue and how it affects me because it's very personal to me. I've reflected on the issue of the Māori seats right throughout my life. It's been informed by my travels overseas but also by my late father who was up until the last election a registered Māori electoral member. His conversations with me have influenced me greatly on the issue of the Māori seats.So I don't support this bill. I don't support this bill because I believe that regardless of what I say about these members and the fantastic contribution that they make to their communities these seats do divide rather than unite. I do think that these seats are not required for effective Māori representative in our Parliament. So because I don't support these seats I do not support the entrenchment of those seats and therefore I do not too support this bill.I would love to see the day where there are Māori flourishing in all different types of forms of life throughout New Zealand in leadership roles whether it be in political leadership whether it be business leadership whether it be science whether it be the arts or any other endeavour that Māori seek. But how are we going to get there? Will we get there by having quotas or entrenchments or any such matter—life from that? The answer is I don't think we do need these seats and that we do need such quotas in order to have the vision that I see for Māori throughout New Zealand.Māori MPs are not the only MPs who do a fantastic job for Māori. We can only look to the likes of Willie Jackson who came here as a list MP. He is a fantastic contributor to the Māori community aren't you Willie Jackson? Even though you call on some members to go back to Italy you do a fantastic job—well not you Madam Speaker but Willie Jackson does a fantastic job advocating for Māori and he does not represent a Māori seat.So we should all be the voice for Māori whether you're in a Māori seat a list seat or the fantastic seat that I represent that's a general electorate seat the seat of Northcote. National won't be supporting the seats because our position is clear: we don't support the seats but we support the right for Māori to decide when these seats disappear. It is for Māori to decide when these seats disappear. And it is our priority on this side of the House that the priorities for Māori are around redress through the Treaty settlement process and through making sure Māori fulfil their economic potential in life whether it be business technology the sciences the arts and in their general wellbeing.So just to talk about the Māori Affairs Committee we had about 750 submissions in the select committee process. By far the vast majority of these—roughly 75 percent—were opposed to this bill. We heard from 23 oral submissions and I want to summarise for you some of the key reasons that these submissions were against the bill.The first is that entrenchment does not entrench the seats. The entrenchment provision can be simply overturned by a simple majority in our Parliament. So this bill while the intent of it is to in fact make them entrenched the provision to entrench them can actually be overturned by a simple majority. The second and most important is that these seats are not constitutional. As my colleague Nicky Wagner pointed out these were set up more for political reasons for short-term measures and they weren't supposed to be for a constitutional measure. A constitutional measure would require broad support from this House and it's very clear that today we don't have that broad support. The third and final key reason that was raised in the select committee process was that—[Interruption] DEPUTY SPEAKER: There seems to be a lot of noise.DAN BIDOIS: —this does not guarantee a voice and representation for Māori. Māori electorate MPs have the same pressures to comply with party policies just like every other type of electorate—right? Hon Willie Jackson: Give us an example.DAN BIDOIS: Well look at Willie Jackson—yo. So look this bill actually makes a mockery of what it means to be a list MP and what it means to be an electorate MP. To actually say that electorate MPs don't do a good job of representing their minority groups is actually a mockery of what it means to be an electorate MP. We all have in our seats minority groups in our electorates whether it be Jewish whether it be Māori whether it be Samoans whatever it is. And actually the Treaty was all about making sure that we were one and that we were treated equally under the eyes of the law and in representation. This bill does not guarantee a voice for Māori because actually Māori are representatives and represented well in other forms whether it be electorates or list seat MPs. So just to summarise my points: National will not be supporting this bill in its second reading. I think what is really important is that we focus on the things that matter to Māori. And the things that matter to Māori of course we've heard—I'm on this Māori Affairs Committee we hear them all the time. It's about getting good jobs; making sure they've got high incomes that they've got access to great healthcare; that the health systems that the State systems—that they can interact with them in a measure and on a basis that they want to engage with not necessarily on the white or Pākehā system that we have. So it is incumbent on all MPs—whether we are Māori; whether we are Pākehā—to make sure we are doing the best for Māori throughout New Zealand to make sure that we are representing their best interests. That is I think the intent of the Treaty of Waitangi—that we all bring the kaupapa and the vision of Māori to this House and that we do not outsource it to a certain group of Māori MPs that we take it all on board for legislation in the House. So as I said—[Interruption] DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Order!DAN BIDOIS: —National will not be supporting this bill. We applaud the work that Māori MPs across the House do whether you're in a Māori seat whether you're in a general electorate seat or whether you're a list MP. But there are so much more important things to focus on for—Tamati Coffey: Point of order. DEPUTY SPEAKER: I'm sorry to interrupt the speaker. A point of order—Tamati Coffey.Tamati Coffey: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I don't usually get irate about this but actually to have the members say that all delegations to Māori are outsourced to certain members of this Parliament—DEPUTY SPEAKER: I'm sorry that's not a point of order. That is a debatable point. The member will sit down and I understand has an opportunity to speak and can contribute to the debate.DAN BIDOIS: It's great to continue along these lines. But as I said in summary we will be opposed to this bill. We think that the submissions say enough in terms of the substance of why we should oppose this bill and I do not commend this bill to the House.