Ngarewa-Packer DebbieDEBBIE NGAREWA-PACKER (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori): Thank you to the Chair. We support as you know the bravery of this Government to bring this legislation to order. We have put in an amendment to add value to what's being debated today so that we can guarantee Māori representation in local government while ensuring local government better meets its obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. We acknowledge and support the Minister saying that this is a short-term fix so this supplementary order paper is proposed prior to more legislative work and hopefully addresses the anxiety—or maybe the insecurity—that some of the other members are feeling.What we have asked is—this is about a Tiriti obligation which is guaranteed constitutional rights to us as tangata whenua. Where was democracy when we lost our reo? Where was democracy with our whenua? Democracy for our health our education our prisons? This is about us upholding rangatiratanga. Māori have been pushing for these changes for years. We are guaranteeing tangata whenua representation and we need to push it for local government. That is why we're putting this supplementary order paper and submitting it for your consideration. We believe that we need to do more to pull in line like Māori seats have in Parliament. Māori have a distinctive political voice and it has been supressed since 1867. Let us be let us be in this Government and let us be in this nation as tangata whenua. Te Tiriti gives effect to our rights and our interests and this is what we must continue to remind ourselves in this place. One of the things that we've also talked about is about democracy. Democracy is about representing not suppressing. Political voice is a right of self-determination. We have ourselves at tangata whenua a share in the political care of our nation which ensures democracy. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples—which by the way John Key accepted—is about maintaining and strengthening our distinct political legal economic social and cultural institutions while retaining the rights to participate fully. If we choose then we must also be able to be recognised in our own mana in today's political economic social and cultural life. Tangata whenua participation is critical. It is not for non-Māori to be determining the Māori voice. It is for us as Māori to fight to continue to have our unique voice in places of authority in places of power like we have today. It is not for our rangatahi and our tamariki to be seeing predominantly non-Māori telling us as Māori how we should participate in democracy. We support what our sister what our tuāhine Minister Nanaia Mahuta has worked hard to put together and we implore that we continue to lead this and be brave in taking on something else that is about more than polling. It's not about us today talking about how we can stop discrimination in one small part. It's about how and what we should do that's right for this nation of Aotearoa. We should be today debating what's needed for tomorrow not what is required by yesterday.To those who are struggling to understand that by giving the balance of power back no one's losing anything. Māori are not going to come in here and treat those who have denied them democratic rights the way that our Pākehā did in the past. This is about being brave. This isn't about sitting here debating what parts of a dog is important and what parts of a dog isn't. This is about us being able to show solutions that we can all live with. So based on that we would like to implore that there is support. We note that the Human Rights Commissioner has also called for more support more work they support the work that's been done but they're asking for us to go further. So that's what we're asking is done through this supplementary order paper and we would ask that you support that. Kia ora koutou.