Bridges SimonHon SIMON BRIDGES (National—Tauranga): You know in this House often times MPs get up and they say it's good to speak on this bill. I don't think it's good to speak on this bill. I think it's highly regrettable that we're here right now doing this under urgency. I could use all kinds of hyperbole. I remember the Hon Chris Hipkins when we were in Government for nine wonderful years of progress in New Zealand would come down the House on the rare occasions—and I'll make it quite clear: it was rare—that we passed bills in urgency and he'd be frothing at the mouth. He'd be making clear what a constitutional outrage this was even though they agreed entirely with the bill and even though often times it was simply to fix a very discrete technical matter. I'm not going to use the hyperbole but it is regrettable that we are doing this in urgency right now not on some technical fix on a bill on some issue—I remember one in the last Government around speed and licensing needing to be fixed. I think it was the last one; it might have been the one before that. The whole House came together and we did it. We're in urgency today on a local democracy bill making fundamental change. Am I the only one who sees the ridiculous irony of that? There's an anti-democratic local democracy bill. That's literally what we've got here because the other side is putting this through—it's ramming it through—in urgency.The member last said we should be grateful because they're going to do it for a week in committee. You can come along but by the way we're not going to listen to anything you say if you disagree with us. That is literally fundamentally what he said. Well I say it's an anti-democratic democracy bill. Labour Party h" is for hippo it's for Hippocratic oath and it's for some other words beginning with "h" as well frankly. Maybe over this term of Parliament when Chris Hipkins thinks about urgency he should take those remarks into account.It's also very arrogant and we heard it coming through very clearly from the last member. It's a "We won. You lost. Eat that! We'll pass this in urgency because we can. We don't even need to be right." That's bluntly frankly the kind of thing we heard from the last member.I'd make a couple of other process points before we get into the substance of this bill and the first is this. It's a point Christopher Luxon made well as well. I've looked through this. [Holds up Labour Party 2020 Māori Manifesto] It's got some nice glossies. Nanaia Mahuta looks good in it—she's on every second page. But as I go through page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 and 9 I don't see a single reference to passing this bill to effectively entrench Māori wards in New Zealand. There's not a single reference in this bill to that. There are some things we can't say in this House but they didn't have let's say the "fortitude" of their convictions in this area. They weren't prepared to go to the general electorate to New Zealanders of every colour creed and ethnicity and to say "You know what: this is something we believe in." So to hear them crowing right now is just a bit rich.I want to say frankly let's be clear why they did that. They didn't want to give their coalition partner—that old crocodile Winston Peters—the chance to get back into this place. Let's be honest about that: that's why they did it. [Interruption] What cynical? That's what it is: it's cynical. Now they're sitting over there because they weren't prepared to be clear with the electorate about what they were going to do in this House right now right here which they're doing.One final process point: this bill is retrospective. By the way that is egregious when it's what we do in relation to criminal matters but it's still pretty bad in instances like this. Frankly things shouldn't be retrospective. I'm not going to take the time but there are very good reasons why actually going backwards when people thought things were going to be a certain way for a certain time into the future is bad law. This is bad law because it's done in urgency because it's done retrospectively and because as they do it in urgency now in the first months of their new full majority term they didn't even have the decency to be clear and campaign on this.I also want to say I disagree with this bill in substance. In relation to the wards themselves personally I find it hard when we come to special separate representation for Māori. As a Māori man it says I'm not good enough because of my whakapapa because of the colour of my skin.Hon Members: Ha ha!Hon SIMON BRIDGES: They laugh over there. They laugh when I give my experience. This bill to me says that I'm not good enough to win a vote of a non-Māori. Well I am good enough. I am good enough. By the way Louisa Wall has been good enough. Paula Bennett has been good enough. Shanan Halbert has been good enough for Northcote a seat which—and I haven't done the demographic study—I am sure doesn't have as many Māori per head of population as many other parts of New Zealand. He is good enough in that seat. He doesn't need special treatment in this law to win his seat in modern New Zealand in the 21st century.Let's be really clear about the problem—or actually the lack of a real problem—we are fixing in this bill. I accept—as frankly the 11th member of Parliament of Māori descent to win a general seat—and now we've gone dih-dih-dah-du [Member gestures to indicate an increase] and it's much higher than that. I accept there have been problems in the past but right now in this Parliament and in the last Parliament there were more Māori in this Parliament than in New Zealand per head of population. That may be a bit crass but on the numbers in this Parliament we're winning.By the way at local government in local democracy the same wasn't true. But if you look at the numbers right now it basically is. We are catching up in local government all around New Zealand. You give it five years and it would be happening anyway. But this Government comes in. I say what it says is they don't have faith in Māori to do it for ourselves. I think that's a crying shame in 2021.In addition to saying that Labour doesn't trust Māoridom actually what they're also saying in this bill—the other side of that coin—is that they don't trust New Zealanders. That's what they're saying here. They don't trust New Zealanders to elect Māori when in fact in Tauranga in Northcote and in a bunch of other seats—I'm not actually sure what Louisa's is—in the various seats out there they have done that and they will do that.Kieran McAnulty: Oh you nailed that one.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: They also don't trust—this is what we get from this smarmy guy over this side. Hon David Bennett: Yeah he's a dickhead anyway.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: He's a very smarmy new member of Parliament.Kieran McAnulty: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I don't mind being called smarmy—there might be an element of truth to that. However I do believe that being called a "dickhead" by the honourable Mr Bennett is unparliamentarily and he should be made to withdraw and apologise.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Well I didn't hear it myself. Is that correct Mr Bennett?Hon David Bennett: I withdraw and apologise.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yes I should think so.Hon SIMON BRIDGES: Labour don't trust New Zealanders to elect Māori and they also don't trust New Zealanders on referenda process like set out in this law. I say that's a real shame. You know I accept actually if you look at the referendum and the 5 percent issue it's problematic. Actually it needs reform because the reality of doing that in relation to Māori wards but not in relation to other wards needs a fix but the answer there as Christopher Luxon set out very well is real genuine thought through local government reform not coming to the House with a bill that's anti-democratic that's passed in urgency that's done retrospectively and that's done without a skerrick of a campaign promise anywhere for the utmost of cynical reasons by the New Zealand Labour Party. This is a bill that I say as a Māori man actually—you know what—says to Māori around the country "You're not good enough to do it in a general ward. You're not good enough to do it in a general seat." Actually I was. Plenty others have been. I find that personally insulting for Māori who come after me. I say this is bad process it's a bad law and I for one am very glad that National today is opposing it."