Davis KelvinDEBATE ON PRIME MINISTER'S STATEMENTDebate resumed from 12 February.Hon KELVIN DAVIS (Minister for Māori Crown Relations: Te Arawhiti): Now two years ago the Government of these three parties set out an ambitious programme to tackle the long-term challenges that had been neglected for years and we've made great progress on addressing those issues. I'm just going to rattle through a few: furthering our work in child poverty rolling out our investment in front-line mental health services responding to the review of our health and disability services reforming the skills sector and promoting skills in trades investing in vital infrastructure—and we could go on. But the one issue that I'd like to really raise in this speech is the progress that we've made to continue to build on our Māori-Crown relationship. Now all we have to do is cast our minds back just to last week to see the progress that this country has made in the Māori-Crown relationship.I want everybody to just cast their minds back even further though to 5 February 2017. That was the last Waitangi Day that the previous Government was in charge of organising. If anyone has forgotten let me describe the chaos the mayhem the bedlam that ensued at that occasion at the pōwhiri. There were people hanging up blue tarpaulins around outside the perimeter of the marae to stop media going in and seeing what was going on. The National Party—National No Friends"—instead of having supporters go in and support them going on to the pōwhiri what they did was they told every public servant every CE of every public department to go there and support them to make it look like they actually had an army of support. We in the Labour Party would round up about 200 people in red shirts and would show that we actually had real support. Now we have to as politicians take responsibility for the part that we played in creating that bedlam and that mayhem. It's because the whole show was about the politicians. There's some parties in this Parliament that actually love the bedlam that love the mayhem because then they could rail against Māori and they could point the finger and say that Māori are the problem and it just appealed to the sea of mayonnaise that supported those parties Mr Speaker. We need to take responsibility.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Excuse me—"Madam".Hon KELVIN DAVIS: Sorry Madam Speaker. So we made it a flashpoint because we as politicians made Waitangi about us and we should not be the largest part of what goes on at Waitangi; we should be the smallest part.Hon Gerry Brownlee: Shouldn't be there at all.Hon KELVIN DAVIS: And there we go. That comes from Gerry Brownlee and that is an indication of the disdain that the National Party has towards Māori. It's absolutely disgusting.The other emblem of this disdain that the National Party shows is that their spokesperson for the Māori-Crown relationship is the Hon Dr Nick Smith. Now what on earth possessed Simon Bridges to name the Hon Dr Nick Smith as if he's an expert on Māori-Crown relations? What is he doing? What has he done? What's his contribution to Māoridom? He's actually part of the problem.Let me just take you through the week of peace and calm and national unity from last week. It started off on the Sunday when the Hon Shane Jones in his modest way—and he's already described what he did in question time—made announcements around helping Māori to create productivity on their land. The Hon Nanaia Mahuta made an announcement about reducing the rates burden on Māori so that they could actually have capital to invest in their land.Then we roll on to Monday. We all moved from the Bay of Islands—sorry; when I say "we all" no one from the National Party turned up. We all rolled over to the north of Hokianga where we unveiled a statue to Te Whaea o Te Motu Dame Whina Cooper where we acknowledged our Māori heroes who have done so much for our people. Roll on to Tuesday. I'm going to just come back to Tuesday because that was the day of the pōwhiri—the infamous Simon Bridges pōwhiri.Wednesday: Wednesday morning I was told that the opening of Te Rau Aroha museum was going to be a quiet dawn service. When I walked out of the hotel at 4 o'clock in the morning there was a line of traffic stretching from Paihia right up to the Treaty grounds a couple of kilometres long. This was not going to be a quiet dawn service.I stood at the back of that queue in the darkness and I estimated there were 2000 people there—2000 people at that dawn service.Nicola Willis: I was there.Hon KELVIN DAVIS: Nicky Willis says she was there so she can actually validate what I've just said.Then we come to 10 o'clock at the public opening of this ceremony—10 o'clock; the exact same time Simon Bridges calls a press conference to announce that he's leaving. Now why on earth would Simon Bridges call a press conference to announce that he's leaving Waitangi when no one cared that he was there in the first place and fewer people cared that he was leaving?Then we come to Waitangi Day itself: 2000 people attended the dawn karakia and then there was no Simon Bridges there. Then when we went out to the Prime Minister's breakfast again 2000 people lined up at that barbecue. There were half a dozen people who didn't line up at the barbecue—they were the National Party MPs. They were about 3000 metres away and despite the noise—the hubbub of the crowd—the National Party members we could still hear their stomachs rumbling. What they needed to do instead of sitting there looking all forlorn was just come down grab a pair of tongs and join in with all the other MPs to feed the crowd.But let me go back to the Tuesday morning—to the pōwhiri. We put a lot of effort into making sure that the mayhem the bedlam of three years earlier didn't reoccur. We put a lot of effort into saying it doesn't matter who the speaker is but we're all going to stand up as a Parliament and support that speaker. We made sure that we were inclusive. We included Simon Bridges. We gave him the honour of picking up the first challenge that was laid down. Then James Shaw had the honour of the second and the Deputy Prime Minister had the honour of the third. Before we got up to the Treaty grounds we were all in a room and we practised the waiata so that we all knew what the words were and we all knew what everyone was going to do.What I've said throughout the three years that we've been organising the Waitangi Days is that we must uphold the mana and the dignity of Ngāpuhi the local people. Everybody—everybody—bar one did it. For the first time in my life I am glad that there is a Māori who could not understand Māori. It's sad to say. The bollocking that Simon Bridges got for his absolutely tone-deaf speech—Hon Louise Upston: Oh rubbish.Hon KELVIN DAVIS: Rubbish? Somebody who doesn't speak Māori is saying rubbish. Oh no; that's right. That was the other impressive thing we've done: we've given all the MPs that are there headsets so they can have a simultaneous translation. This is how inclusive we are. Let me tell you now when the MPs get things together we set an example for the rest of the country. We spoke about the bridge. We spoke about the bridge that Māori have had to cross since Europeans have been here the bridge that means that Māori can cross from the Māori world into the European world. We've learnt the language we've learnt the customs we've learnt the tikanga and it's almost always been one-way traffic. What we need and my vision for New Zealand in 2040 the bicentenary of the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi is that by then Pākehā Europeans will be able to cross that bridge to the other side and know our language and know our customs and know how we think and feel and why we act and behave the way we do and that New Zealanders can be crossing that bridge freely and communicating in whatever language we decide and we're not talking past each other.So this is my question for Simon Bridges who in his tone-deaf speech believes that he's a statesman and that he has got some sort of mana and kudos. I'll tell you what he's so uncomfortable in his Māori skin he seeks affirmation from non-Māori. That's where he gets his affirmation. In the meantime he tramples on the mana and dignity of Ngāpuhi. But here's the thing. I have a question for Simon Bridges: Simon are you prepared to cross that bridge? Are you prepared to cross? Even though he's Māori he was born on the non-Māori side of things. Is he prepared to cross that bridge into the Māori side? And I say if he is not prepared to cross that bridge I question—and I say this to everybody in this House. If we are not prepared to cross that bridge freely and communicate with the people on the other side then I question our place as politicians as parliamentarians. That is the vision that I have for Aotearoa New Zealand: that we can cross that bridge freely."