RAWIRI WAITITI (Co-Leader—Te Paati Māori): Thank you, Madam Speaker. We know that the introduction of rating whenua Māori—policies relating to the rating of Māori land for over more than a century—were one of the primary tools of the colonial State stealing land from tangata whenua. The Native Lands Rating Act in 1882 introduced rates on Māori land, much higher rates than a similar European-owned land—up to 300 percent higher. These rates could be difficult to pay, not just because they were high but because it was difficult for those living on the whenua to collect rates from those living elsewhere. When rates were not paid, the land could be seized by local bodies. Setting higher rates that Māori couldn't afford to pay led to the huge amounts of land in Aotearoa being stolen from its tangata whenua owners and confiscated by the colonial State. In other instances, lands were being valued low so that European settlers would find it easier to buy them.