Hon TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua): We've often heard members of this House speak on issues like that. I'm glad the debate has been respectful. I want to start my contribution by saying I, with many others of this Parliament, believe every citizen in this country is equal, that laws should apply to all, that we should respect the property rights of all, that Treaty settlements should be full and final—including the apology that comes with them—and elections should always be fair, democratic, and proportional. Last year, the Government brought a bill before Parliament that said that it would make a decision to allow councils to decide how local government would arrange itself. They said, at the time, that the current system was not fair to Māori and there were few Māori wards. They didn't trust New Zealanders to say, actually, what we will do is allow everybody to have a say on this, to make it fair, irrespective of the type of ward you may want in a council area, or no wards. Everybody will have a say. And they brought the legislation before Parliament and they rushed it through very, very quickly with only weeks, actually, in the select committee for New Zealanders to have a say before it was pushed through, because they said it needed to enter into law last year before the elections this year. 