She said Maori seats could be removed, when New Zealand is able to acknowledge "our joint history with all of its warts and tragedies - perhaps then we can move forward as one nation.
"I put it to you that when there are no longer disparities for Maori in this country then we can remove the Maori seats.
"When Maori are recognised as 'value added' to our country and not merely entertainment fluff to be rolled out for special occasions then, we can remove the Maori seats."
She said Maori had proved their worth, ancestors had given their lives on battlefields, fighting for the price of citizenship.
"Surely those of our people who have sacrificed their land, their dignity and their traditional knowledge have given more than was necessary to give to share this land and to be acknowledged and valued."
The country needed to strive for equity, not just equality, and needed to recognise the duality of nationhood as truly ambicultural, not just bicultural, she said.
Ms Fox said she is driven to represent those in the community suffering with disparities, particularly children.
She talked of Wairarapa's Judds Rd massacre in 1992, and being haunted by the memory of watching seven coffins being lowered into an open grave.
"In the 10 years that followed we lost the Sherman baby, the Aplin sisters Lillybing and Coral Burrows ... we, gathered here from Wairarapa, we are related to them all. When our children suffer in this way then I must stand up.
"[I want] to build a nation where our children are not plagued by hunger, where our children are not reared on a diet of drug and alcohol-fuelled parties, where our children are not schooled by those who do not know how to say their name, or taught by those who do not believe in them, or harmed and exploited by those who are supposed to protect them."
Ms Fox thanked her family for their support, and being " raised by a Mum, who taught me never to allow myself to be treated less than I deserve."
